Their tea, and went on as before,
because, what was there to do? - "Hadn't every body always done it? and
if they didn't do it, wouldn't somebody else?"
It is true that for many years individuals at different times had
remonstrated, written treatises, poems, stories, and movements had
been made by some religious bodies, particularly the Quakers, but the
opposition had amounted to nothing practically efficient.
The attention of Clarkson was first turned to the subject by having it
given out as the theme for a prize composition in his college class,
he being at that time a sprightly young man, about twenty-four years
of age. He entered into the investigation with no other purpose than
to see what he could make of it as a college theme.
He says of himself, "I had expected pleasure from the invention of
arguments, from the arrangement of them, from the putting of them
together, and from the thought, in the interim, that I was engaged in
an innocent contest for literary honor; but all my pleasures were
damped by the facts which were now continually before me."
"It was but one gloomy subject from morning till night; in the daytime
I was uneasy, in the night I had little rest; I sometimes never closed
my eyelids for grief."
It became not now so much a trial for academical reputation as to
write a work which should be useful to Africa. It is not surprising
that a work written under the force of such feelings should have
gained the prize, as it did. Clarkson was summoned from London to
Cambridge, to deliver his prize essay publicly. He says of himself, on
returning to London, "The subject of it almost wholly engrossed my
thoughts. I became at times very seriously affected while on the road.
I stopped my horse occasionally, dismounted, and walked."
"I frequently tried to persuade myself that the contents of my essay
could not be true; but the more I reflected on the authorities on
which they were founded, the more I gave them credit. Coming in sight
of Wade's Mill, in Hertfordshire, I sat down disconsolate on the turf
by the roadside, and held my horse. Here a thought came into my mind,
that if the contents of the essay were true, it was time that somebody
should see these calamities to an end."
These reflections, as it appears, were put off for a while, but
returned again.
This young and noble heart was of a kind that could not comfort itself
so easily for a brother's sorrow as many do.
He says of himself, "In the course of the autumn of the same year, I
walked frequently into the woods, that I might think of the subject in
solitude, and find relief to my mind there; but there the question
still recurred, 'Are these things true?' Still, the answer followed as
instantaneously, 'They are;' still the result accompanied it - surely
some person should interfere. I began to envy those who had seats in
Parliament, riches, and widely-extended connections, which would
enable them to take up this cause.
"Finding scarcely any one, at the time, who thought of it, I was
turned frequently to myself; but here many difficulties arose. It
struck me, among others, that a young man only twenty-four years of
age could not have that solid judgment, or that knowledge of men,
manners, and things, which were requisite to qualify him to undertake
a task of such magnitude and importance; and with whom was I to unite?
I believed, also, that it looked so much like one of the feigned
labors of Hercules, that my understanding would be suspected if I
proposed it."
He, however, resolved to do something for the cause by translating his
essay from Latin into English, enlarging and presenting it to the
public. Immediately on the publication of this essay he discovered, to
his astonishment and delight, that he was not the only one who had
been interested in this subject.
Being invited to the house of William Dillwyn, one of these friends to
the cause, he says, "How surprised was I to learn, in the course of
our conversation, of the labors of Granville Sharp, of the writings of
Ramsey, and of the controversy in which the latter was engaged! of all
which I had hitherto known nothing. How surprised was I to learn that
William Dillwyn had, two years before, associated himself with five
others for the purpose of enlightening the public mind on this great
subject!
"How astonished was I to find that a society had been formed in
America for the same object! These thoughts almost overpowered me. My
mind was overwhelmed by the thought that I had been providentially
directed to this house; the finger of Providence was beginning to be
discernible, and that the daystar of African liberty was rising."
After this he associated with many friends of the cause, and at last
it became evident that, in order to effect any thing, he must
sacrifice all other prospects in life, and devote himself exclusively
to this work.
He says, after mentioning reasons which prevented all his associates
from doing this, "I could look, therefore, to no person but myself;
and the question was, whether I was prepared to make the sacrifice. In
favor of the undertaking, I urged to myself that never was any cause,
which had been taken up by man, in any country or in any age, so great
and important; that never was there one in which so much misery was
heard to cry for redress; that never was there one in which so much
good could be done; never one in which the duty of Christian charity
could be so extensively exercised; never one more worthy of the
devotion of a whole life towards it; and that, if a man thought
properly, he ought to rejoice to have been called into existence, if
he were only permitted to become an instrument in forwarding it in any
part of its progress.
