The branded hand of Captain Jonathan Walker
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- Witness to America's Past
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[ This description is from the project: MHS Collecting History ]
In 1844, the letters "S.S."—for slave stealer—were branded on the right hand (the image is reversed in this early photograph) of Captain Jonathan Walker, a Cape Cod ship captain and ardent abolitionist who was arrested during a failed attempt to sail escaped slaves from Florida to the West Indies.
Provenance: Gift of Nathaniel Bowditch, 1930.