"Chains and Other Instruments Used by Slave Traders, 19th cent." (Courtesy of Slavery Images: A Visual Record of the African Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Early African

The European-made slave chain is the image that most contemporary readers associate with slavery and the slave trade. This iron chain, which was used to attach three slaves to each other, illustrates the incredibly inhumane practices of leading African men and women throughout West Africa while chained together to prevent escape.

The symbolism of chains has a long and storied history. They are symbols of slavery and imprisonment but also symbols of connection, love and brotherhood. Chains can symbolize the following: ImprisonmentShared DestinyA Bond between PeopleA

This iron neck ring and chains would have been worn by restrained African captives, either as they were transported to the West African coast or on board ship. The chains would link to the African’s hands, or to another enslaved person to keep them from escaping. The history of this artefact is unknown and it […]

Occasional glimpses are possible though: the excellent research that went into Walsall’s bicentenary of abolition exhibition revealed chains made in Cradley Heath and locks made in Walsall, that had been used for slavery in South Africa. They even unearthed testimony of an elderly chainmaker from interwar Cradley Heath who made slave chains ...