Shackles recur throughout The Glory Field. They symbolize the holding back of the Lewis family: physically, economically and emotionally. But, they also represent the strength of the family, their unbreakable bond, and their ties to the past. They are passed down, physically and metaphorically, from one generation to the next. Each time they appear, the context is different, and they are given a different meaning.

The shackles first appear in July 1753 when they are used to keep eleven-year-old Muhammad Bilal captive on a slave ship. They are literal shackles, but also a symbol of the condition of subjugation in which Muhammad lives. In April 1900, as Elijah is getting ready to leave town, Moses brings out the shackles and stands in front of him: “The first black man that we can remember in our family come here wearing these. This is where we come from, and what we overcome. It’s up to you where you go from here” (134). In January 1964, the shackles become a symbol of protest when Tommy uses them to chain himself to Sheriff Moser during a demonstration for black equal rights: “It’s the chain used to bring the first of my family to Johnson City over two-hundred years ago” (284).