According to TIME, New Year’s Day or Jan. 1 was often referred to as “Hiring Day” or “Heartbreak Day.” What does that mean? On that day, many enslaved Black people anxiously waited to see if they would be rented out to another family or household. This would, in turn, separate them from their families. This, as an alternative to selling a slave, was practice all too familiar during the time of chattel slavery. These transactions took place in town squares, on courthouse steps and on the side of country roads.

The enslaved would enter contracts for various amounts of time throughout the year, but there were many that began on New Years Day and lasted for up to a year. TIME reported that those who resisted would have faced whippings and/or jail time.

“‘Hiring Day’ was part of the larger economic cycle in which most debts were collected and settled on New Year’s Day,” Historian Alexis McCrossen said.