Watch List notes:

UNITED STATES: AE slave hire badge (9.47g), 1846, Greene p.120-34, EF, 56mm, diamond-shaped flan with clipped edges and piercing (as made), stamped with CHARLESTON / PORTER / 1846 and punched with the badge number 1102, RR, ex Charles Opitz Collection. While the slave hire system existed across the Antebellum South, only Charleston, "the Jerusalem of American slavery, its capital and center of faith", issued physical badges from the late 18th century until the final days of the Confederacy. Each year, slaveowners could pay a fee to the city to apply, which would allow a slave to be hired out for jobs ranging from servant and porter to fisherman and mechanic. The latter would be required to wear his or her own badge at all times, or face a fine, lashings, or conscription to a public workhouse. Though the slaves would usually only receive a small portion of the pay, the money and the right to travel around the city gave them a measure of freedom beyond the confines of their homes. It also aroused the jealousy and hatred of poor white laborers, who could not compete with the slaves' low wages, as well as indignant citizens who protested bitterly in the city's newspapers about the moral dangers of allowing them too much freedom.This lot is accompanied by "Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783-1865" (Greene et al., 2004), courtesy of the consignor.

Estimate: 2,000-2,500 USD