Founding of Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade

Background. Granville Sharp, an English scholar and philanthropist, had been involved in abolitionism since 1767, when he defended a severely injured enslaved person from Barbados in a legal case against his master. Thomas Clarkson's path began with a 1785 Latin essay competition at Cambridge, which he published in 1786 as a pamphlet on the slavery and commerce of the human species.

The Founding Meeting. On 22 May 1787, the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed in London. Its inaugural committee meeting brought together nine Quakers and three Anglicans, a non-denominational composition intended to strengthen the committee's likelihood of influencing Parliament. Sharp's position was unanimously agreed at this meeting, and Clarkson's biographical account records that the two men formed the committee that May.

Immediate Aftermath. Later in 1787, Clarkson undertook a speaking tour of England's great ports and cities, raising public interest in the cause. In October 1787 his speech at the collegiate church in Manchester galvanized that city's anti-slavery campaign. During a visit to a city that year he was attacked and nearly killed by a gang of sailors paid to assassinate him.