Bury the Chains (2005)

Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves is a non-fiction book by Adam Hochschild that was first published by Houghton Mifflin on January 7, 2005. The book is a narrative history of the late 18th- and early 19th-century anti-slavery movement in the British Empire. The story centers around a group of British abolitionist campaigners and traces their campaign from its beginnings with Somerset v Stewart in 1772 until all slaves in Britain's colonies was fully emancipated by 1838. The book looks at the setbacks the abolitionists faced as well as the campaign tactics they used, and explains how they were ultimately able to abolish slavery in the British Empire.

The book came about from Hochschild's initial idea to write a biography on John Newton, a slave trader turned abolitionist. Further research into Newton's life drew Hochschild into the abolitionist movement as a whole instead and introduced him to English abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. Clarkson, whose often overlooked contributions Hochschild wanted to highlight, serves as the book's central figure.

Bury the Chains was generally well received by critics. Its narrative was praised for being compelling and uplifting, while a few reviewers felt it lacked depth and that Hochschild's political leanings clouded his writing. The book won several literary awards, including the 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History and the 2006 Lionel Gelber Prize. According to The New Republic, the book has inspired modern-day climate change activists who see parallels between the antislavery and climate change campaigns.

Background and development

Adam Hochschild is an American author and co-founder of the progressive American magazine Mother Jones. Much of his writing focuses on historical social injustices and the individuals who campaigned to end them. Hochschild said of the overarching theme in his work: "To me there's nothing more interesting than trying to evoke moments when men and women risked their lives to battle horrendous injustice [...] It's hard for me to imagine spending four or five years working on a book if there isn't some pressing moral issue at the core of the story." A popular historian, Hochschild has stated that his intention is not to provide new analyses of historical events with his books, but rather "to bring a period of time alive by focusing on 10 or 12 people who lived through it, and whose lives intersected in some way." Hochschild's other books include the acclaimed King Leopold's Ghost, an account of the colonial atrocities committed in the Belgian Congo; The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin, an account of the effects of Joseph Stalin's dictatorship on contemporary Russians; and Spain in Our Hearts, an account of the American volunteers who participated in the Spanish Civil War.

Bury the Chains came about from Hochschild's initial idea to write a biography on John Newton, known for writing the hymn "Amazing Grace". Newton's personal transformation from a slave trader to an abolitionist had long intrigued him. However, a few months into researching Newton's life, Hochschild came to the realization that "the story was the movement and not Newton." His research into Newton's life also introduced Hochschild to abolitionist campaigner Thomas Clarkson, who became the central figure in Bury the Chains. Hochschild observed that Clarkson's contributions to the abolitionist campaign was often overlooked in favor of William Wilberforce's. According to him, Clarkson was "by far the more interesting figure" who "really got shortchanged by history," and Hochschild wanted to correct this. Hochschild was also drawn to write about the British antislavery movement upon learning that many of the methods used by modern-day advocacy groups were pioneered by the British abolitionists, including boycotts, political book tours, direct mail fundraising, newsletters, petitions, campaign posters and buttons, and the concept of setting up national organizations with local branches around the country.

Having known little about the subject when he started working on this book, it took Hochschild four years of research and writing to complete it. He conducted a lot of his research for the book in libraries, particularly the University of California, Berkeley Libraries and the Stanford University Libraries. Hochschild's research also took him to England and western Jamaica to visit places where events in the book occurred. In England, he visited 2 George Yard in London, the address of the bookstore where the abolitionists held their meetings, now the location of a modern skyscraper. In Jamaica, Hochschild visited the area where the slave rebellions took place so as to search for the remains of old sugar plantations.

Title

The book's title came from a story of a group of slaves in the town of Falmouth, Jamaica, who immediately following the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire on August 1, 1838, placed their slave whip and chains in a coffin and buried the coffin in a Baptist churchyard.

Content

Bury the Chains is a narrative history of the antislavery movement in the United Kingdom. It follows a group of British abolitionist activists and chronicles their successful campaign to end slavery in the British Empire. The group includes Granville Sharp, an unconventional civil libertarian; Thomas Clarkson, a University of Cambridge graduate who dedicated his life to the antislavery campaign; John Newton, a former slave ship captain turned Evangelical preacher; William Wilberforce, an English politician and close friend of British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger; and Olaudah Equiano, a former slave who bought his freedom and became an abolitionist writer.