The Ponder brothers were four siblings who worked as interstate slave traders in the United States prior to the American Civil War, trafficking people between Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, and the Florida Territory. William G. Ponder was a Georgia state senator and delegate to the 1861 Georgia secession convention. The shops and house of Ephraim G. Ponder in Atlanta, Georgia, were heavily shelled during the Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War; a photograph of the damaged building was widely published as "the Potter House." James Ponder seems to have supervised industrial and agricultural enterprises in Thomas County, Georgia that used slave labor. John G. Ponder was murdered in 1849 while trafficking a group of slaves overland from Richmond, Virginia to Georgia.

Ponders overview The Thomasville History Center of Thomas County, Georgia has a collection of letters from Ephraim Ponder to W. G. Ponder, providing updates on the slave-trading business and other news:

October 15, 1848: Ephraim and John Ponder were together in Richmond buying slaves. They had already bought 17 slaves, including one shoemaker "for James" who cost $250, and they hoped to buy another. However, "the Virginians" would not sell at a discount. Ephraim reported that John Ponder wanted to head back south. E. Ponder shared election news and stated that Virginia would definitely go Democratic. January 14, 1849: Ephraim Ponder, writing from Richmond, acknowledged receipt of $729.65 from William G. Ponder. He reported that prices for "good men" ranged from $650 to $690, the prices for female slaves typically ranged from $500 to $575, and that prices for enslaved mothers with children were "high." Ponder encouraged William to do what he can to help John along, and wrote, "I don't think of trading any longer than this year. I shall make my arrangements to quit next spring 1850." October 14, 1849: "Our negro market is brisk," wrote Ephraim Ponder, providing a list of current prices at the Richmond, Virginia slave market: + Richmond slave market prices, fall 1849 Category Price range No. 1 men $825 to $850 No. 1 women $600 to $700 Plow boys 5 ft 2 inches $650 to $675 Girls 4 ft 4 inches $425 to $450 Girls 4 ft 6 inches $475 Girls 4 ft 8 inches $500 Good women with one child $650 to $700 Ephraim Ponder also wrote to William G. Ponder, "I have not heard from John since he got in Georgia. I am ancious to hear from him. I am in hopes that John will be able to sell the lot of negroes well for I can lay in the same negroes with $4,000 more." A week later, on October 21, 1849, John G. Ponder, the youngest of the four brothers, was ax murdered. Ponder, while escorting a coffle of 60 slaves from Virginia to Florida, was evidently killed in his sleep by highwaymen who stole a coat and $50.

There are several references to an undifferentiated "Ponder" in primary sources for American slavery. In 1835 two men in Dallas County, Alabama placed a runaway slave ad seeking the return of 24-year-old Sophy, "dark complexion, near six feet high, small in the waist for her size, full face and small eyes—had a small set of ear-rings in her ears, and wore a brass comb in her hair—took several suits of clothing with her, and may change her dress frequently. She is a very good seamstress, and was purchased from a trader by the name of Ponder, residing in Florida. Ponder brought her from Virginia not long since." A family reunification advertisement placed in 1882 sought information about Mansfield Crutchfield who had been sold when he was about 13 years old by "Oscar Crutchfield to a slave-trader named Ponder about 1845 at Richmond, Va.; was supposed to have been seen during the war on a Mississippi steamboat. Any information as to his whereabouts will be thankfully received by his aged mother. Address LOUISE CAW, Knoxville, Tenn." In Henrico County, Virginia in 1846, there was a lawsuit over the ownership of 28 slaves that named Mr. Hagan (possibly John Hagan), Mr. Omohundro (possibly Silas Omohundro), Mr. Christian, Mr. Barksdale, Mr. Stanard, and Mr. Ponder as parties to the conflict. 

Note: It was technically illegal to import slaves into Georgia from 1788 until the law was repealed in 1856, but there was no law prohibiting the sale of slaves just across the border in the lands of the Cherokee Nation in what became the northwest quadrant of the state after Indian Removal, or across the Savannah River in Hamburg, South Carolina, maybe across the Chattahoochee River from Columbus in Alabama, or perhaps in Tallahassee.

William G. Ponder

William Graham Ponder (October 23, 1803December 26, 1867) was in Florida at an early day. He was married to Elizabeth Copland in Leon County in 1829."Florida, Marriages, 1837-1974", FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V5Z9-CZD : 11 January 2020), William G. Ponder, 1829. He served as an election inspector for Leon County in the Florida Territory in 1829 and 1831, and was a justice of the peace in 1832 and 1840. In 1829 he signed a petition requesting a further subdivision of Leon County.Petition of Citizens Requesting a Division of Leon County to Create a New County, circa 1829. 1829 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/347222 In 1837 Ponder petitioned the Leon County Superior Court that "William Ponder states that Robert S. Miller died before repaying $1,350 that he borrowed from Ponder. As part of the loan agreement, Miller delivered the slaves Phillis and Sarah to Ponder as collateral. Now Ponder asks the court to foreclose on the mortgaged property and to bar Robert H. Berry and William Brodie, administrators of the Miller estate, as well as any other persons, from seeking 'their rights or equity of redemption in the said mortgaged property.'" The petition was granted." 

