"To Be Sold" series is also based on advertisements from the 1700s and early 1800s. While the Runaway ads describe enslaved people of African descent in sometimes minute details, the To Be Sold advertisements were brief ads tuck in between larger ads. No names. No visual description. Just “"To be soldâ€. As I came across more and more, I became curious. Who are they? Where did they go? Were they being separated from their families? Will they run away? The gold in the works and frame references the use of people as chattel.