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
Labours of the committee continued to February, 1788.--Committee elect
new members; vote thanks to Falconbridge and others; receive letters
from Grove and others; circulate numerous publications; make a report;
send circular letters to corporate bodies; release negroes unjustly
detained; find new correspondents in Archdeacon Paley, the Marquis de
la Fayette, Bishop of Cloyne, Bishop of Peterborough, and in many
others.
The labours of the committee, during my absence, were as I have now
explained them; but as I was obliged, almost immediately, on joining
them, to retire into the country to begin my new work, I must give an
account of their further services till I joined them again, or till the
middle of February, 1788.
During sittings which were held from the middle of December, 1787, to
the 18th of January, 1788, the business of the committee had so
increased, that it was found proper to make an addition to their number.
Accordingly James Martin and William Morton Pitt, Esquires, members of
parliament, and Robert Hunter, and Joseph Smith, Esquires, were chosen
members of it.
The knowledge also of the institution of the society had spread to such
an extent, and the eagerness among individuals to see the publications
of the committee had been so great, that the press was kept almost
constantly going during the time now mentioned. No fewer than three
thousand lists of the subscribers, with a circular letter prefixed to
them, explaining the object of the institution, were ordered to be
printed within this period, to which are to be added fifteen hundred of
BENEZET'S _Account of Guinea_, three thousand of the DEAN of MIDDLEHAM'S
_Letters_, five thousand _Summary View,_ and two thousand of a new
edition of the _Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species_, which I had
enlarged before the last of these sittings from materials collected in
my late tour.
The thanks of the committee were voted during this period to Mr.
Alexander Falconbridge, for the assistance he had given me in my
inquiries into the nature of the Slave Trade.
As Mr. Falconbridge had but lately returned from Africa, and as facts
and circumstances, which had taken place but a little time ago, were
less liable to objections (inasmuch as they proved the present state of
things) than those which happened in earlier times, he was prevailed
upon to write an account of what he had seen during the four voyages he
had made to that continent; and accordingly, within the period which has
been mentioned, he began his work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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