[Allegorical Map of the History of the Abolitionist Movement]
- Title:
- [Allegorical Map of the History of the Abolitionist Movement]
- Alternate Title:
- [Allegorical Map of the History of the Abolitionist Movement]
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Clarkson, Thomas
- Date:
- 1808
- Posted Date:
- 2024-04-25
- ID Number:
- 2477.01
- File Name:
- PJM_2477_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1800 - 1869
- Subject:
- Allegorical
Slavery/Race - Measurement:
- 22 x 32 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- This map of a complex river system honors the scores of men who contributed over many years to the abolitionist movement and documents the relationships among them. It appears in first edition of Thomas Clarkson's Work "The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament" (1808).
Clarkson was at Cambridge on a path to becoming an Anglican minister when he did intensive research for an essay contest on the issue of slavery and was appalled at what he discovered. He produced the prize-winning paper, and while traveling between Cambridge and London after delivering it in person, the 25-year-old Clarkson "received what he considered to be a direct revelation from God ordering him to devote his life to abolishing the trade." Mannix 1962, 177. Aided by the publication of his essay, Clarkson was introduced to others sharing his views. Notable amoung them was a dedicated group of Quakers and Granville Sharp, an evangelical Christian who had been fighting slavery for more than 20 years. In 1787, Clarkson, Sharp and ten others formed the "Committee for the Abolition of the African Slave Trade," which was to be instrumental in the fight. Ibid.
By talent and disposition, Clarkson was best suited to provide deep and extensive research, the factual basis for the case against the slave trade. For the political side of the movement, the Committee enlisted an intelligent and charming young member of Parliament, William Wilberforce. "Since the first agitation of the question of the Abolition, in the year 1787, two names have been inseparable, and united in honor; that of Wilberforce, as the great parliamentary leader; and that of Clarkson, as the indefatigable labourer out of parliament." Eclectic Review 1838, 678; Mannix 1962, 180.
Clarkson worked tirelessly to gather evidence of the evils of the slave trade, traveling thousands of miles to Bristol, Liverpool and other slaving ports. He obtained documents and interviewed merchants, travelers, ship's doctors, and seamen who had been on slave ships. He assembled and displayed around the country a collection of the tools of the slavers trade: shackles, handcuffs, thumbscrews, branding irons, and an instrument to force mouths open. And he published dozens of essays and pamphlets documenting what he found. He was repeatedly threatened with violence for his work, and when he returned from an unsuccessful trip to revolutionary France seeking help for the cause, he was denounced in Britain as a Jacobian. Ibid. 177-184. After two decades of struggle, the movement achieved success in 1807 when the Parliament passed a bill abolishing the slave trade in Britain; Clarkson published his History the following year.
One of Clarkson's objectives was to present in the History "the different classes of the forerunners and coadjutors . . . collected into one view by means of a map [and] to bring it before the reader, that he may comprehend the whole of it at a single view . . . . of so many springs or rivulets, which assisted in making and swelling the torrent which swept away the Slave-trade." (v. I, p. 259) The map is indeed effective in demonstrating at one glance the time and persistence on the part of the "forerunners and coadjutors" in pursuit of this landmark objective. Horizontal lines (at G, H, I, and K) divide the genealogy into four periods: before 1650; 1650-1700; 1700-1750, and 1750-1787, the date the Committee was established. And the number of finely engraved names - more than 100 - dramatically illustrates what it takes to effect significant social change.
Upon closer examination, the map is difficult to comprehend, notwithstanding Clarkson's own description of it in Chapter XI of the History. One scholar has summarized it as follows: "The left branch identifies theologians, philosophers, poets, dramatists, historians,and other intellectuals in Britain who raised questions about the Atlantic slave tradeor colonial slavery. The middle branch marks key moments in the evolution of Quakerantislavery in the British Isles. A third branch, on the right, indicates the progress ofantislavery organizing among Quakers in North America. A fourth branch, at thebottom and center, running from right to left, presents building antislavery oppositionamong Anglican Evangelicals." Brown 2006, 5 n. Clarkson himself (who was not a Quaker) is shown near the head of the fourth branch, near the letter F on the map.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Clarkson's map received some criticism from the outset. It's clear from the History (p.259) that the map ends in 1787 (the letter X on the map), rather than the date of passage in 1807, thus overlooking those who contributed to the fight in the final 20 years. Clarkson was chided for omitting the name of the British politician James Stephen and not devoting "an entire 'stream'" to the American Quaker Thomas Harrison. Davis 1999, 448, n.111. Most significantly, five years after the death of Wilberforce, his sons Robert and Samuel published a biography of him in which they accused Clarkson of aggrandizing himself in the History at the expense of Wilberforce. One of their arguments was that the stream bearing Clarkson's name was earlier and larger that the Wilberforce rivulet. A review typical of the reaction expressed "deep regret" and "equal sorrow and surprise" at the attack on Clarkson. And while "almost ashamed to advert to such frivolities," the essay called the sons' contentions about the map "far-fetched" and "grossly incorrect." Eclectic Review 1838, 678, 688.
In modern times, Clarkson's map has been criticized for its failure to include any women or people of color, a number of whom made substantial contributions to the abolishionist movement. See generally Sword 2010 and ibid. 336 n.49. And it has been condemned as a "cartographic fantasy" that "finds no place for the African or New World slave," a "fictional colonisation of the past" in "an attempt to wipe the national memory clean of the filthy associations with which British maritime expansion had been contaminated by the slave trade." Wood 2000, 1, 4-6.
Cornell University Library is pleased to present this digital collection of Persuasive Maps, the originals of which have been collected and described by the private collector PJ Mode. The descriptive information in the “Collector’s Notes” has been supplied by Mr. Mode and does not necessarily reflect the views of Cornell University. - Source:
- Clarkson, Thomas. 1808. The History of the Rise, Progress, and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament. v.1. London: R. Taylor and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme.
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.