(1) By his contemporaries …
In his own lifetime Clarkson was praised for his courage and heroism.
Clarkson, however, never dreamt that anyone would ever write his lifestory and as a result threw out most of his papers.
1837 – A book by Charles Lamb paid tribute to Clarkson as ‘the true annihilator of the slave trade’.
1838 – Wilberforce’s sons publish their biography of their father. The biography had a damaging effect on Clarkson’s reputation. In the biography, Clarkson is not even mentioned as a member of the Committee and his wider role is largely ignored. The brothers also refused to mention the mutual respect and admiration that Clarkson and Wilberforce had for each other.
1839 - Clarkson was given the freedom of the city of London.
1840 – At the world’s first antislavery convention in June 1840, Clarkson was hailed as the ‘originator’ of the movement.
1844 - Clarkson received an apology from Robert and Samuel
Wilberforce, by way of a letter (no public apology was ever made) for the way that they had portrayed him in their book.
We were in the wrong in the manner in which we treated you in the
Memoir of our father. We are conscious that too jealous a regard for what we thought our Father’s fame, led us to entertain an ungrounded prejudice against you and this led us into a tone of writing which we now acknowledge was practically unjust.
1846 – Clarkson was buried in the family vault at Playford churchyard, near Ipswich. He wanted and received a simple funeral. Clarkson’s widow did not want any form of monument over the grave.
(2) The second half of the nineteenth century
1853 - Harriet Beecher Stowe (the American author of Uncle Tom’s
Cabin) travelled all the way to Playford to visit Clarkson’s grave. Her book told the story of a slave and helped to change attitudes in America
(where slavery still existed).
1857 – A granite obelisk was raised to the memory of Thomas Clarkson at
Playford church (in the churchyard, on the left of the entrance door).

1879 – An obelisk was built at Wades Mill in Hertfordshire, near the spot where, in 1785, Thomas Clarkson sat down on the roadside, on his way back to London, to ponder on what to do about slavery.
1880- The Clarkson memorial at Wisbech was erected at a cost of
£2000. It is one of the few places where Clarkson is still remembered locally. In Bury St Edmunds there is a plaque on the house where Clarkson lived in St Mary’s Square. In Ipswich a street is named after Clarkson and his portrait hangs in the Mayor’s parlour at the Town Hall. However, there is no statue or major memorial, even though Clarkson lived nearly half is life so close to the town.
The 20 th Century
The biography of Wilberforce written by his sons had a powerful influence on 20 th century historians. Unlike Clarkson’s account of the abolition movement it was readily available and contains a great deal of source material. It was been treated as an authoritative source and has not always been read with the caution it deserves. Many historians have therefore followed the line taken by Robert and Samuel Wilberforce.
1926 - Frank Klinberg in his book Anti-Slavery Movement in England describes Wilberforce as ‘chief adviser’ and says that Clarkson was a
‘field agent’ ‘directed by’ the Committee.

1967 - In Britain in the Nineteenth Century George Trvelyan describes the ‘systematic propaganda begun by Sharp and Wilberforce’, thus overlooking Clarkson’s crucial role.
It appears that the Wilberforce’s biography, motivated by a desire to tell the story of abolition with their father in the lead role helped to create a myth. Wilberforce took centre stage whilst Clarkson was demoted to the wings. The first real challenges does not come until …
1989 - Ellen Gibson Wilson publishes one of only two biographies of
Thomas Clarkson to be produced during the 20 th century. She describes
Clarkson as ‘the architect’ of the ‘first national campaign for human rights that Britain had known’.
1996 – to mark the 150 th anniversary of the death his death, £20,000 was raised to have a memorial plaque erected in memory of Thomas
Clarkson at Westminster Abbey in London.
The Early 21 st Century