“Largest most complete collection of genuine Charleston slave hire badges ever offered. SOLD: $126,500” (Auction, 2008)
“By the second decade of the 18th century, slavery for hire became regulated by local government. While Savannah, Mobile, New Orleans, Norfolk, and Charleston regulated the practice through the passage of “badge laws,” only Charleston and Charleston Neck, a small suburb of Charleston, actually issued slave hire badges. The badge allowed short term employment without written contracts or other documentation. Moreover, hired slaves, by wearing a badge, could be easily distinguished from runaways or free blacks.
The cities instituted badge laws to provide a tax income and to regulate the slave hiring. White artisans complained as early as 1742 about slaves undercutting their prices.”