Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively

1. "...you could have thought about why a book entitled A History of France might present a different view of the battle than a book subtitled A History of British Progress. You could have asked if the English and French writers wanted to make a point about the history of their countries and looked to see if the factual differences suggested anything" (39). I think this is very true. Different countries present the same information very differently. I think this would be an awesome paper topic, such as how the U.S. and Britian view the Revolutionary War. Or how the U.S. and Japan view the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.
2. "...1) Many students like Shirley misunderstand sources because they read them as stories. 2) Many students expect their sources to tell the truth; hence, they equate persuasive writing in this context with making things up." I think this is true. Sometimes, sources are stories. But most of the time, they're not. It's easier to think of sources as stories, instead of persausive writing. And not all sources tell the truth. It's easier for someone writing a paper to believe that it's true, but it might not always be the case.
3. "Even when students understand that the assignment asks for more than the fill-in-the-blanks, show-me-you've-read-the-material approach described by Schwegler and Shamoon, they cling to narrative structuring devices." This is so true. It's harder to analyze a topic than to just state all the facts in an essay. I think most professors look for the analysis essay rather than the state all the facts essay. My HST 112 professor this semester, Professor Ebner, is such a professor. I had to write an essay that incorporated no information outside of lecture and discussion sections.

"The Curious Researcher" pgs 165-192

5 points that I find user friendly:

1. Exercise 4.2

2. Writing Multiple Leads/Exercise 4.3

3. "Your opening is your first chance to capture your reader's attention. But how you begin your research paper will also have a subtle yet significant impact on the rest of it."

4. "The first part-the lead, the beginning-is the hardest part of all to write."

5. "Leads must be sound. They should never promise what does not follow. Leads, like titles, are flashlights that shine down into the story."

Notes on "Evidence Given Before the Sadler Committe"

“Evidence Given Before the Sadler Committee.” http://www.victorianweb.org/history/workers1.html

· “At what age did you first go to work in one [a factory]?
--Eight”
This is scary. I couldn’t imagine working in a factory when I was 8. When you’re a kid you shouldn’t have to worry about finding a job. You should worry about what game you’re going to play next and what color you’re going to color your picture.

· “When trade was brisk what were your hours?
--From 5 in the morning to 9 in the evening.”
16 hours of work a day is terrible. Noone, adult or child, should have to work 16 hours a day. Especially in a factory. Just like slavery, no one thought this was wrong.

· “What was the consequence if you had been too late?
--I was most commonly beaten.
Severely?
--Very severely, I thought.”
Being beaten for showing up late is quite an interesting leadership technique. I can't imagine being 8 years old in a factory and then being beaten if I show up late. Children shouldn't have had to worry about being late for work because they didn't want to get beaten.

· “What time did you begin to work at a factory?
--When I was six years old.”
This quite came from a little girl. I don't understand how noone thought this was wrong. 6 year olds shouldn't be anywhere near a factory. I can't imagine how these kids dealt with their work.

· “What time was allowed for your meals?
--Forty minutes at noon.”
To be honest, this could be a lot worse. It's barely enough time to eat all of your meals for a day, but I'm sure the bosses could have given even less time than this.

How I can use "Bury the Chains" in my essay

I can use Hochschild's book Bury the Chains, among other sources, to describe the working conditions on the sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The book goes into great detail about the practices of slave owners and will be a great source to use.

"Bury the Chains" Pgs 324-354 and 365-366 summary

Pages 324-354 and 365-366 of Adam Hochschild's book, Bury the Chains, is about how the slave trade came to an end in Britain and its colonies. Many people helped the abolition movement, such as Elizabeth Heyrick and Lucy Townsend. The rebellion in Demerara moved the movement along. The slaves, with the help of John Smith, burned many houses down, and killed some white people. In late 1831, in Jamaica, another rebellion, led by Samuel Sharpe, also paved the way for the abolishment of slavery. Sharpe was hung and many others were killed, but the British soon realized they could not keep suppressing these revolts. So, after 3 months of debating in the summer of 1833, the emancipation bill passed in both houses of Parliament. But the real victory came on August 1, 1838, when over 800,00 slaves were officially free.

