Thomas Clarkson
John Brown's body lies a-
His soul goes marching on.
What schoolchild has not sung these lines at one time or another; and many thousands of Spurs fans in the early 1960's had their own version of the chorus. Although it is reasonably certain that few of the latter had any idea as to the anthem's origins.
John Brown was an American anti-
There is a strong connection between John Brown and an event in Hertfordshire over two hundred years ago. The name of Thomas Clarkson is as unfamiliar as John Brown's is legendary and his achievements have been largely overshadowed by his contemporary William Wilberforce, the Hull MP.
Thomas Clarkson was born in Wisbech in 1760, the son of an headmaster and it would appear that he was destined for an academic or clerical career. 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'. As part of his research Clarkson had read Benezet's 'Historical Account of Guinea' and found a subject upon which he had no previous knowledge but was to influence his, and following generations.
It was his intention to travel to London to get the essay published in English. On his journey he stopped at Wadesmill. This small village on the A10 is better known by many commuters for the hill that gives a last chance to overtake a slow moving tractor on the road north; or the last stretch of the morning traffic jam before the Ware bypass allows acceleration.
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.
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.'
It was to be many years later before American slaves were able to enjoy the same freedoms. John Brown was born in 1800 in Torrington Connecticut and lived as a child in Ohio. He had always hated slavery and was instrumental in helping fugitive slaves to escape to Canada.
Eventually he settled in Osawatomie and worked to keep Kansas from becoming a slave
state. In May 1856 Brown led an expedition to Pottawatomie Creek where his men murdered
five pro-
In 1859 he led a rebel army on a raid at the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia to encourage slaves to rebel. He captured the arsenal but failed to escape. Colonel Robert E Lee took Brown into custody; he was sent for trial, convicted of treason and hanged on December 2.
On the day of his execution he wrote 'I ...am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.'
The connection between Clarkson and Brown as anti-
A local researcher was told by a villager that the work had been carried out by a group of coloured US Air Force men stationed close by. A letter describing the incident was printed in the Times and some thirteen years later the story resurfaced in the Daily Mail. It was the stuff of modern myth and fitting that the repairs were carried out by descendants of African slaves. The facts however, were more mundane.
The same researcher discovered only a few months after the original letter had been published that the stone monument had in fact been cleaned by a direct descendant of Thomas Clarkson. By then story of the negro cleaners had already entered into newspaper legend and is most probably still being told today, somewhere around the world.
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.'
© John Barber -
Note: 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 stone at Wadesmill
John Barber
Research, author, public relations, project management
Books, CD’s, LP’s and more at bargain prices
A directory of news items from the 80’s decade