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Cof-fle: a line of animals or enslaved people fastened or driven along together
Slaves walked approximately 600 miles with ill-fitting shoes or none at all
Imagine you were taking a trip from Richmond, VA, to Atlanta, GA. Except this is 1828, and the Southern railways (which would be built mostly by slaves) were just beginning construction. There were no cars. The boats that might go around Florida to get to New Orleans had no inland stops. Steamboats were going up and down the Mississippi River, but there were no connecting waterways. Also, imagine you were a slave.
You didn’t ride in wagons or stagecoaches. You walked approximately 600 miles with ill-fitting shoes or none at all. To prevent you from escaping, there was an iron collar around your neck with a padlock to keep you from removing it. The collar connected you to a bar with another collar on the other end. That collar was around another enslaved person’s neck, making you a pair. Chains joined the pairs so that none could run away.
There’s no shame in being unfamiliar with the term coffle, although it was once used every day. They typically started in areas with abundant enslaved people, like Virginia or Maryland. Agents would go from farm to farm, asking if the owners had slaves they wanted to sell. Enslaved people would be…