"Bury the Chains" Ch 21 summary

Chapter 21 of Adam Hochschild's book, Bury the Chains, is mainly about the British Parliament. In 1806, Britain had been at war with France for a decade, so there was no chance to debate the abolition movement in Parliament. Finally, Clarkson and some of his colleagues were trying to get the movement back up and running, so Clarkson took a month long trip in Britain and Scotland, to revitalize people's feelings about slavery. This trip proved that people were still opposed to slavery, but the war with France had made the movement diminish in importance. Early in 1806, Wilberforce was contacted by James Stephen, who had thought of a bill that should be proposed to Parliament. The bill was to make it illegal for British subjects, shipyards, outfitters and insurers to take part in the slave trade to France's colonies and its allies colonies. Later that year, the bill passed. The next year, in 1807, abolitionists proposed to bill abolishing the slave trade in Britain; but the slaves were not set free. The bill was passed in both houses of Parliament and not soon after, King George III made the bill a law. And so, on May 1, 1807, the slave trade in Britian was now abolished.

"Bury the Chains" Ch 18 summary

Chapter 18 of Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild begins by describing the biggest slave revolt that has ever been, but is often left out. In 1791, on the island of St. Domingue, a French colony, slaves revolted and brutally murdered thousands of white people. Soon after, the French Army tried to repress the revolt, but were unsuccessful. The revolt in St. Domingue was different from any other slave revolt. On August 23, 1793, slavery was informally abolished in St. Domingue and soon after, France issued a formal law, abolishing slavery in everyplace under French rule. Not long after, Britain decided it would take over St. Domingue. This started a war between the British, the mulattos of St. Domingue and the blacks of St. Domingue, led by Toussaint L'Overture, as he called himself. Eventually, Britain had to withdrawl its troops.

"Bury the Chains" Ch 15 Summary

Chapter 15 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains is all about why Britian's movement to abolish slavery movement started way before any other country's did. One reason is geography. Britian was "a compact country," so you could very easily get from one side of the country to the other in a matter of days, rather than the weeks it took before 1800. The British Post was also a reason. The mail services could deliver a letter overnight to most places. Not only did the British Post send mail, but also delivered newspapers, many of them dailies. These newpapers and magazines were never censored, like in other countries. People could make fun of the royal family, or publish articles on abolition, or anything else they liked. Coffeehouses and libraries also sprung up at this time. By the end of the 1700's there were more than a hundred libraries in London alone. Hochschild also writes about how Britions thought they could never be enslaved, even though much of the army was enslaved or held prisoner. Another reason the movement to abolish slavery occured in Britian before anywhere else was because many of the British were kind to slaves. Also, the Britian's slaves were not in Britain. They were elsewhere so they did not effect the daily lives of the British as much as in the U.S., as an example. The British also had a reason to be afraid, which in turn makes them more likely to care about the suffering of others. The Naval Press Gang forced thousands of men into being in the Navy. They would take these men, from bed or from the altar at their wedding, and pretty much throw them onto a ship.

Brainstorming

Some things I might include in my essay on sweatshop work conditions and policies today vs. work conditions and policies for the slaves of the Caribbean sugar plantations:

• Sweatshop working conditions today
• Sweatshop policies today
• Compare to policies and conditions of the 19th/early 20th centuries during Industrial Revolution (Child labor, etc)?
  
• Work conditions of slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations
• Policies for slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations
• Compare to sweatshops today (and factories in 19th/early 20th centuries?)

Possibly Essay Question

One question that I may persue for my essay is:

How are sweatshop labor conditions and policies like the work conditions and policies slaves had to endure in Caribbean sugar plantations?

I think this would be a great essay topic because there is a certain hypocricy that goes along with it. While reading this book, I, and certainly some of my classmates, have judged the British in this era, thinking things like "How could they just stand by and watch slaves be treated so badly?" Today, a lot of people work in sweatshops, not in the U.S. but in other countries. Most people don't get involved with this issue. No one really thinks about it. It's a little bit hypocritical to judge the British and then do pretty much the same thing they were doing at the time

"Bury the Chains" Two summaries

Pages 167-174 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains is all about Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vasa, as he was known in England at the time. He self-published the first edition of his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vasa the African, in 1789. He married a white woman, Susanna Cullen before he published his book. There were many editions of his book, each with a list of endorsements and suscribers. For many years, Equiano went a book tour, promoting each edition of the book.

