Thomas Clarkson, an English abolitionist, born at "Wisbeach, Cambridgeshire, March 26, 1760, died at Playford Hall, Suffolk, Sept, 26, 1846. He was the son of a clergyman, and was educated at St. John's college, Cambridge. In 1786 he obtained the prize for the best Latin essay on the question, Anne liceat invitos in servitutem dare? ("Is it right to make men slaves against their will?"). The investigation necessary in the preparation of this essay aroused his interest in behalf of the slaves. He gave up his professional prospects, though he had already taken deacon's orders, and resolved to devote his life to the abolition of the slave trade. He translated his prize essay into English, and published a large edition for gratuitous circulation; formed the acquaintance of the American philanthropist Benezet, and of James Ramsay, Granville Sharp, and Lord Barham; procured intelligence from every vessel lying in a British harbor which had been engaged in the slave trade; obtained specimens of the industry and manufactures of the native African tribes for exhibition; and finally caused an engraving to be made giving an accurate view of the interior of a slave ship, with its cells, gratings, and barricades for the confinement of the blacks.

These measures created a powerful excitement in England on the subject of the traffic in slaves. Mr. Clark-son followed up these efforts by pamphlet after pamphlet, and in 1788 gave to the world his work on "The Impolicy of the Slave Trade." Immediately after the publication of this work he went to France to advocate the cause in that country. He there met with sympathy and encouragement from Louis XVI. and Necker, his celebrated minister, as well as from the most influential nobles and clerical dignitaries of the nation. Although he encountered great opposition in England, he soon found several zealous supporters, including Wilberforce, Whitbread, and Sturge. Whit-bread, one of the wealthiest of his friends, offered to make good all injuries which any individual might suffer in his business from aiding and abetting in this movement. The struggle was a long one, and strenuously fought, both in parliament and out of it; every year Clark-son published a new assault on the slave trade, and every year the halls of parliament witnessed a fierce debate on the subject. The Pitt ministry were comparatively lukewarm in the cause. It was not till the accession of Mr. Fox and his friends to power in 1806 that the movement gained a decisive advantage.

In 1807 the British government declared the slave trade thenceforth illegal, and in the succeeding year it was declared piracy by the United States. After a temporary relaxation from his labors, during which he published a "Portraiture of the Society of Friends," with which body he cherished a warm sympathy, and in 1813 a life of William Penn, Clarkson renewed his exertions. He obtained an interview with Alexander I. of Russia, and secured his influence in behalf of the extirpation of the traffic by all the nations of Europe; and as new duties arose from the overthrow of the system, in the establishment of the colony of Sierra Leone, in the recognition of the independence of Hayti and Liberia, and in the preparation for the emancipation of the slaves in Jamaica and Antigua, he contended for each with the same fervor which had animated him in his youth, He lived to witness the emancipation of the negroes in the West Indies in 1833, and to attend the great meeting in Exeter hall in 1840, held by the British anti-slavery society, of which he officiated as president until his death. His "History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade" (1808) is one of the best authorities on the subject.

It has been translated into French by Bishop Gregoire under the title of Hhtoire du commerce homicide ap-pele traite den noirs, oic cri des Africains contre leurs oppresseurs (8vo, 1822), and a new English edition was printed by the English anti-slavery society, with an anonymous preface by Lord Brougham (1839). A medal in honor of Clarkson was struck by his native town in 1846; Haydon and other eminent artists were employed to paint his portrait; his name was inscribed on the pedestal of David's statue of Gutenberg in Strasburg; and the city of London erected his statue in Guildhall. - See "Thomas Clarkson, a Monograph," by James Elmes (London, 1854).'