Thomas Clarkson | Autograph manuscript essay on prejudice and skin colour, 1825

Thomas Clarkson

Autograph manuscript essay signed, on prejudice and skin colour

headed "Can the Aethiopian change his Skin, or the Leopard his Spots? Jeremiah 13.23", asserting the equality of all mankind, claiming that Africans are descendants of the Biblical figure of Cush (grandson of Noah) and also arguing "That Mankind indeed were of one origin, however different in colour, is probable, independently of the Bible", 3 pages, 8vo, dated Playford Hall, 20 August 1825, light spotting

"...We see then from this short account the Ignorance and Injustice of those, who contend, that because the unhapapy Slaves in our Colonies are black, they are a disctinct Race of Men and fancying them an inferior one, that they may treate them as Brutes. Thus notion has been spread far and wide to the woful Experience of these oppressed People..."

A SHORT ESSAY DEBUNKING RACISM BY ONE OF THE LEADERS OF THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT IN BRTAIN. Slavery was commonly defended on Biblical grounds, so Clarkson uses the same sources to undermine such self-serving arguments about a natural hierarchy of races.