He died unmarried on 6th July and his tomb is in Fulham churchyard. A memorial tablet, by the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey, was erected for him in the south transept of Westminster Abbey. Either side of a portrait relief is a praying slave in chains and a lion with a lamb. The inscription reads:. Born and educated in the bosom of the Church of England, he ever cherished for her institutions the most unshaken regard, while his whole soul was in harmony with the sacred strain 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace good will towards men' on which his life presented one beautiful comment of glowing piety, and unwearied beneficence.
Freed by competence from the necessity, and by content from the desire, of lucrative occupation, he was incessant in his labours to improve the condition of mankind. Founding public happiness on public virtue, he aimed to rescue his native country from the guilt and inconsistency of employing the arm of freedom to rivet the fetters of bondage, and established for the Negro race, in the person of Somerset, the long disputed rights of human nature.
Having, in this glorious cause, triumphed over the combined resistance of interest, prejudice, and pride, he took his post among the foremost of the honourable band associated to deliver Africa from the rapacity of Europe by the abolition of the slave trade; nor was death permitted to interrupt his career of usefulness till he had witnessed that Act of the British Parliament by which 'The Abolition' was decreed. In his private relations he was equally exemplary, and having exhibited through life a model of disinterested virtue, he resigned his pious spirit into the hands of his Creator in the exercise of charity, and faith, and hope on the sixth day of July, A.
Reader, if, on perusing this tribute to a private individual, thou should'st be disposed to suspect it as partial, or to censure it as diffuse, know that it is not panegyric, but history.
Erected by the African Institution of London, A. Search term:. Read more. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets CSS enabled.
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Simon Schama has argued in Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and Empire that the harsh winter of was one of the factors that encouraged Hanway to do something for the significant number of Africans living in poverty: "In the East End and Rotherhithe: tattered bundles of human misery, huddled in doorways, shoeless, sometimes shirtless even in the bitter cold or else covered with filthy rags.
Granville Sharp came up with the idea that this black community should be allowed to to start a colony of free slaves in Sierra Leone. The country was chosen largely on the strength of evidence from the explorer, Mungo Park and a encouraging report from the botanist, Henry Smeathman, who had recently spent three years in the area.
Richard S. Reddie , the author of Abolition! The Struggle to Abolish Slavery in the British Colonies has argued: "Some detractors have since denounced the Sierra Leone project as repatriation by another name. It has been seen as a high-minded yet hypocritical way of ridding the country of its rising black population Some in Britain wanted Africans to leave because they feared they were corrupting the virtues of the country's white women, while others were tired of seeing them reduced to begging on London streets.
Granville Sharp was able to persuade a small group of London's poor to travel to Sierra Leone in As Hugh Thomas , the author of The Slave Trade , has pointed out: "A ship was charted, the sloop-of-war Nautilus was commissioned as a convoy, and on 8th April the first free black men and 41 black women, with 70 white women, including 60 prostitutes from London, left for Sierra Leone under the command of Captain Thomas Boulden Thompson of the Royal Navy". When they arrived they purchased a stretch of land between the rivers Sherbo and Sierra Leone.
The settlers sheltered under old sails, donated by the navy. They named the collection of tents Granville Town after the man who had made it all possible. Granville Sharp wrote to his brother that "they have purchased twenty miles square of the finest and most beautiful country The reality was very different. Adam Hochschild , the author of Bury the Chains: The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery has argued: "The expedition's delayed departure from England meant that it had arrived on the African coast in the midst of the malarial rainy season The ground was another major problem: steep, forested slopes with thin topsoil When they managed to coax a few English vegetables out of the ground, ants promptly devoured the leaves.
Soon after arriving the colony suffered from an outbreak of malaria. In the first four months alone, died. One of the white settlers wrote to Sharp: "I am very sorry indeed, to inform you, dear Sir, that I do not think there will be one of us left at the end of a twelfth month There is not a thing, which is put into the ground, will grow more than a foot out of it What is more surprising, the natives die very fast; it is quite a plague seems to reign here among us.
Adam Hochschild has pointed out: "As supplies at Granville Town dwindled and crops failed, the increasingly frustrated settlers turned to the long-time mainstay of the local economy, the slave trade Three white doctors from Granville Town ended up at the thriving slave depot Although Sharp and Clarkson were both Anglicans , nine out of the twelve members on the committee, were Quakers.
