There's this phrase that we use that's been around for a minute. It's always meant the feeling or act of being betrayed. But the phrase "sold down the river" is darker than just getting screwed over – it has a pretty grim history.
Everyone thinks of coastal ports like New Orleans, Savannah, and New York as hubs for the transatlantic slave trade, but they were just the first stops on this nightmarish journey. Once in the U.S., the enslaved would be moved to trading marketplaces. One such place was Louisville, Kentucky.
Louisville was the largest slave trading marketplace in the U.S. The city used its access to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to send enslaved people who had been purchased or sold up and down the waterways to their new owners.
Also known as a "slave-growing" state, Kentucky became a feeder for plantations farther south. Many enslaved people feared for their lives as they were sent into even worse conditions, leading to a deep-seated sense of despair and betrayal.
Someone who was "sold down the river," has been betrayed or abandoned, but in the past, it could have been a death sentence. The weight of the phrase reminds us to be careful of those we turn to for safety and to think twice about using such phrases casually.