Country mark

This article is about the scarification practice. For the oil refining company, see CountryMark.

A country mark is a type of scarification noted among 18th century and 19th century slaves brought to North America as part of the Atlantic slave trade.^[1] Country marks were commonly used to identify individual slaves and were frequently mentioned in newspaper advertisements that attempted to find escaped slaves. Historians of the slave trade have used country marks to identify the national origins of individual slaves, whose origins may not have been recorded in print.^[2]

See also

• Scarification in Africa

References

1. Chambers, Douglas B. "African Runaway Slaves in the Anglo-American Atlantic World, Vol. I: North America". Igbo History Foundation. Retrieved 4 September 2022.
2. "Traditional African scars are helping researches tell the stories of the slave trade". CBC News. 11 February 2019. Retrieved 4 September 2022.