Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was an influential English abolitionist and a key figure in the movement to end the transatlantic slave trade. Born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, he was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he became intensely passionate about the issue of slavery after researching it for an essay competition. His groundbreaking work, "An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species," published in 1786, established him as a prominent voice against slavery and led to significant advocacy efforts, including the recruitment of notable allies such as William Wilberforce.
Clarkson's activism extended beyond writing; he traveled extensively, even attempting to influence the French National Assembly during the Revolution. Despite facing criticism for his political views, he continued his efforts to abolish slavery, contributing to the passage of the Abolition Act in 1807. Throughout his life, Clarkson remained committed to his cause, documenting the history and progress of the abolition movement in a comprehensive two-volume work. His legacy, while sometimes overshadowed by Wilberforce, is marked by his powerful writings and unwavering dedication to ending slavery. Clarkson's life reflects the complexities of social reform in the 18th and 19th centuries, revealing both the challenges and triumphs of the abolitionist movement.
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Thomas Clarkson
Abolitionist
- Born: March 28, 1760
- Birthplace: Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
- Died: September 26, 1846
- Place of death: Playford Hall, Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Biography
Thomas Clarkson was born on March 28, 1760 in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in the grammar school where his father, the Reverend John Clarkson, was headmaster. His mother, Anne, was the daughter of the physician Alpe Ward. Clarkson began his education in his father’s school before being sent to St. Paul’s School in 1775. He went on to St John’s College, Cambridge University, in 1779 and graduated with a B.A. in mathematics in 1783. In 1784 he won a prize in for a Latin essay, and he became obsessed with winning it again the following year. He threw himself into research on the appointed topic, which was slavery. He won the contest, but the work he did en route to that goal turned him into a fervent abolitionist. He had already taken deacon’s orders, but he abandoned the church for what he considered a higher calling.
Clarkson’s essay was translated and published in 1786 as An Essay of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African, and he became an inveterate pamphleteer in the cause, soon following it up with an equally significant An Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade. It was Clarkson who recruited William Wilberforce to the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and he also recruited his own younger brother, John Clarkson. He spent five months in Paris in 1789 and 1790 trying to persuade the National Assembly to outlaw the slave trade. His sympathy with the Revolution generated considerably criticism at home, and he abandoned active campaigning in 1794 lest he be doing the cause more harm than good. He bought an estate at Eusemere on Ullswater and married Catherine Buckland in 1796; they became acquainted with Crabb Robinson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth (who addressed a sonnet to Clarkson when the first Abolition Act went through parliament in 1800).
Clarkson returned to active campaigning in 1804—the first act was limited in its effect and the abolition of slavery in the West Indies and the remainder of the British empire was not completed until 1833—and soon found Ullswater inconveniently remote. In 1806 the family moved to Catherine’s hometown of Bury St. Edmunds, where Clarkson wrote his two- volume History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade. They were to move only once more, in 1816, to Playford, near Ipswich, where Clarkson was based for the remainder of his life. He traveled extensively in Europe, however, and spent a great deal of time in France. Although he had renounced his Anglican orders and had published a sympathetic analysis of Quakerism in 1806—which he followed with a biography of William Penn—he never actually joined the Society of Friends. He died on September 26, 1846. Although his reputation was overshadowed by that of his protegé William Wilberforce, the hostility generated by his political affiliations in France and his desertion of the Anglican Church could not deny the power of his writing, nor the determination with which he pursued his goals.