Chains (novel)

Chains, written by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the first novel in the Seeds of America trilogy, a series of young-adult historical novels, first published in the United States on October 21, 2008. The trilogy follows the story of Isabel, a teenaged African-American slave striving for 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). This book is also the subject of Academic Pentathlon's 2022-2023 Literature curriculum as one of the main works.

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.

The novel contains 45 chapters numbered in Roman numerals with the dates of the events in the chapter appearing beneath the chapter number. Under the dates, Anderson opens each chapter with quotations from important historic documents such as private letters, newspapers, the Common Sense pamphlet, the Declaration of Independence of the United States, and recorded opinions from various world leaders. These openings to each chapter give a perspective on what Isabel might face in the chapter.