Voting Rights Alliance

One of the cruelest tools of slavery was the iron neck collar fitted with projecting hooks or spikes. Used to punish attempted escape and to prevent resistance, these collars made it difficult or impossible for enslaved people to lie down comfortably or rest against a surface. The hooks could catch on fences, branches, or bedding, turning even sleep into suffering. Others were fitted with bells so that movement could be heard. Slavery was engineered cruelty. It sought to control nearly every aspect of a person's life — movement, rest, dignity, family, and identity. It stripped Africans off every ounce of dignity. Millions of Africans endured these horrors, yet they resisted in countless ways: through armed rebellion, escape, preserving their cultures, protecting their families, and fighting for freedom to the death. When people try to reduce slavery to “just labor,” remember the iron collars, branding irons, whips, chains, family separations, and generations whose lives were deliberately and systematically destroyed and exploited for profit. We remember not to dwell in the past, but to ensure it is never forgotten.