ABOLITION & EMANCIPATION

Part 5: Papers of Thomas Clarkson from the British Library, London

Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846) was a central figure in the abolition movement in Britain, the Caribbean, France, America and throughout the world.

The British Library holds some of the most important papers relating to his life and activities, including:

• Fair Minute Books of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade,
  22 May 1787 - 9 July 1819;
• Report of the Committee of the Assembly of Jamaica on the Slave Trade, 1792;
• Papers relating to Sierra Leone, 1792-1798;
• Letters between the Clarksons and the Wordsworths, 1803-1838.

There is also correspondence with Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce; medical cases concerning slaves; records of the movement of slaves from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone; exchanges with the Imam of Muscat, the Governor of Zanzibar and the King of Madagascar; material on Haiti including letters between Henry Christophe, King of Haiti, his son, Jacques Victor Henry, the Prince Royal, and Clarkson; papers on Negro labour in Jamaica; material concerning the Jamaican estates of Matthew Gregory "Monk" Lewis; and correspondence and papers relating to the Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840.