The Persistence of Thomas Clarkson
Thomas Clarkson believed that Africans were being forced into slavery in the West Indies, but could he prove it to the British public?
1818-1834
King George III 1760-1820
Slave Ship, by JMW Turner.
‘The Slave Ship’, by JMW Turner (1775-1851), shows slavers tossing sick slaves overboard in a storm. Turner was inspired to paint it after reading a book by Thomas Clarkson.
Introduction
In 1790, many people still sincerely believed that African slaves in the West Indies went there voluntarily. Thomas Clarkson did not; and when a friend told him of a sailor who had seen the kidnappings with his own eyes, he set out to get his testimony. Unfortunately, Clarkson did not know this man’s name, his ship, or even his home port.
Abridged.
At length I began my journey. I boarded all the ships of war lying in ordinary at Deptford, and examined the different persons in each. From Deptford I proceeded to Woolwich, where I did the same. Thence I hastened to Chatham, and then down the Medway, to Sheerness. I had now boarded above a hundred and sixty vessels of war. I had found out two good and willing evidences among them. But I could gain no intelligence of him, who was the object of my search. [...]
Matters now began to look rather disheartening, I mean, as far as my grand object was concerned. There was but one other port left, and this was between two and three hundred miles distant. I determined however to go to Plymouth. I had already been more successful in this tour, with respect to obtaining general evidence, than in any other of the same length; and the probability was, that, as I should continue to move among the same kind of people, my success would be in a similar proportion according to the number visited. These were great encouragements to me to proceed.
