When considering the
analytical framework of chattel slavery in the history of this nation, its
history has been written in laws, constitutional amendments, cases, and a
variety of legal mechanisms and precedents that simply do not tell the entire
narrative of that “peculiar institution.” In our examination of American
chattel slavery, it is as if we were crafting a quilt commencing with those
legal pronouncements as composing the outside frame of that particular
construct. But it is only when we consider the individual narratives of those
persons for whom slavery was a lived experience that we can see that the
institution was composed of a multitude of smaller pieces and patches, that
when arranged in a patchwork manner, reveal remarkable narratives of the lives
of many brave men, women, and children who lived their lives on both sides of
the line, and regardless of which side of the side of the divide, whether
enslaved or enslaver.