Sharp was appointed as chairman. He accepted the title but never took the chair. Clarkson commented that Sharp "always seated himself at the lowest end of the room, choosing rather to serve the glorious cause in humility He rejected the idea and instead suggested the name of William Wilberforce , the MP for Hull , who "not only displayed very superior talents of great eloquence, but was a decided and powerful advocate of the cause of truth and virtue. Charles Fox was unsure of Wilberforce's commitment to the anti-slavery campaign.
He wrote to Thomas Walker : "There are many reasons why I am glad Wilberforce has undertaken it rather than I, and I think as you do, that I can be very useful in preventing him from betraying the cause, if he should be so inclined, which I own I suspect. Nothing, I think but such a disposition, or a want of judgment scarcely credible, could induce him to throw cold water upon petitions.
It is from them and other demonstrations of the opinion without doors that I look for success. In May , Charles Fox precipitated the first parliamentary debate on the issue. He denounced the "disgraceful traffic" which ought not to be regulated but destroyed. He was supported by Edmund Burke who warned MPs not to let committees of the privy council do their work for them.
William Dolben described shipboard horrors of slaves chained hand and foot, stowed like "herrings in a barrel" and stricken with "putrid and fatal disorders" which infected crews as well. With the support of Wilberforce Samuel Whitbread , Charles Middleton and William Smith , Dolben put forward a bill to regulate conditions on board slave ships. The legislation was initially rejected by the House of Lords but after William Pitt threatened to resign as prime minister, the bill passed 56 to 5 and received royal assent on 11th July.
Another debate on the slave trade took place the following year. On 12th May William Wilberforce made his first speech on the subject. Wilberforce's biographer, John Wolffe , has pointed out: "Following the publication of the privy council report on 25 April , Wilberforce marked his own delayed formal entry into the parliamentary campaign on 12 May with a closely reasoned speech of three and a half hours, using its evidence to describe the effects of the trade on Africa and the appalling conditions of the middle passage.
He argued that abolition would lead to an improvement in the conditions of slaves already in the West Indies, and sought to answer the economic arguments of his opponents.
For him, however, the fundamental issue was one of morality and justice. The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was very pleased with the speech and sent its thanks for his "unparalleled assiduity and perseverance". The House of Commons agreed to establish a committee to look into the slave trade.
Wilberforce said he did not intend to introduce new testimony as the case against the trade was already in the public record. Ellen Gibson Wilson , a leading historian on the slave trade has argued: "Everyone thought the hearing would be brief, perhaps one sitting. Instead, the slaving interests prolonged it so skilfully that when the House adjourned on 23 June, their witnesses were still testifying. Sharp continued to refuse to accept the negative reports coming from Sierra Leone.
He wrote that he had chosen "the most eligible spot for With the financial support of William Wilberforce , Thomas Clarkson and Samuel Whitbread , Sharp dispatched another shipload of black and white settlers and supplies.
It was not long before Sharp began receiving reports that many of the new settlers were "wicked enough to go into the service of the slave trade". In , a Royal Navy warship making its down the coast fired a shot that set a Sierra Leone village on fire. The local chief took revenge by giving the settlers three days to depart, and then burning Granville Town to the ground. The remaining settlers were rescued by the slave traders on Bance Island. Sharp was devastated when he discovered that the last of the men he had sent to Africa were now also involved in the slave trade.
He took a large number of gifts paid for by the Sierra Leone Company. Soon after arriving he used these gifts to persuade the local chiefs to let the settlers reoccupy their overgrown land. Falconbridge's wife, Anna Maria, was concerned about the job facing her husband. They now sent John Clarkson , to Halifax , Nova Scotia , where there was a community of former American slaves who had fought for the British in the War of Independence , to recruit settlers for the abolitionist colony.
With the support of Thomas Peters , the black loyalist leader, he led a fleet of fifteen vessels, carrying settlers, to Sierra Leone, which they reached on 6th March, Although sixty-five of the Nova Scotians died during the voyage, they continued to support Clarkson who they called "their Moses". William Wilberforce believed that the support for the French Revolution by the leading members of the Society for the Abolition of Slave Trade such as Sharp was creating difficulties for his attempts to bring an end to the slave trade in the House of Commons.
He told Thomas Clarkson : "I wanted much to see you to tell you to keep clear from the subject of the French Revolution and I hope you will. I am very sorry for it, because I see plainly advantage is taken of such cases as his, in order to represent the friends of Abolition as levellers.
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