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Campaigns: The Longer Tour

Seven Stars Pub
(Trail Location 21)

Put your cursor over the image to find out how Clarkson felt when he first rode into the city in 1787

In 1787 the publican of The Seven Stars helped Thomas Clarkson find out about the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Clarkson interviewed sailors and other crew members to find out about conditions on board the slave ships of Bristol. This was a very dangerous investigation since most ship owners and investors in them felt that it was none of Clarkson's business, and wanted to prevent his inquiries. Many crew members were frightened to talk to him because they thought they might not get any further work if they told how bad conditions were on the ships.
Clarkson was threatened lots of times, and beaten up several times during his investigation. He found that conditions on the ships were appalling. The enslaved Africans suffered the most, and were treated in a very brutal manner in order to try and break their spirit and crush any potential resistance. Even the crew faced horrible conditions. There was a lot of cruelty and bullying amongst the sailors and officers on the ships, especially towards any black sailors, and there was a tremendously high death rate, with it being perfectly normal for up to a quarter of any crew and its prisoners to die both illness and disease during the voyage.

            
Click play to hear some of the evidence Thomas Clarkson gathered.
(Actor Richard Zealand reading the account of Alexander Falconbridge, a Bristol surgeon who served aboard slave ships before becoming an abolitionist around 1788 - Click here to open a new window containing the text of this video clip)

The New Rooms

This Chapel in the centre of Bristol's modern shopping centre is John Wesley's New Rooms. John Wesley was one of the founders of the Christian group called Methodists. He was a radical preacher who toured the country speaking to any audience he could find about religion. He quickly built up a large and sincere following. Methodism says that everyone, regardless of their class or colour can go to Heaven if they believe sincerely in Christianity. In 1774 John Wesley declared himself against slavery and preached powerfully against it.