Clarkson, Thomas

Scope and Content note This collection is comprised of the two volume, handwritten manuscript of Thomas Clarkson's "The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade." In it, Clarkson describes the Quaker influence in the abolitionist movement in Britain and the parliamentary debates leading to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. The manuscript describes both the arguments in support and in opposition to abolition, and the actions of the members of the abolition movement....

Scope and Contents Papers include letters, journals, diaries, commonplace books, miscellaneous papers, photographs, and silhouettes. The letters were mainly written to Anne (Gibbons) Rhoads and Samuel Rhoads by English Friends, 1840-ca. 1889, including Thomas Clarkson, H.J. Sturge, Joseph Sturge, and Mary Wright, who discuss abolition, the free produce movement in Britain, and the Free Produce Association of Friends of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. There are also letters from Thomas Charles Potts (1872- 1955) to...