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Thomas Clarkson |
Lafayette to Thomas Clarkson, Lhemkhul Near Plon, January 27, 1798
While I did cooperate with you in our African concerns, you saw what opposition we had to encounter namely from the French Aristocrats and the Jacobine leaders of that time—Procrastination became necessary, yet I was ashamed to tell foreigners how necessary it had been—But I told you that in our doctrine of liberty you could confidently anticipate a speedy destruction of the slave trade, and an enfranchisement of the negroes which I wished to be gradual—How the measure has since been hurried and to what effect you have seen—To what intent God knows ...
I hope a peace is not far distant
wherein almost all the maritime powers are concerned—What better atonement
can be devised for the calamities and the crimes of this war than to insert
a formal article which shall at once put a stop to the infamous trade,
and promote, as well as we can, the restoration of our negroe brethren
to the rights of men? What Christian government would oppose it?
One of the strongest voices raised against the evils of the slave trade was that of Thomas Clarkson, who had become obsessed with abolition during the writing of a prize-winning essay at Cambridge University in 1785. An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the African was published in several editions. Clarkson and Lafayette became acquainted through abolitionist organizations in Britain and France, but their friendship blossomed when Clarkson was sent to Paris in 1789 to try to persuade the National Assembly to include abolition of the slave trade in the reforms they were contemplating. During the six months Clarkson was in Paris, the two had frequent conversations and Lafayette even provided protection to Clarkson when his life was threatened. The letter above was written by Lafayette soon after his release from prison in Austria, where he had spent five years in the aftermath of the French Revolution. Lafayette alludes to the action of the French Convention in abolishing slavery on February 4, 1794.
Lafayette to Thomas Clarkson, La Grange, September 20, 1823
So now you are attacking slavery itself. God bless you, and grant you success. The United States five excepted, have abolished it. You have been pleased to mention an attempt for gradual emancipation which, individual as it was, might have done some good had not the revolutionary storm of August 92 put an end to the experiment. The French convention by uncautious measures turned a good principle into evil both for black and white men. Yet after the cruel tempest was over, to which an iniquitous Bonapartian reaction added new horrors, you see in the present state of Hayti not only an encouraging specimen of negroe civilization, but a forcible argument in favor of emancipation, and perhaps a vent to conciliate a part of the difficulties.
1500 petitions to Parliament
signed by a million and a half Britons is a most glorious event:
I give you joy, my dear Clarkson, to have lived to promote and witness
it.
The friendship between Lafayette and Clarkson continued throughout Lafayette’s lifetime. Clarkson made several more visits to France and the two exchanged many letters as they kept watchful eyes on the progress of the abolition movement in Europe. In this letter of 1823, Lafayette is overjoyed that Clarkson’s efforts are now concentrated on abolishing slavery itself rather than the slave trade. He erroneously declares that all but five of the United States have abolished slavery, when, in actuality, twelve states allowed slavery. Lafayette’s reference to Haiti is prescient, since Haiti received her independence from France two years later. Clarkson, who outlived Lafayette by twelve years, wrote to a friend in 1842 about Lafayette: “He was a true friend of the cause.”