"Fisher" slave hire badge. Charleston, South Carolina: Workshop of Charles Prince, by city contract, 1803. The front is struck and engraved "CHARLESTON / No. 69 / FISHER / 1803". Prince hallmark to reverse. Diam. 2 3/4 in. 

An exceedingly desirable early example and variant. This badge was just excavated several months ago at a site on East Bay St. in Charleston, South Carolina. 

Condition as shown, overall fine with a pleasing patina. The badge exhibits the correct dimensions for the era and a punched hole for adherence. 

This rare badge was issued in Charleston during the final period of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, when the city remained one of North America’s most active ports in both the trafficking and the hired-out labor of enslaved people. The occupational designation “Fisher” typically referred to an enslaved person permitted, through municipal license, to labor in the fisheries and waterways around Charleston, often casting nets, tending oyster beds, or transporting fish to market.

Slavery was a foundational element of life in South Carolina from its colonial establishment. It was stated in the 1669 Fundamental Constitutions that "Every freeman of Carolina, shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slave". By 1776, the Lowcountry was one of the wealthiest regions in the world, thanks to enslavement. Nine of America's wealthiest ten people lived in Charleston, where the population was over 70% enslaved Black people. 

Charleston slave badges are sobering visual evidence of a system for hiring out enslaved men and women that was unique to that city between 1800-1865. During this period, the local government mandated that enslaved people wear or otherwise display badges like this when they were hired out by their enslavers (note the small hole at the top center of this example). The city issued the badges in return for a fee paid by slaveholders. The objects were then inscribed with an occupation, year of issue, and registration number. When worn, the badge gave its wearer some freedom of movement around Charleston. That said, the wages earned by a hired-out slave typically belonged to their owners.

Few objects are as profoundly impactful as a Charleston slave badge. This example, without any doubt, was worn by an enslaved person while they were hired out to work, likely for the financial benefit of their enslaver.

[African American History, Black Americana, Frederick Douglass, Abolition, Emancipation, Slavery, Slave, Abolitionist, John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Union, Confederate]