![SLAVERY AND ABOLITION -- Thomas CLARKSON (1760-1846). Manuscript signed (in four places, ‘Thomas Clarkson’) of four letters to [HONORÉ RIQUETI, COMTE DE MIRABEAU], in French, n.d., [after December 1789].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2017/CKS/2017_CKS_14299_0058_000(slavery_and_abolition_--_thomas_clarkson_manuscript_signed_of_four_let050829).jpg?w=1)
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SLAVERY AND ABOLITION -- Thomas CLARKSON (1760-1846). Manuscript signed (in four places, ‘Thomas Clarkson’) of four letters to [HONORÉ RIQUETI, COMTE DE MIRABEAU], in French, n.d., [after December 1789].
Formal secretarial copy with occasional emendations (chiefly to improve the translation), illustrated with three manuscript plates in pen-and-ink and watercolour, and one printed plate, numbered 9 to 12, the first showing hand and leg shackles, the second Clarkson’s celebrated engraved ‘Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship’ (London: James Phillips, 1789). 498 x 380mm (folded, short tears), the third showing the system of attaching the leg shackles to a chain, the fourth showing the operation of thumb screws, altogether 28 leaves, 4to (266 x 210mm), 20th-century black half morocco by Sotheran.
Campaigning in France for the abolition of slavery. Between 13 November and the end of December 1789, Clarkson wrote thirteen letters to the comte de Mirabeau, then at the height of his political influence in the wake of the French Revolution, setting out the full horrors of the slave trade, with particular reference to the French trading ports of Fort Saint Louis and Goree. The originals survive in the Fonds Mireabeau at the Musée Paul Arbaud, Aix-en-Provence, but copies such as the present one were evidently made for circulation within France (cf. the full copy preserved in the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan), and the letters were additionally published in English as Letters on the Slave-Trade … (London: J. Phillips, 1791). The present manuscript comprises letters 10 to 13 of the original series, containing the key descriptions of the inhumanities of the middle passage, the effects of their suffering on the slaves, causing madness or suicidal despair, attempts at violent resistance or refusal of nutrition, and the proportions of the slaves who die during the crossing. Clarkson, who had undergone a Damascene conversion as to the horrors of the slave trade after writing a prize essay on the subject whilst at Cambridge University in 1785, was at this period arguably the leading researcher and propagandist of the anti-slavery cause, working closely with William Wilberforce.
Formal secretarial copy with occasional emendations (chiefly to improve the translation), illustrated with three manuscript plates in pen-and-ink and watercolour, and one printed plate, numbered 9 to 12, the first showing hand and leg shackles, the second Clarkson’s celebrated engraved ‘Plan and Sections of a Slave Ship’ (London: James Phillips, 1789). 498 x 380mm (folded, short tears), the third showing the system of attaching the leg shackles to a chain, the fourth showing the operation of thumb screws, altogether 28 leaves, 4to (266 x 210mm), 20th-century black half morocco by Sotheran.
Campaigning in France for the abolition of slavery. Between 13 November and the end of December 1789, Clarkson wrote thirteen letters to the comte de Mirabeau, then at the height of his political influence in the wake of the French Revolution, setting out the full horrors of the slave trade, with particular reference to the French trading ports of Fort Saint Louis and Goree. The originals survive in the Fonds Mireabeau at the Musée Paul Arbaud, Aix-en-Provence, but copies such as the present one were evidently made for circulation within France (cf. the full copy preserved in the William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan), and the letters were additionally published in English as Letters on the Slave-Trade … (London: J. Phillips, 1791). The present manuscript comprises letters 10 to 13 of the original series, containing the key descriptions of the inhumanities of the middle passage, the effects of their suffering on the slaves, causing madness or suicidal despair, attempts at violent resistance or refusal of nutrition, and the proportions of the slaves who die during the crossing. Clarkson, who had undergone a Damascene conversion as to the horrors of the slave trade after writing a prize essay on the subject whilst at Cambridge University in 1785, was at this period arguably the leading researcher and propagandist of the anti-slavery cause, working closely with William Wilberforce.
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