The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade

The History of the Rise, Progress
and Accomplishment of the
Abolition of the African Slave
Trade by the British Parliament
(1808), Vol. I

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Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the
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Title: The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the
Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808),
Vol. I
Author: Thomas Clarkson
Release Date: May 25, 2004 [EBook #12428]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND
ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE AFRICAN
SLAVE-TRADE BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.
BY THOMAS CLARKSON, M.A.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
1808.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, LORD GRENVILLE, THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES, EARL GREY, (LATE
VISCOUNT HOWICK), THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FRANCIS,
EARL MOIRA, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE GEORGE JOHN,
EARL SPENCER, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENRY RICHARD,
LORD HOLLAND, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THOMAS, LORD
ERSKINE, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EDWARD, LORD
ELLENBOROUGH, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HENRY
PETTY, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, THOMAS GRENVILLE,
NINE OUT OF TWELVE OF HIS MAJESTY'S LATE CABINET
MINISTERS, TO WHOSE WISE AND VIRTUOUS
ADMINISTRATION BELONGS THE UNPARALLELED AND
ETERNAL GLORY OF THE ANNIHILATION (AS FAR AS THEIR
POWER EXTENDED) OF ONE OF THE GREATEST SOURCES OF
CRIMES AND SUFFERINGS, EVER RECORDED IN THE
ANNALS OF MANKIND; AND TO THE MEMORIES OF THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM PITT, AND OF THE RIGHT
HONOURABLE CHARLES JAMES FOX, UNDER WHOSE
FOSTERING INFLUENCE THE GREAT WORK WAS BEGUN
AND PROMOTED, THIS HISTORY OF THE RISE, PROGRESS,
AND ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE
TRADE IS RESPECTFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED.

CHAPTER I.
_No subject more pleasing than that of the removal of evils--Evils have
existed almost from the beginning of the world--but there is a power in
our nature to counteract them--this power increased by Christianity--of
the evils removed by Christianity one of the greatest is the
Slave-trade--The joy we ought to feel on its abolition from a
contemplation of the nature of it--and of the extent of it--and of the
difficulty of subduing it--Usefulness also of the contemplation of this
subject_.
I scarcely know of any subject, the contemplation of which, is more
pleasing than that of the correction or of the removal of any of the
acknowledged evils of life; for while we rejoice to think that the
sufferings of our fellow-creatures have been thus, in any instance,
relieved, we must rejoice equally to think that our own moral condition
must have been necessarily improved by the change.
That evils, both physical and moral, have existed long upon earth there
can be no doubt. One of the sacred writers, to whom we more
immediately appeal for the early history of mankind, informs us that
the state of our first parents was a state of innocence and happiness; but
that, soon after their creation, sin and misery entered into the world.
The Poets in their fables, most of which, however extravagant they may
seem, had their origin in truth, speak the same language. Some of these
represent the first condition of man by the figure of the golden, and his
subsequent degeneracy and subjection to suffering by that of the silver,
and afterwards of the iron, age. Others tell us that the first female was
made of clay; that she was called Pandora, because every necessary gift,
qualification, or endowment, was given to her by the Gods, but that she
received from Jupiter at the same time, a box, from which, when
opened, a multitude of disorders sprung, and that these spread
themselves immediately afterwards among all of the human race. Thus
it appears, whatever authorities we consult, that those which may be
termed the evils of life existed in the earliest times. And what does
subsequent history, combined with our own experience, tell us, but that
these have been continued, or that they have come down, in different

degrees, through successive generations of men, in all the known
countries of the universe, to the present day?
But though the inequality visible in the different conditions of life, and
the passions interwoven into our nature, (both which have been allotted
to us for wise purposes, and without which we could not easily afford a
proof of the