Pages 192-198 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains begins by explaining the sugar boycott. It began in 1791, after Parliament refused to pass the bill to abolish the slave trade in England. It was not the boycott of all sugar, just a boycott of the sugar produced by slaves. The boycott was mainly enforced by women, who bought and cooked the food for their families. The idea of the boycott was spread about in pamphlets. The last part of pages 192-198 is about The Abstract of the Evidence delivered before a select committee of the House of Commons in the years 1790 and 1791, on the part of the petitioners for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, written by Thomas Clarkson. The booklet of the condensed version was sold all over England, and was used in the United States in the abolition movement in the 1850's.

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 11 Summary

Chapter 11 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains begins by finishing the story of King George III, started in Chapter 9. After months of being ill, he recovers and Parliament is resumed. So William Wilberforce now has the task of addressing the issue of slavery in the 1789 session of Parliament, and thus began the hearings of the Privy Council. As abolitionists presented the plethora of evidence they had against slavery, people who believed in slavery had an explanation for everything. When the Privy Council took a break, Clarkson rode 1600 miles in two months, searching for more witnesses. In the city of Plymouth, he met up with Equiano, who created a diagram of the slave ship Brookes, fully loaded with slaves. Clarkson, James Phillips and other committee members expanded the diagram to include 482 slaves, even though the Brookes normally travelled with 609 to 740 slaves. When the last witness was finished with his testimony, John Arnold, the doctor Clarkson had make a diary of what was happening while he was on a slave ship, returned from his voyage and was ready to present his findings. James Stephen returns to London in 1789 and met up with Wilberforce, only to leave London a few months later, to return to the West Indies, where he secretly begins sending committee information. After Wilberforce gives a 3.5 hour speech in Parliament, Parliament decides that the issue must be debated in the House. Wilberforce works with Ramsay, who dies in 1789. Molyneux wrote to his son that he had killed Ramsay.

Comment on "Bury the Chains"

In Chapter 9 of Bury the Chains, by Adam Hochschild, I found it kind of funny when, on page 134, Hochschild quotes Edward Long, "The lower classes of women in England, are remarkably fond of the blacks, for reasons too brutal to mention..." The way this is written is a little comical to me because today, sex is very openly talked about. To hear it described as "brutal" is interesting to me because even in the 1700's and 1800's, sex was, and still is, a necessary part of life, even if it wasn't openly talked about like it is today. I can't really imagine what life would be like if sex wasn't talked about-ever-and if some people describe it as "brutal."

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 9 Summary

In Chapter 9 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, Hochschild mainly focuses on the beginnings of the antislavery movement. He tells of John Newton again, who, after being retired from the slave trade for 34 years, begins to speak out against slavery. He tells of how many people were opposed to interracial relationships, and how lower class women were pretty much disgusting because they "are remarkably fond of the blacks, for reasons too brutal to mention..." He tells of a former slave, Quobana Otoobah Cugoano, who publishes a book that is very popular. There are a ton of petitions that are sent to Parliament at this time in 1788, which contain between 60,000 and 100,000 signatures to abolish the slave trade. Hochschild writes of a man, William Wilberforce, who is a member of the Parliament. Clarkson persuades him to speak to Parliament on the topic of slavery, and when he about ready to do so, he falls ill and cannot speak before Parliament. While recovering, Sir William Dolben proposes that, after Parliament saw the overcrowding on a slave ship, a bill be passed to regulate the number of slaves a ship could carry. His bill is eventually passed. Soon after, the King goes mad and no more bills can be passed in Parliament until the situation is resolved.

