human chattel

Noun

 * 1) Human beings considered property, that is, slaves.
 * 2) * 1863, Harper Twelvetrees, preface to The Story of the Life of John Anderson, the Fugitive Slave, William Tweedie (publisher), page ix:
 * Where is the man of intelligence who does not instantly see that this provision of human law makes the relation, between father and mother, that of mere agents for increasing the gains of him who claims a right of property in the human chattel, whose offspring, by law, are his?