Chains - A Book Review

So far this year I've read 24 books, about 6 books ahead of pace on my way to my 2019 goal of reading 40 books. Most recently I finished reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. The book is the first in a trilogy of historical fiction taking place during the American Revolutionary War. The book focuses on child slaves. The story focuses on one girl, Isabel, and her younger sister, Ruth. Their mother died a year ago and their owner just died, passing ownership to new masters.

Chains is an excellent book, but it's not a fun book to read, nor is it intended to be. Slavery may seem distant to us today, but prejudice and discrimination run rampant through today's society. It's important we do not forget the past as we forge forward to a better future. This book is fiction, but the horrendous actions against slaves in the book happened in real life. Reading this book is a harrowing experience but one everyone needs to take. 

We are not yet, or even close to being, in a post-racial society. A good first step is recognizing the advantages each of us have based on who we were born to and where we were born. No one is saying you haven't worked hard in your life to get where you are at, but anyone not born into a minority group needs to recognize the systemic advantages they were born with and how those advantages helped us. 

Chains shows how being born with the wrong skin color was an immediate life time prison sentence. Both the British and the soon to be U.S. used slaves for their own personal gain. It didn't matter if you were a 'good' or a 'bad' master/owner. No one should be owned by someone else. 

My oldest daughter is currently reading the book and I look forward to seeing what she has to say about it.