Person

Thomas Clarkson

1760–1846 · 19th century

Thomas Clarkson was an English campaigner against the slave trade. After winning a Cambridge essay prize on slavery in 1785, he helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787 and travelled widely gathering evidence from sailors and ports. His research supplied William Wilberforce's campaign in Parliament, which achieved abolition of the British slave trade in 1807.

Thomas Clarkson — Image: Carl Frederik von Breda · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 profile

Kingdom of Great BritainImpact

Great speeches

Wilberforce against the Slave Trade12 May 1789

See also

Cite this entry

APA: The Epoch Institute. (2026). Thomas Clarkson. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/thomas-clarkson
MLA: “Thomas Clarkson.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/thomas-clarkson. Accessed .
Chicago: The Epoch Institute. “Thomas Clarkson.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/thomas-clarkson.
Harvard: The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Thomas Clarkson’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/thomas-clarkson (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