Well now that's slap cool. Being a South Carolina boy I have wanted one of the tags. I have seen them before and they look rather like crude dog tags. If you have ever visited the state there is a mile long marketplace just off the harbor in Charleston. These days it is a very chique shopping place. Back in the day it is absolutely where they brought the poor souls off the ships and sold them away as slaves.... It isn't a proud piece of history, but it is history nonetheless...... Cool pick!
I bought and sold seven or eight of these tokens when I was dealer. They are not overly scarce, but finding a really nice one is a challenge. The story is, a large number of them were dumped in the Charleston Harbor and brought up some time later. As a result, many of them are cleaned and show water damage. I had one nice one when I was dealer, but I sold, only for a few bucks more than the run-of-the-mill piece. Yes, Charleston was major slave trading center prior to the Civil War. There is a slave museum located where one of the auction houses was in business. It is an interesting, but depression place to visit.
Yes, just to be clear that was a terrible time in US history for sure!! Not sure who started capturing and selling slaves but it was a truly a disgraceful time in our US history!
I think thah there slaves in Jamestown, the first successful British settlement in America. The Spanish were no better. They enslaved the native Indians to work in their gold and silver mines for them. And before you think that the Africans were innocent, some them enslaved and sold their own people. Human cruelty is not limited to one race or country.
It is a nice token, and an auctioneers token, and it is from south carolina, and the auctioneer may have, in fact probably did, auction off slaves at some point, but I wouldn't say that makes this a slave token.
