| Aboltion of Slave Trade | The British were the first big slave-trading nation to abandon the trade. They did this in 1807 when there were still huge profits to be made, and they did it for mainly moral reasons. From the ending of the slave trade to the beginning of the 20th Century, the Royal Navy patrolled off the coast of Africa searching for slave trading ships, boarding them and freeing the slaves. Slave-produced sugar transformed our national cuisine. Much of what we today think of as the most traditional British food, is in fact only a couple of centuries old. Biscuits, cakes, sweets, toffee, rum and the resulting British sweet tooth - all products of that revolution in the kitchen brought about by sugar. Slavery was the world's first global industry but before globalism and corporations it was actually run by a few hundred families. Source - 大象传媒 News Online 3 August 2005 |
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| "The committee by the very act of their institution had pronounced the Slave-trade to be criminal." | | Thomas Clarkson |
Thomas Clarkson was born on the 28th March 1760 and died on the 26th September 1846 and is famed for being a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and attended Wisbech Grammar School where his father was the Headmaster.听 He then went on to study at St Paul's School in London before furthering his academic career at St John's College in Cambridge. It was during his studies at Cambridge that he first became involved in the campaign to halt the slave trade.听 He entered a Latin essay competition that bore the title 'Is it lawful to make slaves of others against their will?' which led him to discover all about the brutal trade in people and acted as a catalyst for him to campaign for basic human rights. The translation of his essay into English brought it to a wider audience, and consequently led him to same thinking circles: which in turn led to the forming of a non-denominational anti-slavery campaigning committee which included Clarkson, Granville Sharp and William Wilberforce. They lobbied parliament with Clarkson taking on the role of chief researcher in gathering evidence to support their call for the abolition of the slave trade.听 He was a pro-active campaigner who rode round England, promoting the cause, demonstrating the tortuous slave shackles and networking furiously with those who could help support them. Constant lobbying, overwhelming evidence of human torture and barbarism and a slow-burning groundswell of support finally culminated in the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807 and Clarkson then spent most of his time after the act was passed听 ensuring the enforcement of the act and encouraging the movement to spread to all of Europe. He is proudly remembered in the form of The Clarkson Memorial at Wisbech which was created to commemorate his life and his work and should perhaps serve as a reminder to all that just one person can help change the course of history. | 
