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Escape to Cities and Towns
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Sample Noel Pittman Collection

Brass, South Carolina, ca. 1810

Slave Hire Badges

In the early 1800s "badge" laws were passed, first in South Carolina and then in other Southern states, to regulate the hiring of skilled and semi-skilled enslaved and free African Americans. Some runaways acquired false badges and assured their employers that they had been sent by their owners to work in the city.

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Image ID: 485410
Title: Slave hire badges.
Source: Sample Noel Pittman Collection
Created: ca. 1810
Location: Sample Noel Pittman Collection
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