What does Grandfather symbolize in Chains?

Though a relatively minor character in the story, Grandfather nonetheless has great symbolic significance. Brought up in Africa he represents a living connection with Isabel's ancestral homeland, a homeland that she's never personally experienced for herself.

Back in Africa, Grandfather was a free man, but since being brought to the United States in chains, he's remained in a sad state of forced servitude. Because of his experiences as both free man and slave, he has a particularly acute understanding of freedom, which he imparts to Isabel on one particularly notable occasion. Grandfather has experienced freedom and slavery, and freedom is definitely better.

This means that his words of wisdom to Isabel carry considerable weight, and she would do well to listen to them. He urges her to chart her own path to freedom, cutting through the Patriot v Loyalist dichotomy that frames the Revolutionary War. Drawing on a passage in the Bible he tells Isabel that anything that stands between her and freedom is the River Jordan, which she must cross if she's to reach the promised land of freedom.

In that sense, Grandfather symbolizes the eternal power of the human spirit, which will always gravitate towards freedom, no matter how many seemingly insurmountable objects are placed in its path.

Who is the grandfather in Chains?

Grandfather is a fairly minor character in this book. He is the old man who works the Tea Water Pump, and Curzon calls him "grandfather" when he is there with Isabel in chapter 13. Isabel mistakenly thinks that the relationship is real, but then she learns that a lot of people refer to him as "grandfather." This is because he is one of the oldest slaves in the area. He is described as a man "with stone-gray hair and skin the color of the night sky." Isabel feels an immediate kinship with the old man because he has a scar that reminds her of her own father.

Despite being a minor character, he does play a vital role in the story. It is his advice that provides Isabel with a catalyst that propels her into action in order to secure her own freedom from the Locktons and slavery.

You must choose your own side, find your road through the valley of darkness that will lead you to the river Jordan . . . Everything that stands between you and freedom is the river Jordan