Wrought iron slave scale

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A wood and iron scale used for the weighing of enslaved persons for sale. The scale consists of a wrought iron center fulcrum (.3) on an inverted T-shaped beams, to which was attached a round, wooden weight pan (.1) on one side and a wooden seat (.2) on the other. The scale would have been hooked to an external structure, such as a rafter, using the top of the T-shaped beam and a hook, which can be looped through a chain. The weight pans attach via chains slipped over the W-shaped hooks attached to the ends of the beam. The fulcrum has a folding mechanism between the main beam and the hanging vertical beam, allowing it to be folded down parallel to the main beam. Along the central beam, on either side of the vertical piece, are the marks “A.F.

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