“Bury the Chains” by Adam Hochschild

Having read a lot recently about the history of the British Empire, typically these days rather lazily paired with the term ‘slavery’ as a means of disparaging its every deed and word, I decided that it was high time that I read a book on the Atlantic slave trade, how it developed, its scale and how it came to be outlawed. I was already pretty familiar with some the atrocities that were committed having read Olaudah Equiano, Washington Black, Sathnam Sanghera and much else in recent years, but to my shame in knew little else. Hence the decision to pick up a copy of this splendid book.

Published in 2005, it is subtitled ‘prophets and rebels in the fight to free an empire’s slaves’. That suggests an exclusive focus on the campaign to end slavery, but this is not the case. The book gives just as much attention, if not more, to the salve trade and to the treatment of enslaved people on ships and in the Caribbean as it does to the efforts of those who sought to end the whole ghastly practice. There are chapters that deal in detail with slave revolts and much analysis demonstrating that the formal ending of slavery did not bring about as much change to the former slaves lives as they hoped for. The campaign to end the slave trade (accomplished in 1807) and the subsequent one aimed at ending slavery itself across the British Empire (accomplished in 1838) are used here to provide a narrative structure, and Adam Hochschild hooked me in from the start. The book is both superbly written and very thoroughly researched. It focuses on a group of men and women who, in the main motivated by evangelical Christian beliefs, worked both inside and outside Parliament to argue their case in the face of opposition from the political establishment and those representing the interests of the slave-owning classes. Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce are rightly given particular prominence, but there are a host of others including extraordinarily brave rebels living in the West Indies whose stories are told here. One is the great Elizabeth Heyrick about whom little is known beyond her determined no nonsense campaigning on all manner of social issues. Another is a Baptist missionary called William Knibb who presided over a service at a church in Jamaica on the night of 31st July 1838 to celebrate abolition finally coming into effect. ‘The monster is dying!’ he proclaimed as the clock ticked towards midnight, and then as it struck twelve: ‘The monster is dead!’.

It's not all narrative though. Some chapters are more analytical and questioning. One is focused on why the anti-slavery movement first gained serious traction in late Eighteenth Century Britain, and not at another time or place. Multiple factors appear to have been at play.

The book also covers – in passing - the French Revolution, the industrial revolution, the Great Reform Act, Haitian independence and other major events in this extraordinary period. Hochschild also reflects very compellingly on the ways that social campaigns that started after the anti-slavery movement had won its battle in Britain learned from the techniques this group of pioneer human rights activists went about their task. Consumer boycotts, lobbying parliamentarians, pamphleteering, celebrity endorsement and impassioned speeches - it's all here. This book is written with terrific aplomb. Popular history at its absolute best.