"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.