Born at Wisbech
Born in the Fenland town of Wisbech to a schoolmaster's family.
1760–1846 · Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, England
Thomas Clarkson
The Man Who Made Abolition a Movement
“Never was any cause so glorious as that in which we are engaged.” — Thomas Clarkson
Life & Ministry
Cambridge Prize Essay
Won the Cambridge Latin essay prize on the question whether it is lawful to make slaves of others against their will. Translated it into English at Quaker urging.
Essay on Slavery Published
Published the English essay in London through James Phillips. It became the founding document of the parliamentary abolition campaign.
Founds Abolition Committee
Helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade with nine Quakers and two Anglicans. Traveled some 35,000 miles gathering evidence.
Slave Trade Abolished
Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act. Clarkson published his history of the abolition campaign the following year.
Death at Playford Hall
Died at Playford Hall, Suffolk. Wordsworth's sonnet had already named him among the abolition's true fathers.
Available Works
An Essay on the Slavery & Commerce of the Human Species
AvailableThe 1786 prize essay that ignited the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade.