The term "slave bracelet" conjures visions of exotic Middle Eastern belly-dancing slave girls and Celtic knotted jewelry. No one seems to know the exact origin of today's popular jewelry fashion but there are different references to slave bracelets in fashion history.
History
According to oral historian E.J. Alagoa, Portuguese slave traders often paid for slaves in Portuguese coins called manillas, which the Nigerian traders fashioned into intricate bracelets. Some African traders also bent copper bars into bracelets that were used as money and referred to as "slave bracelets."
Early Fashion
In "Twentieth Century American Fashion," Linda Welters describes "slave bracelets" that were popular in the mid-1920s. According to Welters' description, the flappers' version was a bracelet made of rectangular links, often connected with enameled links. They were often worn in multiples.
Fictional Slave Bracelets
In the Gorean novels written by John Norman, slave bracelets were matching wrist bands, usually made of metal and often highly ornamented, linked to each other by a short length of chain.
Contemporary Slave Bracelets
In contemporary jewelry, slave bracelets consist of a wrist band or chain and a ring linked to each other by a length of chain.
Hand Jewelry
Some jewelry designers connect the bracelet and ring to each other with multiple strands of chains or with chain mail fashioned to ornament the back of the hand. A slave bracelet may also be connected to multiple rings.