"Bury the Chains" Chaper 8 Summary

Chapter 8 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains is about Thomas Clarkson's journey to various cities in England, which began the abolition movement in England. First, he traveled from London to Bristol. On his way, he and John Ramsey experienced much discrimination because most people didn't want the slave trade to end, and knew they were abolitionists. Once in Bristol, he was told the tale of a free black sailor, John Dean, who was chained to the deck of the ship for days and had hot pitch poured on his back. The captain then made incisions with his hot tongs, and Dean's back was severely scarred. Since captains and sailors were unwilling to talk to him, Clarkson turned to doctors. He found two doctors, James Arnold and another unnamed doctor, who were going on a slave ship in a few days and were willing to record all that happened on the ship. Clarkson soon came in contact with another doctor, Alexander Falconbridge, who had been on four slave ship voyages, but never wanted to set foot on one again. Instead, Falconbridge agreed to tell Clarkson everything that he remembered that happened on the voyages he was on. From Bristol, he went to Liverpool, in search of records of slave ships. There, he bought handcuffs, lef shackles, thumbscrews and a speculum oris, used by doctors to treat lockjaw, because these were the instruments used on slave ships. From Liverpool, he went to Manchester, now England's second largest city, and also full of abolitionists. Here, Clarkson met Thomas Walker and Thomas Cooper, who had him give a sermon on the abolition movement. With the help of these two men, a petition was signed with more than ten thousand names and was sent to Parliament.

How Others Write Essays

Something I thought was really important that we talked about in class today was about how other people write essays. I usually wait until a couple days before the essay is due and then try to cram it all into those couple of days. This semester, I am trying so hard to get my GPA up, and with that I need to take my time on essays, for this class especially. I'm really trying to unlearn all my old habits and make new ones so that I can be successful in this course and other courses over the next two years. I thought it was interesting to hear how other people write their essays. I am really hoping I can take some of that into consideration when writing essays in the future, so that I can be more successful in writing. Writing essays has always been my least favorite thing to do; I love to write poems and creative stories and it's helped me through a lot of difficult things, but I have never been a strong essay writer. A lot of times, I am so unmotivated to write about the topic, even if its something I'm passionate about. I really want to learn to have fun, or at least not be bored to death, while writing essays, and some of what we talked about in class today will help, I think.

"The Curious Researcher": 5 helpful tips

One tip that I thought would be helpful is the "Steps to writing your research essay," on page 6. I think it would be helpful because it breaks up each step by week, for a total of 5 weeks. Even though sometimes people dont have 5 weeks to write an essay, it's not saying that you can't combine some of the weeks, and write the essay in say 2.5 weeks, an amount of time most professors give you to write any essay.

Another tip I think would be useful was on the bottom of page 5. Ballenger says, "But if you're dreading the work ahead of you, then your instict might be to procrastinate, to put it off until the week its due. That would be a mistake, course. If you try to rush through the research and the writing, you're absolutely guaranteed to hate the experience..." I think this is very helpful, especially to me, because I, like many others, am a horrible procrastinator. In high school, I put writing essays off until the last possible minute. And for high school, that was ok. Nothing was really that hard for me, and it definitely didn't count for most of your grade for the entire course. But, unfortunetly, my habits carried over with me to college. I am still a procrastinator, but I'm trying really hard to get better at homework, and especially writing essays for this course. I always think I'm going to get a bad grade, because writing has never been my strong point.

Another thing that I think would be helpful is the "Questions to Ask Your Instructor about the Research Assignment," on page 11. I think this is helpful because a lot of students are confused over the assignment sometimes. A lot of professors wants formal writing, but some don't. Some want you to use the pronoun I and a lot of others don't. It really all depends on the professor, and I think students just need to ask questions about the assignment if they have them, and not worry about looking stupid, which is the case a lot of the time.

On page 15, Ballenger writes, "But factual writing doesn't have to be dull." I think this is helpful because I really think just chugging out facts is boring. I find it irritating to write these kinds of papers, especially in high school. Everyone else in the class was writing on the same topic, with mainly the same availability to resources, and then I end up producing a paper that has the same facts as everyone else. I think its boring to just look up facts and statistics and put them in an essay. I think it would be especially boring for a professor to read. I think Ballenger should expand on how to write a research paper thats not boring.

A final thing that I think would be helpful is Figure 1, on page 13, titled, "Why Write Research Essays?" It explains informal research essays and formal research essays and compares the two. I think this is helpful because some people, myself included, don't think informal and formal writing have anything in common. And its good to know that they do have things in common.

