coffle

noun

1. A line of people or animals fastened together, especially a chain of prisoners or slaves.

   “The people of the coffle spent the day in drying such articles as were wet, and in cleaning ten pairs of ornamented pistols with shea-butter.”

   “I hear the wheeze of the slave-coffle, as the slaves march on, as the husky gangs pass on by twos and threes, fastened together with wrist-chains and ankle-chains,”

   “If the explorer could make Kamalia he might be able to hook up with a slave coffle heading for the coast.”

   “Once all experience is finally reduced to marketable image, once the receiving user of user-friendly receivers can break from the coffle and choose freely, Americanly, from an Americanly infinite variety of moving images hardly distinguishable from real-life images[…]”

   “Her litter came to a sudden halt at the cross street, to allow a coffle of slaves to shuffle across her path, urged along by the crack of an overseer's lash.”

verb

1. (transitive)To fasten (a line of people or animals) together.