The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)Clarkson, Thomas
History
The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade, by the British Parliament (1839)
Clarkson, Thomas
Slave trade -- Africa
As I had foreseen long before this time that my _Essay on the Slavery
and Commerce of the Human Species_ was too large for general
circulation, and yet that a general circulation of knowledge on this
subject was absolutely necessary, I determined directly after the
formation of the committee to write a short pamphlet consisting only of
eight or ten pages for this purpose. I called it _A Summary View of the
Slave Trade, and of the probable consequences of its Abolition_. It
began by exhibiting to the reader the various unjustifiable ways in
which persons living on the coast of Africa became slaves. It then
explained the treatment which these experienced on their passage, the
number dying in the course of it, and the treatment of the survivors in
the colonies of those nations to which they were carried. It then
announced the speedy publication of a work on the impolicy of the trade,
the contents of which, as far as I could then see, I gave generally
under the following heads:--Part the first, it was said, would show that
Africa was capable of offering to us a trade in its own natural
productions as well as in the persons of men; that the trade in the
persons of men was profitable but to a few; that its value was
diminished from many commercial considerations; that it was also highly
destructive to our seamen; and that the branch of it, by which we
supplied the island of St. Domingo with slaves, was peculiarly impolitic
on that account. Part the second, it was said, would show that if the
slaves were kindly treated in our colonies, they would increase; that
the abolition of the trade would necessarily secure such a treatment to
them, and that it would produce many other advantages which would be
then detailed.
This little piece I presented to the committee at this their second
meeting. It was then duly read and examined; and the result was, that
after some little correction it was approved, and that two thousand
copies of it were ordered to be printed, with lists of the subscribers
and of the committee, and to be sent to various parts of the kingdom.
On June the 7th, the committee met again for the despatch of business,
when, among other things, they voted their thanks to Dr. Baker, of Lower
Grosvenor-street, who had been one of my first assistants, for his
services to the cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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