https://www.binghamton.edu/news/story/1075/names-in-a-ledger

«Bailey believes that “linked fates” is a theme that extends from the book to the present day.

“What happens to one part of the American public happens to the other,” she says. “We can’t afford to see ourselves as ‘us vs. them,’ which is the way it was seen in slavery.

“What was done to the Butler slaves was the dislocation and dismantling of families. The same dislocation and dismantling happened to the Butlers as a couple and a family. … What happens to one part of the human family is happening to another part, even if they don’t think it is and even if it doesn’t happen right away.”»