Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves

By: Adam Hochschild

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Synopsis: From the author of King Leopold&’s Ghost, a narrative history of the social justice campaign formed in the fight to free the slaves of the British Empire.In early 1787, twelve men—a printer, a lawyer, a clergyman, and others united by their hatred of slavery—came together in a London printing shop and began the world's first grass-roots movement, battling for the rights of people on another continent. Masterfully stoking public opinion, the movement's leaders pioneered a variety of techniques that have been adopted by citizens' movements ever since, from consumer boycotts to wall posters and lapel buttons to celebrity endorsements. A deft chronicle of this groundbreaking antislavery crusade and its powerful enemies, Bury the Chains gives a little-celebrated human rights watershed its due.A San Francisco Chronicle BestsellerA Book Sense Selection&“By far the most readable and rounded account we have of British antislavery, a campaign that, as the author rightly claims, helped to change the world and can be seen as a prototype of the modern social justice movement.&” —Robin Blackburn, Los Angeles Times Book Review &“A thrilling, substantive, and oftentimes raw work of narrative history. In its own fashion, it furthers the abolitionists&’ crucial work of lifting our moral blindness.&” —Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio&’s Fresh Air