Charleston, South Carolina "slave badge,” dated 1849. From the workshop of William M. Rouse, by city contract. This example was issued for a “Fruiterer," typically a designation used to describe an enslaved person (often female) engaged in the sale of fruit or produce. The front is clearly struck CHARLESTON / 1849 / FRUITERER / 103. 

Condition as shown. The badge features correct clipped corners and a punched hole for adherence.

A rare "Fruiterer" slave badge, they are highly desirable and rarely available for public acquisition. Period evidence suggests most enslaved people working as fruiterers or "hucksters" were women: "[I suggest you] publicly call in all the Huckster badges...which give those wenches the liberty to buy and sell...[and] never again issue another" ("A Citizen," Charleston Courier. 19 October 1816).

The badge was produced just after the Mexican-American War, a conflict strongly supported by South Carolina as its leaders believed that American victory would allow for the expansion of slavery in the newly acquired lands. This indeed became the primary point of political conflict throughout the 1850s, leading to the Bleeding Kansas Crisis and eventually the Civil War. 

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]