slave tag histories

I was interested in trying to found information regarding Bethany's discussion board post about slavery markings. I came across an interesting project a high school English teacher, Betsy Neurauter, conducted in 2006 with some of students (6th-12th graders). The idea for this project, "The Slave Tag Project," came after a trip to Des Moines, IA were Neurauter was treasure hunting with a friend. She came across a tag with markings of an 1800s slave tag. Later that summer she found a second tag in Princeton. Her idea was to return the tags to their rightful owner.

Through their research efforts the kids came across some interesting information:
1. "Authentic tags were extremely rare"
2. "Slave tags were made from 1800 to 1864, but only in Charleston, S.C., and one of its suburbs, Charleston Neck."
3. "Slaves wore them to show they could work outside their master's residence and that they'd paid their wage taxes to the government, said expert Rich Hartzog of Rockford, who operates www.exonumia.com."
4. "They learned more about slavery and authentic slave tags, how some slaves literally earned their freedom by working these outside jobs."
5. "They learned that while the tags were unique to the Charleston area, the concept of allowing slaves to work and earn their own money was not. And much of the records have been lost or destroyed over the years. They also learned about "fantasy" tags, replicas that are sometimes advertised as duplicates and sometimes purported to be real, Hartzog said. Some are collected knowingly by people who cannot afford genuine tags, which run for $2,000 to more than $10,000 each, he said. Some are purchased by people who believe they are buying the genuine article, he said."

While the students found their tags to be replicas or "fantasy" tags, they learned about US History and our ancestors involvement in the slave trades. I commend this teacher for challenging these students to find the truth (facts) regarding these tags. One student researcher, Monica Guio said, "The concept of slavery in our history is interesting because we overcame it eventually. It's interesting to see how our culture develops." I hope these young researchers continue to question what they hear and read.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=56165