Chapter 7

In Chapter 7 of Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, Adam Hochschild starts out by asking "In an Atlantic world still in slavery's grip, was it possible to build a free black community? if so, where? This question in very important to the rest of the chapter. To focus on the question, it can be broken down into a few ways. The straight forward question of is it possible for a black community and another hidden question of is it possible for blacks to live among the whites. This alone can spark a controversial debate.

The rest of the short chapter is filled with important background information. It went into the American Revolution. It talked about how Britain was giving slaves freedom if they joined the British Army. The problem arouse when the war ended. Yes, many slaves did join the army but now back to the original question where do they go and what do they do? The answer came when Britain forced the "freed" slaves back to their rightful owner Carleton. But as a "noble man" Carleton sent his freed slaves to Nova Scotia, Canada to create the largest community of freed slaves. The only reason why Carleton did this was because of the respect to Britain. He kept their promise even though he was not an abolitionist.

Chapter 6

Chapter 6 in Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains was very informative chapter. Starting off with how John Newton retired of being a slave ship master. It then went into detail about how hypocritical people can be in the world. In this chapter there were two names that came to mind, George Whitefield and Countess Huntington. These two are against slavery but realize that "hot countries cannot be cultivated without Negroes." (p.87). This is very critical because these to ministers both own slaves. Countess Huntington has one and the notorious George Whitefield owns fifty of them in Georgia. This is ironic considering they both don't agree with the idea of slavery.

For the greater part of the chapter it talks about Thomas Clarkson's Essay he wrote. His Essay won the Latin prize. The topic of the peace was "Is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will". Thomas Clarkson had trouble sleeping during the two months he had to write this essay. He realized how important his essay was going to be. He researched everything he could to learn more about the topic and wanted to know just about everything. When he won it he wanted to publish it to start the abolitionist movement against slavery. He said it was hard for him to sleep because of the information he learned about the topic. He realized how horrible the slave ships were when he finally got on one and had many primary sources talk about the slave ships and how terrible slavery was. At the end of the chapter it talked about with the help of the Quakers, Thomas Clarkson formed the first anti-slavery efforts.

The section of this chapter that really caught my attention was how it took a twenty-five year old to start this revolution. There were obviously many people who opposed slavery but they never did anything about. It just goes to show that someone can really change the world if they want to. This was the beginning of the end of slavery in Britain and later, the United States.

Class Questions

Carl,Matt,Greg: The numbers game: importing new slaves to "replace" those killed off. The numbers are horrific. Slaves were treated like a machince

How hypocritical was equiano? Measured up against John Newton?

Did greed motivate change in slavery from menial servanthood (serf-like) to mechansitic, working of the slaves to death?

How genious was eqiano's pragmatism? Did he play the game to well?

Does Hochschild's Book suffer from an undue bias agianst religion?

Did riches (stand-in for greed) and or the persuit of a comfortable lifestyle make people more willing to suspend their morals and participate by proxy in slave trade?

Was Equiano "lucky" as Hochschild says? how mught Hochschils be using the word ironically?

Is the chapter on Equiano well placed? Does it serve as a good counterweight story to express what a slave went through? Would i have been more effective to tell more horrid stories of slave ship conditions in a chapter after J.Newton

Alright...

When your common sense fails, there's always help.

Chapter 2/4 Personal Response

In chapters two and four, Adam Hochschild introduced us to Olaudah Equaino and James Stephen in Bury the Chains. In chapter two it came mostly from the perspective of Olaudah Equaino. He didn't talk about how much he benefited from the slave trade like Newton did, he talked about what it was like to be a slave. Olaudah Equaino talked about how treacherous the conditions were on the slave ship. How crammed and how non-sanitary it was. The Oder from the sweat, vomit and feces he said seeped into the wood of the boat and was impossible to clean out. Olaudah Equaino also talked about how he was on a hunger strike to try and kill himself. He would rather KILL himself then go through the horrible and horrifying conditions Newtons boats created. He talked about how a three slaves jumped off the side of the boat knowing they would KILL themselves from drowning. Again, these slaves wanted to die then be on the slave boat. Even though Olaudah Equaino did have a better life after the slave ship. Equaino learned how to become literate and used that to his advantage to become a "free slave". Equaino also talked about how if Britain has power and permits slavery, no black man will be free.

Chapter four started off with some background of the sugar plantations. The Caribbean is home to the top sugar fields and the most brutal place for slaves. I was told that in the Caribbean that the average slave would only live for the first three years. Now bring in James Steven. He has another personal story about the slave trade. He was a lawyer in the Caribbean and realized how horrific the slave trade actually is. He would be a primary source for a project because of his personal view of two slaves being burned at the stake. The were accused of committing a crime and were killed for it. He used this and other examples to show how much worse the Caribbean slaves had it compared to the American slaves.

Out of these two chapters, the biggest part that caught my attention was when Olaudah Equaino talked about how he and other shipmates were trying to commit suicide because of how bad it was to be on the ship. From what I have personally experienced in my life, I believe i cannot take my own life. I know that in certain circumstances it could change like Olaudah, but I just can't fathom the thought. It's really impressive how much someone can be put through and still not die. He was intentionally starving himself to perish and he was also getting beaten during it. It's really heart wrenching to know that people can put other individuals through this much pressure and hardship into anther's life. Could you do that?

Intro and Chapter 1

Blog #1 Introduction Chapter

            In the introductory chapter of Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild laid the template of the book, the stop of slavery in Britain. In the introduction, it talked about how slavery was beginning in Britain and how important it was to the economy. Nearly 2/3rds of the people alive were in some kind of imprisonment. This story will talk about how important it was and how Thomas Clarkson is going to start the revelation to abolish the slave trade.

Blog #2 Many Golden Dreams

            In the chapter of Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild, John Newton talked about his experiences through memoirs he talked about how he started transporting slaves. He was on a boat that traveled to Africa and then south around the tip of Africa delivering slaves to the other side of the continent and also picking more slaves up.  He talked about how he wanted to provide for his girl friend. He also talked about how much rape went on with the woman slaves. How easy it was for him and his fellow shipmates take advantage of them. He later quoted several bible passages to almost “forgive” himself for what he did. Another section of the chapter talked about how John Gladstone, a member of parliament help Britain out during many parts of his life. How generous he was as a person even though it was over looked that he was a slave trader. When a statue of him went up, people carved “SLAVE TRADER” over the section of the plaque that talked about everything he has done. Also in the chapter it talked about how the triangle trade worked, who it was with and what happened during the voyages in it. It talked about how intense of a captain Newton was and how he tortured his slaves to not revolt against him. He also put guns and other ammunition on board to intimidate slaves to prevent revolts against him.