Thomas Clarkson Biography

Dromo's Den

CLARKSON, Thomas (1760-1846). An English philanthropist and antislavery agitator, born in Cambridge. He studied at Cambridge University, and early gave evidence of his antagonism to slavery in a Latin prize essay, which he wrote in 1785, on the question, "Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?" An English translation (1786) had an extensive circulation, and Clarkson resolved to devote his life to a crusade against African slavery. Associations were formed, and Clarkson, besides visiting the principal cities of England and going to Paris in the cause, published numerous essays, pamphlets, and reports on the subject. Wilberforce, whose coöperation he had secured, took the lead in the antislavery agitation, and in 1787 brought the subject before Parliament; but he afterward quarreled with Clarkson and claimed for himself priority in the antislavery movement. On March 25, 1807, the bill for the suppression of the slave trade became a law, and Clarkson, whose health had failed in 1794, wrote A History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade (1808). At the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) he presented an address to the Czar of Russia for concerted action by the Powers for the abolition of the slave trade; but nothing was accomplished at that time. On the formation of the Anti-slavery Society, in 1823, for the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, Clarkson became one of its leading members. His other works include: a valuable Portraiture of Quakerism (1806); Memoirs of the Private and Public Life of William Penn (1813); Thoughts on the Necessity of Improving the Condition of the Slaves in the British Colonies (1823). Consult: Taylor, Biographical Sketch of Thomas Clarkson (1839), and Elmes, Thomas Clarkson (1876).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. V (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 408-409.