Short answers, pulled from the story.
The litter served as the primary vehicle for the elite across the globe before the invention of the wheel for transport. This human-powered wheelless vehicle was used when roads were too treacherous for wheeled vehicles. It functioned as a complex system of labor, status, and engineering that defined social hierarchies from ancient Egypt to colonial America.
The Third Council of Braga issued a decree in 675 AD that required bishops to walk to the church rather than be carried in a litter by deacons. This ecclesiastical intervention highlighted how the vehicle was so associated with status that it required regulation to curb its use by religious leaders. The decree specifically targeted the practice of bishops being carried in litters.
Palanquins in the Indian subcontinent were enclosed wooden boxes that measured eight feet long, four feet wide, and four feet high. These structures featured openings screened by curtains or shutters and were furnished with bedding and pillows. The interiors reflected the social status of the traveler through ornamentation ranging from simple bamboo frames to lacquer paintwork and cast bronze finials.
Henry VIII of England reigned from 1509 to 1547 and was carried around in a sedan chair requiring four strong chairmen to carry him towards the end of his life. The chairmen were licensed and operated under a monopoly granted by King Charles I. Each chair was assigned a number and the practice of carrying people in chairs had been established for decades before the word sedan entered the English language in 1615.
In Korea, royalty and aristocrats were carried in wooden litters called gama which were primarily used by royalty and government officials. There were six types of gama assigned to different government official rankings and they were preferred over wheeled vehicles due to the difficulties posed by the mountainous terrain. In China, the bridal chair was a traditional bride carried to her wedding ceremony by a shoulder carriage that was lacquered in an auspicious shade of red and equipped with red silk curtains to screen the bride from onlookers.
Benjamin Franklin traveled to meetings of the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787 in a sedan chair carried by four prisoners. He was 81 years old and in generally declining health at the time. This act of using prisoners to carry the chair of the founding father of the United States is a striking example of the intersection of power, labor, and the physical limitations of the elderly.