John Clarkson (abolitionist)

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Lieutenant John Clarkson, RN (1764-1828) was the younger brother of Thomas Clarkson one of the central figures in the abolition of slavery in England and the British Empire at the close of the 18th century. As agent for the Sierra Leone Company Lieutenant Clarkson was instrumental in the foundation of Freetown, today Sierra Leone’s capital city, as a haven for largely former American slaves relocated to Nova Scotia at the close of hostilities following the American Revolutionary War by the British military and government authorities.

After losing his father when just a very young child, Clarkson entered the Royal Navy at age 12 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1783. He served primarily in the Caribbean and observed at first hand the brutality and inhumanity of the slave trade. Initially unmoved by what he had witnessed he later, likely influenced by his brother Thomas’ passionate views concerning the immorality of slavery, came to abhor the institution and rendered practical assistance to the cause of abolition.

His brother Thomas and William Wilberforce among other members of the Committee for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade had incorporated the Sierra Leone Company with a view to resettling certain free and formerly enslaved blacks on the west coast of Africa. Lieutenant Clarkson’s charge was to secure among black communities of Nova Scotia, Canada, largely former American slaves relocated there after the Revolutionary War as freemen for service in the British cause during that war, volunteers to settle in the area of the mouth of the Sierra Leone River. After arriving in Nova Scotia from England in October 1791 he gathered a group of close to 1200 settlers and departed for Africa. After a harrowing transatlantic passage in winter his flotilla of 15 ships arrived in Freetown harbor in March of 1792. Clarkson remained at the settlement until returning to England at the end of December of 1792. He served as Governor from August 1792 until his departure. The records of the settlers confirm Clarkson as a conscientious, supportive , reasonable and fair administrator. His advocacy for the settlers upon his return to England and recrimination of the Company’s action, or lack thereof, which he submitted was inconsistent with the representations and assurances made to the settlers resulted in his final dismissal by the Company. He never returned to Freetown.

Clarkson died on April 2, 1828 in Woodbridge, Suffolk. The unassuming Clarkson’s last words in reaction to a report of the unrelenting abuse of slaves in the West Indies were reported to be, “It is dreadful to think, after my brother and his friends have been working for forty years that such things should still be.”