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

his life. From the meetings ashes rose a massive boycott of slave grown sugar cane by British citizens.

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

yard.

Many political aspects of European history are highlighted in Bury the Chains. Britain's view of slavery is explored through many different citizen demographics. Evangelicals, Methodists and Quakers attended the original meeting suggesting they were highly opposed to slavery. Based on what we have learned so far, this may be because they are spiteful toward Britain for making them outcasts and denying them a normal education. The wealthier individuals of Britain were in favor of slavery as demonstrated by the house of lords denying the law to regulate slavery in the book. This confirms what we’ve learned in class as well, the wealthier landowners would have substantially benefitted from free labor. The book also describes the treacherous journey of the middle passage from Africa to America. I had learned about the terror of the journey but the detail with which they are described really opened my eyes to how difficult the voyage truly was. Some of the slaves were also influenced by the political views of Europe. The Haitian slave revolt was largely influenced by the French Revolution which is ironic considering they overthrew the very people that inspired them. The book also offers insight into the economy of 18th century Europe. Hochschild mentions multiple time on how dependant British farmers are on sugar crops. Without slavery they would be making a fraction of their profits by either paying for labor or reducing the size of their farms. The book overall reflects what I have learned about European history accurately and reinforces it with a greater understanding.

The author’s purpose is to vividly portray the horrors of slavery and negatively depict those in support of slavery.

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

was.

While I learned an immense amount from Bury the Chains, personally I felt as though its agenda was meant to be told over more than one novel. It had an incredibly ambitious goal to accomplish, and while I do believe it succeeded in doing so, the book became extremely tough to absorb. I enjoyed the narrative but felt that the intense content along with amount of events taking place made the book hard to follow. There were many characters, and countless important occurrences to keep track of. That being said, if you want to learn a lot about European history this book is fantastic. It has a goldmine of information about politics, the economy and the slave trade during the 18th century. If you have the time and would like to explore a different point of view on the British slave trade I strongly recommend this book for you.