The Slave Trade Thomas Clarkson Summary

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Imagine supporting a cause without knowing all the information. The British people reinforced the Atlantic slave trade and slavery without fully understanding the slave’s treatment. The Atlantic slave trade, which began in the 17th century, had over eleven million enslaved Africans brought and traded to North America and the West Indies with the help of British traders. It was reported that the earliest anti-slavery British protestors rooted from the Quaker religion. This horrific practice of slavery was outrageous, obscene, and overaged. In the British Empire, slavery was not physically present; the people could only see the product of the slave’s forced work instead of the horrendous process. Convincing the public to believe slavery was …show more content…

Clarkson provided the abolitionist movement when an “intellectual and institutional backbone” as he collected information from all over England. His informative pamphlet: A Summary View of the Slave Trade and of the Probable Consequences of Its Abolition gathered data and evidence to help the anti-slavery campaign. This information allowed the common British subject to read about the horrors of slavery since they could not see the physical negative effects. Clarkson’s essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species in 1786 gained the attention and sympathy of many parliament members like Edmund Burke, William Pitt, and James Fox. His use of vocabulary and writing skills allowed the readers to empathize with the slaves and give them a reason to want to join the abolitionist movement. Clarkson founded the Society of the Slave Trade which helped spread antislavery literature and pictures to the public. This allowed the public to no longer be in the dark about the horrors of slavery. Clarkson wanted to help slaves in any way he could. He founded the National Anti-Slavery Society with the goal to help improve the treatment of slaves in the West Indies and hopefully abolish slavery worldwide. The public came together as one, large demanding voice with the same goal in mind, to abolish slavery in the British

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