Slave Branding
Slave Branding in America 1853
Branding was sometimes used to mark recaptured runaway slaves to help the locals easily identify the runaway. Slave owners used extreme punishments to stop flight, or escape. They would often brand the slaves' palms, shoulders, buttocks, or cheeks with a branding iron.Source: New York Public Library, "Five hundred thousand strokes for freedom ; a series of anti-slavery tracts, of which half a million are now first issued by the friends of the Negro." by Armistead, Wilson, 1819?-1868 and "Picture of slavery in the United States of America. " by Bourne, George, 1780-1845