Amazing Grace is lovely Christian hymn that we all know and can probably recite the first two lines no problem. Interesting that the man who penned the hymn was a wealthy British slave trader who found God, wrote the hymn and then joined the anti-slavery cause.
Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild is a wonderful book about the small number of brave people in Britain who fought to abolish slavery at a time when Britain was wealthy and powerful in the world because of it. The anti-slavery movement changed Britain and human rights and this book tells the compelling history of the people involved, the movement itself and how Britain’s role in the slave trade slowly changed.
Reading this book not only informs you of this great cause and the people who gave their entire lives to it but along the way we learn about how a prized commodity can drive people and nations crazy: oil today, sugar back in the time of the slave trade. We learn about The Caribbean and the legacy of the slave trade on those Islands, about the Quakers, the role of brave British business people who risked the wrath of wealthy slave owners, how slavery was debated in Parliament and how ordinary Brits moved on an unprecedented scale to boycott sugar and hit the slave owners in their pockets – some even in the knowledge it would impact negatively upon their own livelihood.
While it is not a light Summer read if you’re interested in world history, politics, activism and humanity it is a winner.
Bubbly
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