Kindred is about a history inextricable from the annals of American heritage. That's an easy answer, since it's mostly set in the era of slavery in America with all the requisite horror of racism and inhumanity. However, even in that simple reading, slavery isn't presented as some grand idea of ignorant mistakes of the past but as a indoctrinated system that spread across color lines and generally made everyone miserable and hateful. That's not me saying that; it's apparent in Mr. Weylin, Margaret, Rufus, Alice, and Sarah, all people who each fall prey to weakness in character and anger in deed. It's telling that of all the characters, the slaves are the only ones to ever be shown experiencing joy with their "party of [the] husking", a celebration free from the literal and figurative shackles of having slaved in fields (229). Slavery could be forgotten, but it wouldn't be illegal until several decades after Dana last arrived, and its effects are still felt in 1976 with Kevin and Dana's families not being keen on their marriage.
Speaking of families, that idea leads into the deeper meaning of my point. Slavery tore families apart: a literal separation for black people, and for the Weylins, a figurative separation of isolated people who end up sharing only the bigotry of that era. But more specifically, Dana and Rufus are separated by over 150 years of thought but still find a shared animosity that fits to any tense family situation, say if one family member could have another killed with impunity.
Under those disagreements, though, Dana needed Rufus to survive for her sake, and Rufus needed Dana to live for his sake. During their last moments together, Rufus confesses that he dreams of Dana: "I'd dream about you leaving me" (254). He says it so frankly and so sadly that it's the first truly honest time he's ever said it without the threat of power, the subconscious finding its way into voice free of ego. Dana has little choice if she's in his life, but even in the back of his mind, Rufus knows that she can't stay there. It's a familial relationship fraught with a yearning to be loved despite all flaws, an unconditional arrangement of blood that crosses over a century to unite two people of different skin colors as one family line.
Family is what you make it, but sometimes, it's what you're born into.
