A Badge of Bondage

[John Winter]

The detectorist find of an innocuous piece of rough-edged metal I am about to show you, will probably stir up a lot of emotions …

A Badge of Bondage | johnwinter.net
Thanks to TYLERBDAD of this forum for allowing me to highlight his rather special find!

PLEASE NOTE - I POSTED THIS HERE INADVERTENTLY - SEE CORRECT THREAD:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/488318-1833-slave-tag-charleston.html

 

[Dr. Syn]

The piece itself is nothing but a trinket if you will. It can't harm you, yet we associate it with a terrible time. Same as the white hood/robe, the Swastika, etc.
We lay blame on the piece/symbol when instead it should be placed on the folks involved with it.

We still to this day use tags to identify, my dog has to wear a tag, I have to wear one at work, I have to have one on my vehicles. The tag itself is not evil, but not saying the folks who require them to be used are not.

A bullet, an arrow, a pointed stick, a rock. All at one time or another involved in some nasty things. A trinket if you will of a terrible time. It's not the trinket, it's the folks who used them.

They are reminders, but only that. What we should remember is the folks involved.