Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of Hochschild's Bury the Chains begins by talking about the first form of emancipation for slaves, albeit not in a truly altruistic manner. When the colonies began to stir with talks of rebellion in 1775 the British offered freedom to any slave that would join the British military in an effort to harm the colonial economy, as well as bolster their own military. The chapter then moves into the reprecussions that went on after the war. During the peace negotiations in France the newly formed United States "stipulated that British troops should carry off no negroes or other American property." The British troops still occupied New York City and Washington sent a list to the city of runaway slaves to be returned. A British general, Sir Guy Carleton, felt obligated to uphold their agreement with the former slaves and made the decision to evacuate the former slaves to Nova Scotia, a British colony. Nova Scotia then became the largest community of free blacks anywhere in the world.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 of Hochschild's Bury the Chains begins by discussing how entrenched slavery was in Great Britain and was booming after the Revolutionary War had ended. At the time, there were some abolitionists, but none believed they could break down something so deeply ingrained in British society. To once again relate past events to events happening today, he compares the abolitionist movement to the uphill climb with today's environmental movement. Continuing another trend of Bury the Chains, Hochschild points out the hypocrisy of Voltaire. Voltaire had mocked the idea of slavery in Candide, but had no problem with a slave ship being named after him.

The chapter then moves into the tale of Thomas Clarkson, a man attending Cambridge University. The dean of Cambridge held a Latin essay writing competition with the question being "Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare?", meaning Is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will? He wrote an essay that declared slavery to be unlawful, and his essay won the contest. The thoughts of the essay began to sweep through his mind until reaching a crescendo during a horseback ride to Wades Mill. He though to himself that if the contents of his essay were true then "some person should see these calamities to their end." At that moment, many feel that the Anti-Slavery movement had begun. Two years later in May of 1787 the abolitionists had their first meeting in a printing shop which set the movement afoot.

Chapter 4

Chapter four of Hochschild's Bury the Chains tells the tale of the West Indies' Sugar trade principally. To give the reader a comparison to this day and age the author compares the sugar industry to today's oil industry. 60 percent of all slaves brought anywhere in the Americas were brought to the small islands of the Caribbean. This was due to the immense profits and demand for the sugar from European nations. Sugar was considered the principle source of national opulence in the Carribean. The chapter then moves to future abolitionist in James Steven. James Steven at the time before his reinvention is involved in a love triangle with a woman he knew from childhood, Nancy, and her friend, Maria. His best friend Tom, Nancy's brother, was also courting Maria, but he was away in the Navy as this went on. He eventually impregnated Maria but still tried to court Nancy. During this time he was able to once again resume law school and he attained his law degree. The problem was eventually "solved" when Maria found someone else to marry and James and Nancy eventually moved to the Caribbean and adopted the child after James Steven had caused a massive amount of heartache. While he was in the West Indies he saw the first horrific image that would drive him from his life of debauchery towards abolition years later when he attended a trial of four slaves charged with murdering a white doctor. They were most likely innocent, but sentenced to death anyway, but death alone was not what haunted Steven. Steven heard a tale of their execution which involved them being burned alive, a common execution for blacks at the time. This especially horrified Steven as he himself had benefitted from slavery due to his uncle's inheritance enabling him to return to law school that was gained through slavery. Two decades later he would, behind the scenes, strike a major blow against slavery, but this was just the beginning of his retribution.
The rest of the chapter comes from accounts of the Codrington plantation in Barbados. They first described the sugar making process in the sugar mills. It was a brutal crop to harvest for farmhands and millworkers. The farmhands were forced to carry heavy burdens of cane, followed by putting the cane through dangerous vertical rollers. The millworkers then took over and had to work tirelessly with massive deadly vats of scalding sugar that burned many a worker brutally. Both fields resulted in startlingly young deaths for the workers. Codrington's records not only show the horrors of slave labor, but also show who received benefits, including the Church of England. One cleric once said "I have long wondered and lamented that the negroes in our plantations decrease, and new supplies become necessary continually. Surely this proceeds from some defect of humanity and even good policy." But even the clergy themselves weren't going to find out. This further shows the horribly apathetic nature of everyone at the time with regards to slavery. Most saw it as just a fact of life...

Chapter Two

Chapter Two of Hochschild's Bury the Chains is devoted to recounting the story of Olaudah Equiano. The chapter first depicts parts of Equiano's child, largely quoting from his autobiography. We then move into Equiano's capture and entrance into slavery. Hochschild is sure to explain the horrors of the forced march to the coast including using chilling imagery when he describes "the trails to the coast that were littered with skeletons." The chapter then moves into the voyage into bondage and some of Equiano's experiences during his time in slavery. Hochschild then speaks of slave rebellions that were a large part of slave society that brought scared whites and some slaves alike. Equiano using his natural business savvy he began trading as his ship sailed to various locales until eventually through his profits he was able to buy his freedom from bondage and received a note as such from Robert King. One interesting passage that ended the chapter was that Equiano helped Irving select slaves to be field hands and that even though he fought fiercely to get his own freedom slavery was so pervasive at the time that he took for granted that any plantation in the Americas would be cultivated by slaves.

Chapter One

Chapter One of Hochschild's Bury the Chains focuses on giving backstory of John Newton's transition from a slave ship captain to an abolitionist. The chapter beings by establishing John Newton's history as a slave ship captain prior to the beginnings of his religious conversion. We then move onto a the tale of Newton surviving a severe North Atlantic gale on the triangle trade route that begins his conversion to Christianity. Following that it moves to Newton's proposal to Mary Catlett that continued his path to redemption. Following this, Newton returns to his seafaring after his marriage to Catlett and recounts the captain's success in quashing a slave rebellion aboard his ship. Following this he converted to evangelical Christianity but did not denounce slavery until some time later.

Introduction Summary

The main point in the introduction of Hochschild's Bury the Chains is to establish the scene and scope of the subject of the work. The aforementioned subject is the abolitionist movement in Great Britain that began when twelve men met in a printing shop on the twenty second of May in 1787. The introduction serves also to establish basic descriptions of many of the characters that will be featured in the work such as John Newton and Olaudah Equiano. Continuing from there, the author describes the significance of the movement to history and how the movement set the stage for much of the future of social movements in the centuries that followed.