Comment on "Bury the Chains"

I find it quite interesting that General Carleton, of the British army, refused to give into George Washington's demands. He never returned the former slaves to the Americans and instead shipped them to Nova Scotia, where they could truly be free. Despite raids on New York City, where some of the slaves' former owners would travel to New York City and capture and reenslave the slaves freed by the British army, Carleton never gave up on the freed slaves. I think this really shows Carleton's character because he stood behind his beliefs and would not let the Americans take their former slaves back to their plantations, where they might be killed for opposing their owner or worked to death. I think that if more people had stood behind their beliefs the abolition of slavery would've happened a lot sooner. I'm sure the people who started opposing slavery opening weren't the first ones who thought it was horrific. I know that money is a powerful motivator, but the captains and crew on all of the slave ships had to have thought, at least in their mind, since most never voiced their opposition of slavery, that it was wrong to enslave an unsuspecting man, woman or child, of any color, against their will.

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 7 Summary

Chapter 7 of Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild is about the first emancipation of slaves that most people didn't know about, including the 12 men who met in a printing shop in 1787. In 1775, when the American Revolution was about to begin, Britain was desperate to cause trouble for the future Americans. So, they promised that any slave who joined the British army would be freed. When the fighting was over, no one knew what to do with the former slaves, who now lived in New York City. The Americans demanded them back, saying they were property seized by the British during the war. However, General Sir Guy Carleton had other plans. He refused George Washington's demands and didn't give the Americans their former slaves back. Instead, he shipped them to Nova Scotia, a British colony, including a young man named Boston King. This group of freed slaves was the largest group in one spot at the time.

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 6 summary

Chapter 6 of Bury the Chains by Adam Hochschild is about a twenty-five year old man, Thomas Clarkson, who, in 1785, decided to submit an essay in Cambridge University's Latin essay contest. The topic for this essay contest was "Is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?" Clarkson had won a lesser known essay contest the previous year. He researched and wrote his essay in two months. His essay came in first place. He decided to publish his essay, with some additions, in English. After turning down one publishing company, he ran into a friend of his who introduced him to James Phillips, who owned a printing shop in George Yard. Together, they published his essay, which was now as long as a book, in June, 1786. After spending some time with James Ramsay, he boarded a slave ship to witness first hand the things that happened on a slave ship. After this, he decided that something had to be done to abolish slavery, and he was just the man to do it. He met with 11 others, including James Phillips, William Dillwyn, Granville Sharp, 7 other Quakers and another Anglican. It was here, at 2 George Yard, on May 22, 1787, that these 12 men meeting in a printing shop would begin the movement to abolish British slavery.

Possible Essay Topics

During class today, I found the comparison between Newton and Stephen interesting. I think I might pursue this as an essay topic. I think that Hochschild focuses on the difference between Newton and Stephen because they are so different in the early parts of their lives, yet they come together (at least through their beliefs on slavery later on) and try to abolish slavery in Britain. I think I would focus on Hochschild's description of both men, but also look at other sources, such as biographies or autobiographies on both men, as well as various websites that would effectively portray the differences between these two men.

Another topic that I found interesting was the fact that the people of Britian stood by and watched all these horrible things happen to the slaves in the Caribbean. I think that maybe the people who did not benefit monetarily from the sugar plantations in the West Indies may have not known what it was really like on the plantations, and therefore didn't really care what was happening. I think that the people who grew wealthy off these plantations, such as the ship captains, the plantation owners, or the families of these people, didn't really care that so many slaves were dying because the conditions were so disgusting and degrating on these plantations because they were getting rich. They were killing people and letting people die for the purpose of getting rich and gaining power. I would use Hochschild as well as other websites or books or magazines that effectively portray this as sources if I chose this as an essay topic.

Comment on Chapter 4 Paragraph

On pages 66-67 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, it states: "Among the slaves, almost all the skilled jobs, like maintaining mill equipment, building sugar barrels, or doing masonry, went to men. This meant that--contrary to the picture in most Britons' minds, then and now-- the majority of slaves in the fields of plantations like Codrington were women. The fact that women did the hardest labor, combined with their abysmal diet, delayed menarche and brought and end to a slave woman's fertility by her mid-thirties. In the mid eighteenth-century British West Indies, fully half of all women sugar slaves never bore a child."

