Analysis Of Adam Hochschild's Bury The Chains

Adam Hochschild’s Bury the Chains is a tale of the 18th century revolutionary movement that began when twelve men that were willing to challenge the status quo met in a British printing shop. The effects caused by their meeting would be felt for years after it took place by both the citizens of Britain, and the slaves of the their empire. These men had very different backgrounds but could all agree upon one thing, that slavery is evil and must be abolished. Many of these men started their lives believing that slavery was normal and acceptable. This was partly due to the societal norms of the time period and their lack of life experience. John Newton, a former slave trade ship captain came to his realization of the horrors of slavery later in

The people of Britain then began protesting to their parliament and demanding change along with putting an end to oppression. The book also mentions the historical milestones of combating slavery such as the first time Britain offered to free slaves in exchange for their service in the revolutionary war against America. Hochschild also writes about when the British house of commons attempted to pass a bill regulating the slave trade. When slaves heard word about the protests and freedom, revolts began all across the Caribbean. The Haitian revolt against the French was one of the most famous and successful revolt that occurred. They not only succeeded in abolishing slavery, they also overthrew French rule. The book concludes with the last surviving member of the original 12 men, Clarkson the scholar, witnessing the end of British slavery in 1833 and a whip and chains are buried in front of a church

The author is pretty clear in his view of slavery, his bias is clearly detectable throughout the book. He is highly sympathetic toward characters in support of reform (specifically Clarkson) and those who were active in the movement against slavery. Personally I think he is overly critical of some of the individuals in support of slavery simply because that was completely normal at the time and most of them did not know any better. I also believe that those people never thought that slavery would be abolished considering its scale and popularity in its prime. Although that seems unreasonable and ethically wrong, that was the unfortunate truth of the time period. With that being said, I do believe this book accomplished its goal regardless of Hochschild's clearly progressive bias. It did an incredible job of showing the true hardships of slavery and how awful it