How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[Mr. Robert] had showed up a few weeks earlier to visit Miss Mary Finch, his aunt and only living relation. He looked around her tidy farm, listened to her ragged, wet cough, and moved in. Miss Mary wasn't even cold on her deathbed when he helped himself to the coins in her strongbox. (1.8)
One way Anderson sets up the importance of family in Chains is by showing the dysfunction in the families of Isabel's oppressors. Here, Mr. Robert is virtually unconcerned with his only relative's death, only coming to her aid because he knows a bunch of money is coming his way. Way to keep it classy, Robert Finch.
Quote #2
One by one they dragged us forward, and a man shouted out prices to the crowd of likely buyers and baby Ruth cried, and Momma shook like the last leaf on a tree, and Poppa… and Poppa, he didn't want them to bust up our family like we were sheep or hogs. (2.41)
Rather than stay silent as he's expected to, Poppa fights for his family when he learns he's being sold to a different household than his wife and daughter. Rebelling against his new master is a way of asserting his humanity as a father, even if it means facing a severe beating.
Quote #3
We couldn't take Momma's shells, nor Ruth's baby doll made of flannel bits and calico, nor the wooden bowl Poppa made for me. Nothing belonged to us. (3.1)
Whoa. In a society like ours that's pretty materialistic, the idea of slaves not being able to take any possessions with them seems unimaginable. What makes this especially sad is that despite the trauma of losing both of their parents, Isabel and Ruth can't take anything to remember them by. Like the act of splitting up families, slavery holds no room for compassion.