Chapter 1

In Chapter One of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, Hochschild speaks about human ambition and how low it can bring a person.  He contrasts the Dot-com billionaires of today with the slave traders of the past.  In particular the reader hears about John Newton who becomes a slave ship captain.  On his way to gaining his own berth Newton lives a life of sin and misfortune.  At one point Newton is put in shackles and so pitied by the slaves is given rations out of their own.  This however does not stop Newton from raping black slaves on the several ships he serves on.   It is not his own terrible actions that reform him, but a storm which his vessel is able to survive.  It is at this point that he becomes a pious man who attends church and gives up swearing.  However he still goes on to become a slave ship captain and never once looks back on being in shackles which is "the low point in his life" and identifies with those he has in shackles beneath his feet in the hold of his ship.