The British Abolitionist Who Devoted His Life to Ending Slavery

The British Abolitionist Who Devoted His Life to Ending Slavery

Jennifer Conerly - September 1, 2017

The British Abolitionist Who Devoted His Life to Ending Slavery
Henri Christophe, 1815, by Richard Evans. Clarkson developed a lengthy correspondence in particular with Henri Christophe, king of Haiti, in which the two men corresponded at length on educational, political, and agricultural matters. Wikipedia Commons

Clarkson was an active letter writer to many active abolitionists and heads of state across the world on matters to do with abolition. He developed a lengthy correspondence in particular with Henri Christophe, king of Haiti, in which the two men corresponded at length on educational, political, and agricultural matters. After the Haitian Revolution, Haiti became the first independent black state that was controlled completely by former slaves.

The success of Haiti was extremely important to Clarkson because it proved that slavery wasn’t necessary. After Christophe’s death in 1820, Clarkson wrote to the new ruler of Haiti, President Jean-Pierre Boyer, inquiring on the safety of Christophe’s family. Boyer exiled Christophe’s wife and daughters from Haiti, and Clarkson and his wife temporarily gave them shelter in their home in England.

The British Abolitionist Who Devoted His Life to Ending Slavery
The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840, by Benjamin Robert Haydon. Clarkson is shown giving a rousing speech at the center of the painting. Wikipedia Commons

Clarkson helped create the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery in 1823, and traveled around England again to help bring support to the cause. His travels brought local antislavery societies into the fold, and they flooded Parliament with petitions to end slavery. Even though the Society initially supported gradual emancipation, its mission changed, and it grew to support the immediate freedom of all slaves. Wilberforce and Clarkson appeared together for the last time, supporting the Society’s change in strategy.

William Wilberforce died in 1833, just one day after Parliament guaranteed the passage of the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery. One month after the death of Clarkson’s longtime friend and colleague, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act that outlawed slavery in the British Empire and guaranteed complete abolition by 1838.

Even though his eyesight was failing and his health was decreasing, Clarkson continued to campaign for the abolition of slavery in other countries, particularly the United States. He was the featured speaker at the first World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London in 1840, which was organized to abolish slavery across the world and had delegates from around the world. He died at his home in Suffolk on September 26, 1846.

Clarkson has been honored for his work in the abolitionist movement. In 1834, after slavery was abolished in Jamaica, freedmen settled in the new town of Clarksville. A memorial was dedicated to him in his birthplace in honor of his work in 1881. In 1996, 150 years after his death, a tablet was placed in Westminster Abbey, near the tomb of his friend William Wilberforce. One of his descendants, the Reverend Canon John Clarkson, continues his work. He sits on the Board of Governors of the Anti-Slavery Society.

 

You Might Also Interested:

National Archive – Abolition of the Slave Trade

British Library – The Slave Trade – A Historical Background

History Channel – Congress Abolishes the African Slave Trade

Royal Museum Greenwich – How Did the Slave Trade End in Britain?

Historic England – Slavery After 1807

St. John College – Thomas Clarkson’s Diary and the 1807 Abolition Bill

Kent Quarters – Quakers and the Abolition of the Slave Trade

Encyclopedia Britannica – Henry Christophe

Encyclopedia Britannica – Jean-Pierre Boyer

Encyclopedia Britannica – William Wilberforce

JSTOR – The World’s Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840

History Collection – This American President’s Amazing Actions Regarding Slavery Will Surprise You

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