Earlier in the year I wrote about slavery after I had visited Bristol, where the subject comes up so often when looking at the city’s history. If I were to ask you which figure did most to bring about the abolition of slavery, I imagine many would reply
” William Wilberforce”. A very prominent figure in Parliamentary debates and in the abolitionist movement he certainly has a distinguished history. Yet there was a great deal of work done to bring about the abolition of slavery before William Wilberforce got involved, and the person I am writing about today and next week had very strong East Anglian links.
Thomas Clarkson was born in 1760 in Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, to the Rev John Clarkson and his wife Anne Ward. His father was headmaster of the Free Grammar School and a curate. Sadly, Rev John died when Thomas was only 6, from a fever caught from a sick parishioner. Thomas went on to St Paul’s school in London at the age of 15 and intended to follow his father into the church. Thomas was a brilliant scholar and excelled at St John’s college in Cambridge.
A turning point in his life came when he was studying for his masters degree and was set an essay question ” is it awful to make slaves of others against their will?”
Like most of his countrymen he had been serenely unaware of slavery in general and the slave trade that dominated Britain. As he wrote the essay he described it as ” one gloomy subject from morning to night. I sometimes never closed my eyes for grief. It became — the production of a work which might be useful to injured Africa”
As Clarkson rode from Cambridge to London he dismounted near Wadesmill in Hertfordshire, sat down at the roadside and reflected on what he had done. ” if the contents of this essay were true, it was time some person should see these calamities to the end”. The spot was marked by an obelisk in 1879 and can be said to mark the start of the abolition campaign. A huge task awaited Clarkson and it is interesting to learn that a seemingly simple essay title inspired such great action in a student, changing the course of his whole life, and the events of human history.
I will continue the story of Thomas Clarkson next week and bring his story very near to Ipswich.
God our Father. We thank you for the many ways in which men and women hear your guiding voice challenging them to serve you in new ways. We thank you that you led Thomas Clarkson to combat the evils of slavery through an essay he wrote and for the way he lived his life in obedience to this challenge.