Description:

SLAVE MIDDLE PASSAGE DOUBLE SHACKLE LEG RESTRAINTS
A chilling relic from the trans-Atlantic slave trade, a 21 1/2" wrought iron bar bearing four horseshoe-shaped ankle restraints attached thereto, a set of two larger cuffs, 3 1/2" diameter, alongside two smaller cuffs, 3 1/4" diameter. A split ring is fixed at the far end of the bar permitting the restraints to be removed from the bar when desired, with a flattened 2 1/4" x 1 1/2" tab hammered at the opposite end, making it impossible for the shackles to be removed from that end. Due to the differing size of the restraints, one may surmise surmise that this set may have been intended for temporarily restraining an adult and child. This design is typical of restraints used on slave vessels, and is absolutely not of any type used in law enforcement. De-accessioned from the Slave Relics Museum in Walterboro, South Carolina. Two sets of identical shackles, but bearing only two cuffs, were sold by Swann Galleries of New York in March, 2011 for ovber $3,200 per set, the sale vetted by expert Wyatt H. Day. Sets of multiple cuffs such as those offered here are illustrated and described in Captive Passage: The Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Making of the Americas, edited by the Mariners Museum and published by Smithsonian Books, 2002.

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September 11, 2013 11:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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