The condition or position of a chattel.
1839. Voice of Freedom, 9 Feb., 2/4. None can see more clearly than Mr. Adams, that it is becoming more and more difficult, and will soon be manifestly impossible, to accommodate the same system of legislation to subjects so hostile as free labor and slave labor, human rights and human chattelhood, liberty and slavery.
1857. Anti-Slavery Bugle, 5 Sept., 2/6. We feel … that all the slaves in this land shall be lifted from the degradation of their chattelhood and bondage at the earliest possible day that it can be effected by peaceable means.
1871. Echo, 15 Aug. The last great country in which human chattelhood exists as an institution.