In 1845 Ponder was present in the sale of the Parkhill estate slaves, Tom Gandy, Harriet, Mary Ann and Wm. Washington, Sam Cormick, Primus, Sarah, George Edmondson, George Lewis, Daniel, William Eppes, Matilda Ann, Sarah and Maria, Julia, Anthony, Molly, Patsey, Hannah, Israel, Sarah and Harriet Ann, Kealan, Jacob, York, Melinda, Squire, Queen and Eliza Ann, Rhoda, Jack, Billy, Moses, Martha, Lucinda and William, Fenton and Helina, Frank, Francis, Isaac, Richard, Juba, Toney, Becky, Jinny, Cuffy, Phillis, Chloe, Dolly, Sam, Elizabeth, Rachael, Adeline, Jane, Polly, John Robinson, Monachy, Elizabeth, Eddy, Bob, George, Maria Miles, Mary, Frederick, William Pryer, Louisa, William, Christina, Horace, Judy Linsey, Susan, Charley Johnny, Mary Long, Joe, Ephraim, Ellen, Cornelia, Rachael, Jack Morgan, Mary, Toney, Sibby, William, Toney, Scipio, Peggy, Isaac, Lucy, York, Grace, Rose, Abram, James, Jones, George, York Jr., Caroline, Morgianna, Fanny, Phoebe, James, Juba, James, Mary Page, Margaret, Frank, Margaret, Albert, Anderson, Pleasant, Edmund, David, William, Cæsar, Amy, Dick, Phillis, Richard, Israel, Ellick, Esther, Amy, Albert, Old Jack, Margaret, Homady, Pittman, Cary, James, Old Tom, Frederick Clark, Nancy Burney, John, Anna, Susan, Maria, Giles, Fanny, Martha, Ned, Francis, Barbary, Kitty Ann, Wilson, Nancy, Ben, Hercules, Hanly, Eliza, Jacob, Winney, Emily, Tom Hackley, Diana, Ellen, Amelia, Betsy Ann, Dick, Lisbon, Katy, Cyrus, Henry, Taylor, Mary Thomas, Louisa, Clarissa, Elizabeth, Anthony, Ben, Sam, Nancy Pool, Walker, Maria, Amy, Maria, Penny Davidson, George, Phil, Betty, Nelson, Selva, Matilda, Sarah Ann, Amelia, Wakala, Virginia, and Charity, at a sale near Tallahassee, Florida Territory. Ponder bought Caroline for $535, and in a separate transaction bought Juba, Jane, Frank, Margaret, Albert, Anderson, and Pleasant, for $1500. Additionally, "It was agreed and considered as admitted that one of the slaves purchased by Ponder applied to the plaintiff Moseley before the sale to purchase her, because she had a husband owned by Ponder, who resided in the neighborhood; Moseley said he was unable to purchase, and recommended the slave to apply to Ponder to purchase her. Accordingly the slave went over to Ponder's place, and afterwards Ponder came to the Court House, and after the conversation alluded to by Ponder in his testimony in Camp's case, the negro was bid off by Ponder." According to the case summary, a witness testified, "Knows Juba and Caroline, two of the slaves named in Ponder's bill of sale but not their present value. Cannot state the value of the hire of the slaves. Juba, for an old woman, was a good hand, and was worth from forty to seventy dollars per year; Caroline about eighty dollars, the price fluctuating and generally low. A female slave of thirteen years would hire for about thirty dollars; a girl of eleven and a boy of ten would be worth about their victuals and clothes...Thinks the slaves altogether, and those bought by defendant, sold high, and for as much as they would have brought since." A witness named John G. Gamble testified under cross examination, "In the year 1834 the witness borrowed money from Ponder to unable him to go to Europe to negotiate the bonds of the Territory of Florida. This was before the Bank went into operation. Did not then or since explain the nature of the charter of the Union Bank to the defendant." The decision of the court in was that "We are therefore of opinion that the circuit court erred in the instructions under consideration. That the judgments and executions under which the slaves were sold were not void. That they gave a sufficient authority for the sale, and that the right of property in these slaves passed by the sale to the defendant or appellant, William G. Ponder."

Ponder was one of the organizers and board members of the Fletcher Institute school that was established in Thomas County in 1848, which had two brick buildings and served both male and female students. In 1849, he sold twenty-seven bales of cotton for to Tallahassee shopkeeper James Martin Williams. Ponder was one of a group of civic boosters examining the prospects for building a plank road between Thomasville and New Port, Florida. He was on a committee to plan a new county courthouse building. William G. Ponder was elected to the Georgia State Senate for the 1855–56 session as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1856 he was a commissioner for the planning-stage Atlantic and Gulf Railroad.

Ponder is the namesake of the W. G. Ponder Plantation and owned a large number of slaves in Leon County, Florida in 1860. In 1861 Ponder was one of three delegates selected in a January 2, 1861, election to represent Thomas County to the state secession convention. One paper described him as a "cooperationist" on the issue of secession; a 1963 history of Thomas County described Ponder as supporting "immediate secession...but only as a last resort" camp, but as one who was not an "unreasoning extremist" but voted for secession because "there was no turning back" and because "we are indisputably bound up with the cotton states which lie on all sides of us." Ponder ultimately voted in support of the secession ordinance and signed the declaration.

Later in 1861 Ponder contributed to a fund supporting the Ochlocknee Light Infantry and Thomasville Guards of the Confederate States Army. In August he was one of three Thomas County delegates to the convention to select the first Confederate governor of Georgia. In 1863 the Confederate Army requisitioned Ponder's hogs and promised to pay $45 per animal.

Notice of his death appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune in January 1868, with the note that the Thomasville Enterprise described him as "one of the oldest and best" citizens of Thomas County.

Ephraim G. Ponder

Ephraim Graham Ponder (November 17, 1808August 19, 1874) was a 19th-century American slave trader based in Georgia. His house in Atlanta was destroyed by artillery during the American Civil War. His house in Thomasville, Georgia, is on the National Register of Historic Places.