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Bury The Chains: The British Struggle To Abolish Slavery
Adam Hochschild
Editions
| Cover |
Publisher |
ISBN Number |
Price |
Buy |
| hbk |
Macmillan |
0333904915 |
£20.00 |
 | | pbk |
Pan |
0330485814 |
£8.99 |
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Review
 Adam Hochschild’s last book, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story Of Greed, Terror And Heroism In The Congo  pbk £12, won the Duff Cooper Prize in 1999. Here his theme is once again racial injustice, although this time the crime examined is on a transatlantic scale. In the eighteenth century Britain dominated the slave trade, transporting as many victims as all her European competitors put together; but by 1807 Parliament had passed laws to outlaw the trade, and in 1833 all slaves under British jurisdiction were freed. Hochschild’s book tells the story of the men and women, black and white, who forced their government to face up to its humanitarian responsibilities. This, he explains, was an issue that gave rise to many of the methods and some of the apparatus that have been used by activists and lobbyists ever since. Petitions, boycotts (of sugar, the principal crop grown on the plantations), political posters and “the literature of fact” were all pioneered by the anti-slavery lobby. As with all movements there were key players (namely Thomas Clarkson and the evangelical philanthropist William Wilberforce), but the author is careful not to overemphasize their contribution, focusing equally on the role of the Quakers and of women, not to mention the eloquently literate freed slaves and their captive counterparts on the plantations, who sought to gain their freedom through open rebellion. Gripping, detailed and rich in every kind of anecdote, this is a formidable and noble history which, in spite of its murky subject, still manages to be not too depressing. - review by Paul Engles
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