Bury the Chains Chapters 22 23 and Epilogue

The first parapgraph of chapter twenty two pretty much explains the entire. chapter. Hochschild states, "there are moments of sudden transformation and times when change that has been passinately yearned for does not come." The dream of freedom for slaves "still hovered in the distance. Yet nothing seemed to bring it closer". This chapter did indeed drag on. All of those inbetween facts that you woul expect in the second to last chapter of a history novel. You can't give away the plot just yet. And until you get there everything seems to be moving at an extemely slow pace. Hochschild had to leave all of the good stuff for his grand finale, which i bet we can all predict.
All through Chapter twenty three I was waiting for the words "and the slaves were emancipated". But of course Hochschild had to hold out as long as he could. Finally on the seventh to last page of this 354 page book what we have been waiting for all long takes place. The emancipation bill passed both houses of Parliament in the sumer of 1833. Yet this "emancipation" was not as good as it sounded. The slaves would first become "aprrentices" in 1834, oblgated to work full time for their former owners, in most cases for four years, without pay. Sounds like slavery to me. The real victory did not come until August 1, 1838, when nearly 800,00 black men, women, and children throughout the British Emprie officially became free. And I think all of us readers feel the same way, "It sure took long enough".
The Epilogue addresses the impact that emancipation in Briain had on the world. Being that Britain was the first country to outlaw slavery, they set the groudwork for many countries to follow. Though all countries had their own battles to fight when overcoming slavery, they certainly followed Britain's lead. There are barely any signs of slavery in today world. Besides for plantation houses no images of slavery are in our world today. Our world in the past has made dratic changes with barely any living signs of the way it used to be, besides for historical accounts. We can still make changes like this today. Our world will never be perfect, that is an impossibility, but that doesn't mean we should overlook the issues that we have the power to do something about.