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When Miss Ophelia seen it (...) she got excited. Now she had her piano and her n*****s too. Boy Charles used to talk about that piano all the time. He never could get it off his mind. Two or three months go by and he be talking about it again. He be talking about taking it out of Sutter's house. Say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it he had us. Say we was still in slavery.

This excerpt from Doaker's account of the piano's history reveals the various meanings it takes on for the Sutters and Charleses. Initially bought with slaves, the piano first exemplifies the interchangeability of person and object under the system of slavery. This traffic in human flesh reaffirms a white kinship network at the expense of Black ones—the piano is an anniversary present. Carved by Willie Boy to placate Miss Ophelia, the piano's wooden figures indicate the interchangeable nature of slave and ornament for the master. The slave is the master's gift and accessory.

Under Willie Boy's hands, however, the piano also becomes the physical record of the family's history. Thus Boy Charles understands the figures not as ornament but as narrative. As Doaker recalls: "Say it was the story of our whole family and as long as Sutter had it he had us. Say we was still in slavery." Owning the family's history becomes tantamount to owning its members. Sutter's ownership of the family's story keeps the Charles family in bondage.

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