Clarkson, THOMAS, philanthropist, the son of a clerical schoolmaster at Wisbeach, where he was born, March 28, 1760. From St Paul's School he passed to St John's College, Cambridge, where he took a good degree in 1783. His introduction to the chief interest of his life was his gaining a prize for a Latin essay in 1785, on the question, 'Is it right to make slaves of others against their will?' which, in an English translation (1786), was widely read. Clarkson henceforward devoted himself with indefatigable energy to a vigorous crusade against African slavery, both by an incessant shower of essays, pamphlets, and reports, and by visiting the chief towns of England and even Paris to form associations. Wilberforce brought the subject before parliament in 1787. On March 25, 1807, the law for the suppression of the slave-trade passed the legislature—the occasion of Wordsworth's sonnet: 'Clarkson, it was an obstinate hill to climb,' and Clarkson next wrote a History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-trade (2 vols. 1808). On the formation of the Anti-slavery Society in 1823, for the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, he became one of its leading members, and had the happiness to see the object of its efforts attained in the August of 1833. He took an active part in other benevolent schemes, particularly in establishing institutions for seamen in seaport towns similar to the Sailors' Homes. He was in deacon's orders in the Church of England, but all his life kept close to the Society of Friends, although he never joined its ranks. He died at Playford
Hall, near Ipswich, September 26, 1846. See Lives by Taylor (1839 and 1876) and Elmes (1854).