You’re probably
thinking that this cache is all about that aging warm up comedian
for Richard Hammond that has a penchant for Victorian engineers.
Well, no actually, we’re talking about Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846),
campaigner for the abolition of slavery.
Thomas Clarkson was born in
Wisbech in 1760, the son of
an headmaster. He was educated at St
Johns College, Cambridge and received a BA from them in 1783. In
1784 he won the members prize for a Latin essay.
However, it was his prize winning
essay of 1785 that sparked the change in the direction to his life.
The title was 'anne
liceat
invitas in
servititu dare' or 'is it lawful to
make men slaves against their will'. It was his intention to travel
to London to get the essay published in English. On his journey he
stopped at Wadesmill.
Whilst resting at
Wadesmill, Clarkson experienced a
spiritual experience which he described 'as a direct revelation
from God ordering me to devote my life to abolishing the trade.'
Having written an essay on the traffic in human life he decided
that if the contents of his essay were true 'it was time that some
person should see these calamities to their end.' That person was
to be himself. He continued on his journey to London where he found
a publisher in James Phillips, a Quaker who arranged for
publication in 1786. Philips was to introduce him to others,
sympathetic to the cause of abolishing slavery.
In 1787 the same year that his
pamphlet 'A Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable
Consequences of its Abolition' was published the Committee for
Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed; having
amongst its members leading Quakers such as Wilberforce, John
Wesley and Josiah Wedgewood.
Clarkson was given the task of
collecting information to support their arguments and his research
took him to ports such as Bristol, interviewing thousands of
sailors and obtaining evidence of the inhumane instruments used to
constrain the human cargo.
The Committee
For Abolition had to wait until 1807 for
the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and it was not until 1833 that
Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act giving all slaves in
the British Empire their freedom.
Thomas Clarkson retired to Ipswich
where he died on 26 September 1846. A fitting tribute to him was
paid by the poet Coleridge: 'He, if ever human being did it,
listened exclusively to his conscience, and obeyed its
voice.'
On that spot at
Wadesmill a monument to Clarkson was
erected in 1879, surrounded by a small rail for protection. The
stone reads: 'On this spot where stands this monument in the month
of June 1785 Thomas Clarkson resolved to devote his life to
bringing about the abolition of the slave trade.' The stone
memorial was recently restored with the help of a £48000 grant from
the Heritage Lottery Fund. Thomas Clarkson a distant cousin was on
hand for the unveiling on Wednesday November 14
2007.
The details of Thomas Clarkson’s life
were extracted from the web site of John Barber
at :-
http://www.johnbarber.com/clarkson.html
. Pictures were extracted from :-
http://www.twvillage.co.uk/Wadesmill/Thomas-Clarkson.html
.
This cache can be
combined with other caches nearby to form a walk of
under 3 miles. The caches in the loop
are:-
Global Village (UK)
Youngsbury
Clarkson
You may also like to visit a
waymark nearby commemorating
Britain’s first turnpike at
Wadesmill