Bury the Chains: Chapter 6

In chapter 6 of Bury the Chains we visited a time in which slavery was common day and therefore not viewed as unjust. "no major thinker defended slavery, but few spent real effort attacking it" (Hochschild 86). A good perspective to put on slavery is this; people understand how unhealthy cigarettes are to smoke and even though they know the health risk they continue to smoke cigarettes which makes an internal conflict, you know it's bad and you still continue to do it.
In 1784, Dr. Peter Peckard commented upon the slave trade, he condemned the slave trade to being a "most barbarous and cruel traffic" (Hochschild 87). Dr. Peckard was a professor and made the student write an essay on slavery and it's faults. One student, Thomas Clarkson, wrote a specifically special essay and his efforts helped to end the slave trade. Clarkson's quote of "Someone should see these calamities to the end" started a human rights uproar (Hochschild 89).
Clarkson was soon granted the oppurtunity to write another anti slavery "pamphlet" and he spent many hours digging up information such as "205 of each slave's ship crew had died by the time they reached their destination" and "malaria and yellow fever were leading killers on the boats" (Hochschild 94).
The question I am taking out is seen in the first paragraph. It has to due with the human race and how afraid we are as people to go against the norm. If you see someone stuck on the side of the road do you help? if you see a begger, do you always give money? if you see a hitchhiker do you offer a ride? it is like the famous case in new york of the lady who got robbed and beat on the street and she was yelling and screaming and no body called the cops because everyone else felt somebody else will do it...people are afraid to step up