Chains Add a review

Chains, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the first in the Seeds of America trilogy of young-adult historical novels, published in the United States on October 21, 2008. The story follows Isabel, a teenaged African-American slave striving for her and her younger sister's freedom during the American Revolutionary War. Chains takes place mainly in New York City in 1776 into 1777, at a time when slavery was legal and common in the Thirteen Colonies. The book is followed by sequels Forge (2010) and Ashes (2016).

Though the novel is fictional, elements of the story relate to the actual early stages of the war, such as the failed plan for George Washington's assassination and the hanging of one of the conspirators, the capture of Fort Washington, and the popular pamphlet Common Sense by Thomas Paine.