20 November 2007
by Mike Rines
Local men should receive more credit for the abolition of slavery. An audience of more than 200 members at the Woodbridge Society’s November lecture learned that much of the credit given to William Wilberforce for the abolition of slavery should have gone to Tom and John Clarkson, who lived part of their lives locally.
That Wilberforce got most of the credit was due to a biography of their father written by his two sons, said Dr Bob Merrett. He told members that while Wilberforce fronted the campaign in the House of Commons, it was Thomas Clarkson who mobilised public support for more than 50 years from 1786. He was instrumental in setting up the London Abolition Committee, which led the anti-slavery movement, and it was he who recruited Wilberforce to the cause.
Thereafter, he raised numerous petitions to Parliament and provided Wilberforce with much of the factual information he needed to make the case for abolition. When Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, which ended slavery in the British Empire, Thomas was the only member of the London Committee still alive.
John Clarkson was also heavily involved, and played a large part in setting up the first settlement for emancipated slaves, in Sierra Leone. In 1820, he became a senior partner in the Dykes and Samuel Alexander Bank in Woodbridge, in the Church Street premises now occupied by Barclays Bank. He and his family lived in the flat above the bank, and when he died in 1828 he was buried in St Mary’s churchyard.
Thomas, spent his last 24 years at Playford Hall.