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THB[SLAVERY] (2) T. Porter Slave ID Buttons
![[SLAVERY] (2) T. Porter Slave ID Buttons](https://s1.img.bidsquare.com/item/xl/3306/33065209.jpeg?t=1V686v)
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About Auction
LiveNov 22, 2025
This exclusive catalog presents a select offering from the personal collection of Alejandro "Alex" de Quesada Jr., renowned historian, author, and collector. The catalog features exceptionally rare swords, historically significant belt buckles and military insignia, original Civil War flags, and a wide range of ephemera representing pivotal moments in military history. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com
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- Lot Description
Two (2) slave identification buttons used by Thomas Porter II (1790-1857) to identify the individuals he enslaved. Including:
1. Excavated "T Porter" slave identification button. Cast pewter. [England]: [I. Nuttinn & Son], ca 1805-1840. Diam. 20mm.
2. "TP" slave identification button. Copper alloy. Loop shank to reverse. Diam. 18mm.
A rare cast pewter button which would have been sewn to the shirt of an enslaved person to identify that he was owned by Thomas Porter II (1790-1857), whose family attained immense wealth through its cotton plantations in British Guyana. After the emancipation of slaves in Guyana in 1834, the family received compensation for over 1,000 enslaved individuals.
Porter continued to traffic in slaves, operating in Barbados and sending enslaved individuals to Charleston, South Carolina, for auction. The quantity of known buttons and recovery at U.S. sites suggests that the buttons were placed on the garments of slaves not only personally enslaved by Porter, but by those individuals in preparation for their sale at auction.
Known examples of both iterations, including an example excavated in Georgia, are held in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (2009.32.2 & 2009.32.4).
[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Currency, Tokens, Medals, Numismia, Numismatics, Exonumia, Bonds, Coins, Banknotes]
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