Black History
1856 Charleston PORTER Slave Hire #9 Identification Tag
1856-Dated. Charleston (SC) “PORTER” Slave Hire Identification Tag, by Veronee. Copper. License number 9. Choice Fine.


This authentic, original Slave “Tag” or “Badge” is Diamond shaped, measuring about 1.5” square, made of Copper. Standard small round hole punch at top for suspension, as made. There is some waviness from actual use, the color having an even, natural patina. This Tag has a full and clear “1856” date, plus a fully clear and complete punch for the “PORTER” occupation at center. It has a deeply punched “9” being the exceedingly low Tag serial number. As the number on the badge indicates, this Slave was just the 9th to be licensed as a PORTER in the year 1756.

It stands as a Great Rarity as being a single digit license number! There was a restriction imposed on the license limiting the Slave to work only in the designated field of the stated occupation. In the case of this Badge, the Slave was to be hired out only as a PORTER - a person who worked in a warehouse or dock moving crates, etc. The city name is quite easy to read and is full. An excellent color, quite clean and fully readable example of this scarce “PORTER” occupation type with license number “9”.


In her 2011 article, Cast in Bondage: Charleston Slave Tags and Slave Badges for "Smithsonian Magazine", author Victoria Dawson gave a succinct and compelling explanation of Slave badges -

"It seems, at first glance, an innocuous if enigmatic artifact, a copper medallion 1.5 inches square, rough-edged and engraved with the words ''Charleston. 571. Porter. 1856.'

But the inscription—a city, a number, an occupation and a year—is stamped on a rare fragment of the past, known to scholars of the period as a slave hire badge, one of three in the cultural collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. The tag likely hung from the neck of a slave for a calendar year, representing all that we will ever know of one man: a porter in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1856, industrious and trusted enough to be leased out by his master for short-term hire but required by law to be licensed and to wear or carry a metal identification tag at all times."