Chains Slavery Quotes

Slaves knowing how to read does lead to trouble… for their owners. Isabel's eventual victory proves it. If she hadn't been able to read and write, she wouldn't have received the message of Common Sense, or even filled out the pass that gives her freedom. Clearly, slave owners recognized the power of language, and that keeping it out of the hands of enslaved people helps keep them obedient and inferior. Fortunately, Isabel is an anomaly and is able to beat the system.

Isabel views a world without slavery with a kind of childish fancy that is heartbreaking for us to witness. The truth is, being a slave is the only existence she knows. She was born into it, and a life without its restrictions is impossible to imagine.

Curzon's observation that Loyalist commanders don't see their slaves as a threat if they witness sensitive conversations proves that slavery is meant to strip them of all power. Not Curzon, though—he's smart enough to know that in order to be truly owned, he has to consent to it by surrendering his thoughts and actions. Just because their owners don't give them credit to act on the information they hear doesn't mean that slaves can't do something with it.

Even though Isabel has spent her entire life as a slave, it's interesting that she seems to be asking these questions for the first time. We can assume from Mary Finch's desire to free her family and teach Isabel to read that working for her was better than, say, working for the Locktons. It's only now, subjected to owners who truly see them as possessions, not people, that Isabel begins to question the system she's bought into forever.

When the mayor of New York says this, he's really speaking of the growing movement for independence and the need to snuff it out before it gains more power. On a metaphorical level, though, he could also be speaking of Isabel and her desire for freedom. While she doesn't recognize it at this point, Isabel has the power to overthrow her masters and seek her own liberty. She's growing larger in her ability to do so, though, and more capable of "breaking free."

The Loyalist representing Madam when Isabel seeks Colonel Regan's help speaks on a couple of different levels here. Of course, he's first talking about the perceived dangers of slaves overruling the people who own them. He's also talking, though, about a world where the colonies of Great Britain rise up above their mother country's authority.

There are a ton of moments in the book where Madam Lockton is inhumane to the point of evil, but this is one where she actually seems to be ignorant of the logic of asserting her power. If Isabel stays awake all night, of course she's going to ruin the dough. The truth is that she sees Isabel as little more than a kitchen appliance that she can plug it before she goes to bed and let it run on its own, unlimited power.

The hierarchy of slave and free touches every aspect of society, including the jail that holds Fort Washington's prisoners of war. To Dibdin, it doesn't matter that Curzon fought and bled alongside him for the same cause; at the end of the day, he's just a slave and doesn't deserve humane treatment.

Isabel may have blindly accepted slavery as a way of life when she was younger, but witnessing the worst of its evils convinces her by the end of the book that there's nothing to commend the system at all, not even treating slaves with kindness and respect. The truth is, owning another person in itself speaks louder than any comfortable treatment the owner may give the slave.

At the beginning of the story, the pastor at Miss Mary's funeral states that teaching slaves to read "leads to trouble." The way Common Sense transforms Isabel's understanding of both slavery and the colonies' quest for independence proves the truth in this statement—its argument enables Isabel to break free of the system and realize her individual rights as a human being.