Sarah likely moved to the Alexandria pen in a coffle, a line of humans chained to one another by their hands and feet. 19 Growing up in the South, I never heard the word “coffle.” The Alexandria Gazette described how “the children and some of the women are generally crowded into a cart or wagon, while others follow on foot, frequently handcuffed and chained together.” The slavers drove their human cargo many miles in coffles to the overcrowded and fetid slave pens. The Gazette noted that “scarcely a week passes without some of these wretched creatures being driven through our streets.”20
