mr. gadsby, all marching and keeping regular step. edward abdy, an englishman who stayed at the national hotel, and in his conversations with an enslaved man who was hired out to work for john gadsby learns that there are approximately 70 to 80 people working there who barely knew each other. furthermore, the enslaved man was worried his wife was going to be sold to raise money, bringing us back to john gadsby. again, not to belabor the point, but using charles wood as an example, we see gadsby may have purchased him from advertisements he ran for four servants, male and female, from february 26th to april 15th, 1834. since john gadsby bought charles april 1st, 1834, it's likely, again, that he purchased him as a result of these advertisements. in addition, he tried to sell charles in may during the early part of the buying and selling season during the slave trade. like most other enterprises, slave trading was a seasonal thing. he may have also sold charles to offset the cost of buying his retirement home, decatur house. in addition