"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.