slave shackles
Chains of enslavement
Slave shackles are metal restraints—typically iron cuffs connected by chains—used to bind the wrists or ankles of enslaved people.
They prevented escape during transport and confinement: The museum displayed slave shackles recovered from a sunken ship.
The term evokes the physical brutality of slavery and appears in historical accounts, museum exhibits, and discussions of the slave trade's material culture.
- chainsLinked metal restraints
- ball and chainFetter limiting prisoner movement
- iron collarMetal band encircling neck
- bondageInvoluntary subjugation to another
- human bondageForced servitude of people
iron · captivity · fetters · manacles · ankles · wrists · oppression · Middle Passage · plantation · escape · break free · restraints · auction · auction block · clanking · heavy · rust · underground
slave shacklesfreedom
Absence of constraint
liberty · emancipation · liberation · manumission · free will
slave shacklesbroken chains
Bonds that have snapped
Statue of Liberty · freedom papers · wings · North Star · Underground Railroad
slave shacklesbroken chains
Bonds that have snapped
open road · free passage · wings · key · unlocked door
slave, shackle, slaves, shackles, slaved, slaving, slavery, slavish, slavishly