include the acclaimed King Leopold's Ghost, an account of the colonial atrocities committed in the Belgian Congo; The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin, an account of the effects of Joseph Stalin's dictatorship on contemporary Russians; and Spain in Our Hearts, an account of the American volunteers who participated in the Spanish Civil War. Bury the Chains came about from Hochschild's initial idea to write a biography on John Newton, known for writing the hymn "Amazing Grace". Newton's personal transformation from a slave trader to an abolitionist had long intrigued him. However, a few months into researching Newton's life, Hochschild came to the realization that "the story was the movement and not Newton." His research into Newton's life also introduced Hochschild to abolitionist campaigner Thomas Clarkson, who became the central figure in Bury the Chains. Hochschild observed that Clarkson's contributions to the abolitionist campaign was often overlooked in favor of William Wilberforce's. According to him, Clarkson was "by far the more interesting figure" who "really got shortchanged by history," and Hochschild wanted to correct this. Hochschild was also drawn to write about the British antislavery movement upon learning that many of the methods used by modern-day advocacy groups were pioneered by the British abolitionists, including boycotts, political book tours, direct mail fundraising, newsletters, petitions, campaign posters and buttons, and the concept of setting up national organizations with local branches around the country. Having known little about the subject when he started working on this book, it took Hochschild four years of research and writing to complete it. He conducted a lot of his research for the book in libraries, particularly the University of California, Berkeley Libraries and the Stanford University Libraries. Hochschild's research also took him to England and western Jamaica to visit places where events in the book occurred. In England, he visited 2 George Yard in London, the address of the bookstore where the abolitionists held their meetings, now the location of a modern skyscraper. In Jamaica, Hochschild visited the area where the slave rebellions took place so as to search for the remains of old sugar plantations. Title The book's title came from a story of a group of slaves in the town of Falmouth, Jamaica, who immediately following the emancipation of slaves in the British Empire on August 1, 1838, placed their slave whip and chains in a coffin and buried the coffin in a Baptist churchyard.