Thomas Clarkson

Thomas Clarkson (1760 – 1846) was an English abolitionist, and for several decades the leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which ended the British trade in slaves. In his later years Clarkson campaigned for the abolition of slavery worldwide; it was then concentrated in the Americas. In 1840, he was the key speaker at the Anti-Slavery Society's (today known as Anti-Slavery International) first conference in London, which campaigned to end slavery in other countries. His leadership was humble and restrained but focused, patient and persistent.

Neither can men, by the same principles, be considered as lands, goods, or houses, among possessions. It is necessary that all property should be inferior to its possessor. But how does the slave differ from his master, but by chance?