Slave Clothing and Adornment in Virginia – Encyclopedia Virginia
While jewelry was likely confiscated in most cases, at least one account of the Middle Passage, by the British surgeon Alexander Falconbridge, notes that beads were furnished to captive women “for the purpose of affording them some diversion.” William Hugh Grove, an Englishman who visited Virginia in 1732, observed captives aboard a slave ship in Virginia and noted in his journal, “The Boyes and Girles [were] all Stark naked; so Were the greatest part of the Men and Women. Some had beads...
Source: encyclopediavirginia.org