Human neck shackle, 1862
Item 6644 info
Maine Historical Society
Capt. Charles C. G. Thornton of the 12th Maine filed the collar from the neck of a black field hand who came inside federal lines at Ponchartrain, Louisiana, in 1862.
Thornton wrote: "The collar originally had three iron prongs reaching to the top of the man's head and was fastened by the chain to a shackle around his ankle, carrying a 10-pound ball.
"He said he had worn it a year and the condition of his neck and ankle, calloused in deep ridges, verified his word. The prongs and ball he had got rid of before he reached our lines.
"The irons were put on him because when forbidden to visit his wife, who had been sold to a planter living ten miles away, he ran away. He was recaptured and his master caused irons to be riveted on him."
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