Students and faculty conducting excavations at the College of Charleston in South Carolina have discovered a “slave badge” dated to 1853.
As Chase Laudenslager reports for WCBD, these small metal tags proved that an enslaved person’s enslaver had authorized them to work for someone else. The city issued the badges in return for a fee paid by slaveholders. The objects were inscribed with the word “servant,” as well as an occupation, date and registration number.
While many cities had laws regulating enslavers’ ability to contract out their enslaved workers, Charleston is the only place in the country where physical badges have been found. This fact suggests that the city may have been the only municipality to use the system.
Enslaved workers, including skilled craftspeople, built much of the physical structure of the college, which opened in 1770. If These Walls Could Talk, a recent documentary produced by the school, examines that legacy.
