The Clarkson Challenge

1
The Clarkson Challenge

• Audience Purpose - Thomas Clarkson spent his
  whole life trying to end slavery. Join him on a
  tour round the country and investigate the slave
  trade in greater detail. You will need to collect
  evidence and use it cleverly to persuade
  parliament and the general public to support your
  anti-slavery campaign. Remember Clarkson had 3
  main roles
• (1) RESEARCHER/INVESTIGATOR
• Collect evidence.
• (2) DETECTIVE
• Find witnesses
• (3) PERSUASIVE WRITER SPEAKER
• Clarkson had to prepare speeches and pamphlets in
  order to persuade people in different parts of
  the country to support the campaign to abolish
  the slave trade.

2
STEP 1 KNOW YOUR HISTORY

• Before Clarkson started his first tour of the
  country he already had a good understanding of
  the history of the slave trade.
• ACTIVITY
• Before you start your tour make sure you can
  answer the following questions
• Who was involved in the slave trade?
• Why did the slave trade grow?
• How did the slave trade operate? Can you explain
  the slave triangle?
• Who benefited from the slave trade?
• What motivated people to take part in the slave
  trade?
• Why was the slave trade so profitable?

3
STEP 2 KNOW YOUR ENEMY

• ARGUMENTS PUT FORWARD TO DEFEND THE SLAVE TRADE
• Many Europeans believed that they were superior
  to other people in the world. They put forward a
  number of arguments to defend the slave trade
• Most slaves were already prisoners of war. They
  would have been killed anyway.
• Slaves were not captured in a cruel way.
• Conditions on the slave ships were good.
• Slaves were well treated on the plantations.
• Slavery may be evil but it is a necessary evil.
  It produces a great deal of wealth for our
  society. Africa is undeveloped no other type of
  trade is possible.

4
STEP 3 DEFEAT YOUR ENEMY

• During a parliamentary investigation a witness
  for the slave trade described how delightful
  the slave ships were, Robert Norris stated
• The slaves had sufficient room, sufficient
  air, and sufficient provisions. When upon deck,
  they made merry and amused themselves with
  dancing In short, the voyage from Africa to the
  West Indies was one of the happiest periods.
• Was the Middle Passage really one of the
  happiest periods of an Africans life?
• Look at the following source. How could it be
  used to challenge Norris?

5
CLARKSONS JOURNEY LONDON (Early 1787)
Granville Sharp

• In 1782 Collingwood, the captain of the slave
  ship Zong, ordered that over 130 sick slaves be
  thrown overboard. The slave ship had left Africa
  in early September. By late November over 60
  slaves had died and many others were seriously
  ill.
• Collingwood knew that when he reached Jamaica he
  would not be able to sell the sick slaves and
  that the ships owners would lose money.
  Collingwood thought that if they threw the sick
  slaves overboard the owners would be able to
  claim money back from the insurance company.
  Those slaves that put up a fight were chained
  before they were thrown overboard.
• Collingwood told the crew to pretend that the
  ship had run out of water and that this meant
  that some of the slaves had to be killed in order
  to save the crew and the more healthy slaves.
  However, when the Zong finally arrived in Jamica
  on 22 December it still had over 400 gallons of
  water left.
• The owners claimed insurance money for the value
  of the dead slaves. I tried to prosecute the
  ships captain for murder but failed. The judge
  said that murder was not the issue and that it
  was just as if horses were killed.

6
Argument put forward to defend the slave trade Your counter argument Supporting Evidence Witness
Conditions on the ships were good. Conditions for on the slave ships were horrific. Slaves were sometimes chained and thrown overboard. Granville Sharp

7
KENT James Ramsay

• How can this evidence be used?
• I lived on St Christopher in the West Indies for
  14 years. As a clergyman I preached to the
  slaves, taught them the bible in their homes and
  made enemies of the sugar plantation owners.
• I saw for myself what conditions were like on the
  plantations. I often saw beatings and weary
  slaves still carrying cane to the mill by
  moonlight.
• New mothers had to bring their babies to the
  fields, leaving them exposed to the sun and rain
  whilst they worked.

8
Argument put forward to defend the slave trade Your counter argument Supporting Evidence Witness
Conditions on the ships were good. Conditions on the slave ships were horrific. Slaves were sometimes chained and thrown overboard. Granville Sharp
Slaves were well treated on the plantations Slaves were treated very harshly on the plantations. They were often beaten. They worked long hours. Young mothers were forced to take their children to work with them. James Ramsay
9

• How could you use these visual sources?
• Most slaves were already prisoners of war. They
  would have been killed anyway.
• Slaves were not captured in a cruel way.
• Conditions on the slave ships were good.
• Slaves were well treated on the plantations.
• Slavery may be evil but it is a necessary evil.
  It produces a great deal of wealth for our
  society.

10
So How many pins can you knock over?

• ARGUMENTS PUT FORWARD TO DEFEND THE SLAVE TRADE
• Many Europeans believed that they were superior
  to other people in the world. They put forward a
  number of arguments to defend the slave trade
• Most slaves were already prisoners of war. They
  would have been killed anyway.
• Slaves were not captured in a cruel way.
• Conditions on the slave ships were good.
• Slaves were well treated on the plantations.
• Slavery may be evil but it is a necessary evil.
  It produces a great deal of wealth for our
  society. Africa is undeveloped no other type of
  trade is possible.

11
USING EVIDENCE Running a Campaign

• ACTIVITY
• You need to form a campaign team. Use your
  research to produce
• A detailed PAMPHLET or LEAFLET that will inform
  the general public of the horrors of the slave
  trade
• A powerful IMAGE that will capture the publics
  attention
• A well written and thoughtfully performed SPEECH
  that will persuade members of parliament to
  introduce a law banning the slave trade.