Description
Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery is a work of history by Adam Hochschild about the campaign that brought an end to the British slave trade and, ultimately, slavery across the British Empire. In 1787, twelve people gathered in a London printing shop with what seemed an impossible goal: to challenge slavery in one of the world’s most powerful empires.
Hochschild follows the campaign as its organisers developed new forms of public activism, including mass mailings, posters, consumer boycotts and campaign badges. The movement attracted remarkable figures such as Olaudah Equiano, a formerly enslaved writer and campaigner; John Newton, a former slave-ship captain who later wrote Amazing Grace; Granville Sharp; and Thomas Clarkson, who devoted decades to organising opposition to slavery. Despite resistance from powerful slaveholders, the campaign eventually helped bring slavery in the British Empire to an end in the 1830s.
A good choice for readers interested in slavery and abolition, British history, social movements, political activism and the individuals who helped change public opinion and law.
