Thomas Clarkson

Thomas Clarkson, who lived from 28 March 1760 to 26 September 1846, was an English abolitionist and a leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and helped achieve passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807, which ended British trade in slaves. He became a pacifist in 1816 and, with his brother John, was one of the twelve founders of the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace. In his later years he campaigned for the abolition of slavery worldwide, and in 1840 he was the key speaker at the first convention of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in London, which campaigned to end slavery in other countries.