I find this paragraph particularly irritating. To be honest, I can't really think of the right word to describe how I feel about this fact. After further reading in Chapter 4, I find out that after slavery was abolished in the Caribbean, there were only 670,000 former slaves left, after bringing over 2,000,000 to the Caribbean from West Africa, whereas in the southern states of the U.S., only 500,000 slaves were brought from West Africa and over 4 million remained when slavery was abolished. This is horrible. I'm astonished by the fact that these Caribbean slave owners worked so many people to death on sugar plantations. I really don't understand why so many people let so many be killed for so long. Or were the British people, some of whom made all of their money off the sugar and slave trades, really just that clueless? Maybe some just didn't care because they were so wealthy. I honestly have no idea. It's baffling. If these women had never been put into slavery, they would have been bound for marriage and children. But instead, over half of all women enslaved in the Caribbean never had children. This makes me sad. A lot of women now always dream of having children; I'm sure it was the same for the women in this time period. I could not imagine being a woman in the time and being enslaved in the Caribbean, knowing that I would be worked to death on the sugar plantations before having children. It must have been devastating for them.

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 4 Summary

In Chapter 4 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, he begins by saying that Britain's slave trade in the Caribbean's sugar plantations was essentially the only reason many Britons were wealthy. "Sugar is king," he says. He then tells the story of a young British man, James Stephen. Stephen was involved in a terribly complicated love triangle. He fell in love with his friend's sister, Nancy, and then fell in love with his friend's lover, Maria. He proposed to Nancy and Maria was pregnant. However, all he wanted to do was marry either Nancy or Maria, whichever one could not find another husband. Maria soon found a husband, and he quickly married Nancy and adopted Maria's baby. They then set off for the West Indies. He attended a court hearing that would later be his focal point for the abolition of slavery not long after he arrived in Barbados. Hochschild ends Chapter 4 by telling the story of the Codrington plantation on the island of Barbados, a sugar cane plantation. He explains how sugar plantations are especially brutal on slaves, and how most of the slaves on sugar plantations die.

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 2 Summary

In Chapter 2 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, he begins telling the story of a young African, Olaudah Equiano, who was born in the 1740's. When he was still a child, Equiano and his sister were captured by slave traders and brought to the coast of Africa to be shipped off to an unknown place to them, the Caribbean. When he arrived in Barbados, no slave owner would want him; he was too sickly from his voyage, so he was "fattened up" and then sold to Royal Navy officer Michael Pascal. For 6 years he worked for Pascal, learning English along the way. In 1762, Equiano was promoted to Royal Navy able seaman. Soon after, he was yet again captured and taken to the island of Montserrat, where he was sold to Robert King. Instead of working in the sugar fields, Equiano worked loading and tallying cargo, cutting King's hair, and as a crewman on a fleet of small ships carrying goods and slaves from the island to various West Indian islands and the North American mainland. In 1766, Equiano bought his freedom. Afterwards, he worked on many ships, and he once traveled to the Arctic. He was soon tricked by the captain of a slave ship, who said that he would sell Equiano when they reached land. Luckily, he escaped.

"Bury the Chains" Chapter 1 Summary

The first chapter of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains is about Peter Newton, a British man, born in 1725, whose father was the captain of a ship. The first chapter explains various details of Newton's life, from falling in love with his future wife, Mary Catlett, to being kidnapped by the naval press gang and finally, starting his voyages in the world of the slave trade when he was just 19. Along these voyages, Newton often found himself writing to his wife, searching for any sign of revolt among the slaves on his ships, and praying, to name a few things, while sailing from England, up and down the coast of Africa, in search of slaves, to the West Indies and finally back to England. He had hopes of becoming a wealthy man from his time at sea, buying and selling slaves.

"Bury the Chains" Introduction Summary

In the introduction of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, Hochschild explains the details of how the British abolition of slavery came about. He tells of the 12 men in a printing shop, who are destined to change the world and of others who helped these 12 men change the world, including John Newton, Olaudah Equiano and Granville Sharp to name a few. The introduction explains that this movement shocked many people, for a few different reasons.