Slave Tax Badges/ Slave Badges

Group of three stamped sheet metal tags; diamond shape with cut corners and hole punched at top; each stamped with city, year, position, and identifying number, 1860. The city of Charleston, South Carolina, instituted regulations in 1800 that required free blacks as well as slaves to register their names and occupations. The law stipulated that distinctive tags, known as slave tax badges, were to to be worn by slaves when their owners allowed them to be hired out or self-employed. Savannah, New Orleans, Mobile, and Norfolk all had slave badge laws, but Charleston is the only city for which badges exist. (Photo by The New York Historical/Getty Images)