What's the origin of the phrase "sold us down the river"?

Question

I know what it means but where did it come from?

Answer 1

To be sold down the river is to be misled or to have a promise broken.

The phrase comes from the USA where, in the 1800s, rich house owners would sell their unwanted black servants to be slaves on the plantations.
The slaves would leave the relative comforts of the big houses to be shipped down the river (the Mississippi) to the hardship of the plantations.

Answer 2

Meaning

Betrayed or cheated.

Origin

This phrase originated in the Mississippi region of the USA during slave trading days. Slaves who caused trouble were sold from the northern slave states into the much harsher conditions on plantations in the lower Mississippi.

The earliest reference I can find to the phrase in print is in The Ohio Repository, May 1837:

"One man, in Franklin County has lately realized thirty thousand dollars, in a speculation on slaves, which ho bought in Virginia, and sold down the river."

The figurative use of the phrase, meaning simply to deceive or cheat, began in the early 20th century. For example, this piece from P. G. Wodehouse's Small Bachelor, 1927:

"When Sigsbee Waddington married for the second time, he to all intents and purposes sold himself down the

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What's the origin of the phrase "sold us down the river"?
I know what it means but where did it come from?

Answer 4

During slavery times, slaves would be sold and sent via boats to the "lower" southern regions, hence the term sold down the river.

Answer 5

Egypt. The Hebrews were forced into slavery by the Egyptians. The river being the Nile.

Answer 6

I thought it was from the practise of shipping freed slaves who had managed to get to a free state in the north back down the Mississippi river to the slave states by bounty hunters.

Answer 7

It comes from the slave traders. People were conned into joining a ship for a better life ahead only to be 'sold' at the end of the voyage.

Answer 8

This question came up several years ago. What we heard was it came from the early 1800s. From the early U.S. slave trade. It's something one slave would say to another. It symbolizes two items - betrayal, and lack of control over one's own destiny. I can't commit to this being entirely accurate. This info was second hand, and not substantiated.

Answer 9

"Getting down to brass tacks" refers to finishing up an upholstered piece of furniture. The last thing you do is hammer in the brass tacks. So, the phrase means: finish up your business.

Answer 10

Slave times, when the slaves went down the Mississippi (deep into the south)