Bury the Chains was a Christmas gift from my friends Julie and Stephan. Julie tells me that neither one of them has read it, but reading a review of the book, they thought I might enjoy it. I was surprised that, by coincidence, I had just read “The Book of Negroes” by Laurence Hill, which is a fictional account of much of the historical facts in “Bury the Chains.”

I have to say that I am deeply touched by it. Hochschild has done a tremendous amount of research and, although I am not particularly enthused by his writing, I was hooked by the narrative. It is so inspiring to feel that individuals do have the power to change the world.

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The story of the abolition movement in England, including its invention/first successful use of several common propaganda techniques (including political logos), and how it went from attacking the slave trade to attacking all slavery. Reminding me of the Cold War uses of the civil rights movement, abolition’s political successes came when they appeared geopolitically at least ok (when abolishing the trade/slavery would hurt the French or at least not disadvantage the British a lot). And success required compensating enslavers and not the enslaved. But no civil war was required—if only because the British learned both from the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, in which they disastrously intervened. ( )

I will say this is more like a 3.5; it was the best of the Adam Hochschild books I've read (and I don't really intend to read any more of them,) I think in no small part because he was fairly constrained and didn't have to do a lot of historical imagination work. It doesn't say anything new, nor does he really claim to--in his bibliography he acknowledges that most of it is basically a restating of David Brion Davis's work, and that's fine! By focusing on the organizing in Britain for the most part, he's able to acknowledge the lack of humanity that most British felt for actual enslaved people, while not doing too much interrogating into his own love of British 'democracy' or Euro-centric forms of government (like he did King Leopold's Ghost.) It's really a sweet spot for him; there are enough characters for him to kind of play with, and he can be focused and have fewer weird progressive narrative statements.

I would actually feel somewhat comfortable purchasing this one for a relative and not following it up immediately with other recommendations. It's accessible and didn't make me feel actively uncomfortable! Is it the best book I've ever read on the subject? No, but it doesn't have to be I guess. If you're looking for an accessible book on the abolition of the British slave trade and slavery in British colonies, this is a decent one (I say as a person whose focus is the US settler state; ymmv if you know more about this than me.) ( )

Excellent book on the history of the abolitionists in England and all the other countries involved in the slave trade. Worth the read. ( )

A solid, but occasionally padded, history of the UK's abolition of the slave trade and eventually slavery, covering roughly 1790-1840. One main thesis is that the abolitionists' methods, including pamphlets, petitions, boycotts, branding, etc., anticipated many of the elements of more modern social justice movements.

Some quick points: How many slaves there were. Emphasized the abolitionist roles of Quakers, and of women. Main efforts were to end slave trading, not slavery. After abolition, momentum switched, with the powerful joining the movement in order to deny their rivals a competitive advantage. ( )