Background
He was born on the 28th of March 1760, at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, where his father was headmaster of the free grammar school.
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(Slavery In The 1700s is Real History written at the tim...)
Slavery In The 1700s is Real History written at the time, by the people who lived it. They might be right, and they might be wrong; we have the advantage of time and distance to look back with what we call objectivity, but with Real History the writers have the advantage of being there. Thomas Clarkson, is this 1785 speech just after the Revolutionary War and before the Constitution of the United States was even conceived traces the history of slavery, its causes, some of the practices, and his view of its future. His conclusions are based on his experiences no doubt modern scholars and even the casual reader would find some of his perspectives outdated, even barbaric. But this was his time, not ours --- and the treasure of reading what was believed and shared over two centuries ago is something for which we should all be grateful.
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He was born on the 28th of March 1760, at Wisbeach, in Cambridgeshire, where his father was headmaster of the free grammar school.
He was educated at St Paul's school and at St John's College, Cambridge.
He discovered that the cause had already been taken up to some extent by others, most of whom belonged to the Society of Friends, and among the chief of whom were William Dillwyn, Joseph Wood and Granville Sharp.
With the aid of these gentlemen, a committee of twelve was formed in May 1787 to do all that was possible to effect the abolition of the slave trade.
Meanwhile Clarkson had also gained the sympathy of Wilberforce, Whitbread, Sturge and several other men of influence.
Travelling from port to port, he now commenced to collect a large mass of evidence; and much of it was embodied in his Summary View of the Slave Trade, and the Probable Consequences of its Abolition, which, with a number of other anti-slavery tracts, was published by the committee.
Pitt, Grenville, Fox and Burke looked favourably on the movement; in May 1788 Pitt introduced a parliamentary discussion on the subject, and Sir W. Dolben brought forward a bill providing that the number of slaves carried in a vessel should be proportional to its tonnage.
A number of Liverpool and Bristol merchants obtained permission from the House to be heard by council against the bill, but on the 18th of June it passed the Commons.
Soon after Clarkson published an Essay on the Impolicy of the Slave Trade', and for two months he was continuously engaged in travelling that he might meet men who were personally acquainted with the facts of the trade.
From their lips he collected a considerable amount of evidence; but only nine could be prevailed upon to promise to appear before the privy council.
He found Necker head of the government, and obtained from him some sympathy but little help.
Mirabeau, however, with his assistance, prepared a speech against slavery, to be delivered before the National Assembly, and the Marquis de la Fayette entered enthusiastically into his views.
Soon after his return home he engaged in a search, the apparent hopelessness of which finely displays his unshrinking laboriousness and his passionate enthusiasm.
He desired to find some one who had himself witnessed the capture of the negroes in Africa; and a friend having met by chance a man-of-war's-man who had done so, Clarkson, though ignorant of the name and address of the sailor, set out in search of him, and actually discovered him.
He resumed lecturing in 1805 until the ending of the trade in the British empire in 1807.
He now occupied his time in writing a History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which appeared in 1808.
The question of concerting practical measures for its abolition was raised at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, but without result.
At the same year he took the case for international abolition to the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle.
With William Wilberforce he was a vice-president of the anti-slavery society (founded 1823), and after the act was carried in 1833 for the gradual abolition of slavery in the British empire, he retained his concern for wider abolition and appeared on the platform at the 1840 international Anti-Slavery Convention in London.
(Slavery In The 1700s is Real History written at the tim...)
In 1823 the Anti-Slavery Society was formed, and Clarkson was one of its vice-presidents.
Their only child Thomas was born in 1796. They moved back to the south of England for the sake of Catherine's health, and settled at Bury St Edmunds from 1806 to 1816.
