The Sweets of Liberty

In Chapter 15 of Adam Hochschild’s book, Bury the Chains, the significance of Britain in the rapidity of the antislavery movement is explained. Compared to other countries of the time, Britain had developed a solid road system that aided in travel and they were also graced with The British Post Office, the best postal service of its time. The popularity of coffeehouses increased the readership of newspapers and books which was great for publishing antislavery literature. Another reason was Britain was the quickest to react to the antislavery movement was due to location: “And with slaves on the other side of the ocean, for Britons to oppose slavery did not threaten their own way of life. Slaves were not cooking the meals or doing the laundry or working the fields of people in Britain itself.”