John Simkin

I am sure Salon would prefer you to read it on their site:

http://www.salon.com/news/john_f_kennedy/index.html?story=/ent/tv/feature/2011/04/01/kennedys_in_hollywood

James Zwerg was one of the Freedom Riders criticized by Robert Kennedy. In his hospital bed he pointed out: "Segregation must be stopped. It must be broken down. Those of us on the Freedom Ride will continue. No matter what happens we are dedicated to this. We will take the beatings. We are willing to accept death. We are going to keep going until we can ride anywhere in the South."

After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy gave a series of interviews with Anthony Lewis and John Bartlow Martin about his brother’s political career for the “John F. Kennedy Library” on the understanding that they would not be published in his lifetime. In fact, the interviews did not appear until the publication of “Robert Kennedy in his Own Words” in 1988.

In these interviews RFK is very honest about their attitude towards the subject of civil rights. For example, he admits that JFK voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act. He confesses that because of their privileged life-styles, they only black people they knew when they were young were servants. In an interview with Anthony Lewis (4th December, 1964), RFK explains that they were not interested in the subject of civil rights: “We weren’t thinking of the Negroes in Mississippi or Alabama – what should be done for them. We were thinking of what needed to be done in Massachusetts.”

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyJ.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAkennedyR.htm

This was a problem for the JFK in the 1960 Presidential Election. RFK admits that “Negroes… were traditionally Democratic; but they had reservations about Senator Kennedy and they didn’t think badly of Nixon.” RFK claims that Harris Wofford, who was special adviser to Martin Luther King, later became the Special Assistant to President Kennedy for Civil Rights, played an important role in trying to persuade civil rights leaders to trust JFK.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwofford.htm

However, RFK admitted in these interviews that although JFK wanted the support of African-Americans, it was even more important not to lose the votes of white people in the Deep South. RFK went to see white leaders in the Deep South during the election campaign to promise them that the Kennedy’s would not pass civil rights legislation. This included Governor John Patterson of Alabama, who had become a personal friend of RFK in 1959.

This friendship was always going to be a problem for the Kennedys. As Attorney General of Alabama (1955-58), Patterson banned the NAACP from operating in the state and blocked the black community's boycotts in Tuskegee and Montgomery. With backing from the Ku Klux Klan, Patterson defeated a young George Wallace, who was backed by the NAACP in the Democratic primaries and was elected Governor in 1958. Paterson’s defeat of George Wallace is often credited with turning Wallace from a civil rights supporter to an ardent segregationist.

RFK had also made promises about JFK’s refusal to push for civil rights legislation to Jim Eastland (Mississippi), John McClellan (Arkansas), Sam Ervin (North Carolina) and Olin Johnson (South Carolina). They were obviously convinced of RFK’s honesty about this matter as they all voted for him when he was nominated as Attorney General.

RFK points out in an interview with John Bartlow Martin (1st March 1964) that he played a major role in getting the support of the racists in the Deep South: “I spoke a lot in the South, my area of chief responsibility even as campaign manager. I had a special responsibility in the South, a lot of friends in the South. And there was also the fact that I had worked against corruption in labor unions. A lot of them thought, Well, he must be against labor unions generally.”

After his election as president, JFK, as a favour to Martin Luther King, appointed Harris Wofford as his Special Assistant for Civil Rights. Wofford also served as chairman of the Subcabinet Group on Civil Rights.

Civil rights became a major issue in 1961. Transport segregation continued in some parts of the Deep South, so the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) began to organize Freedom Rides. After three days of training in non-violent techniques, black and white volunteers sat next to each other as they travelled through the Deep South. On 4th May, James Farmer, national director of CORE, and thirteen volunteers left Washington for Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. In Anniston, Alabama, one bus was destroyed and riders on another were attacked by men armed with clubs, bricks, iron pipes and knives.

During the Freedom Riders campaign RFK was phoning Jim Eastland “seven or eight or twelve times each day, about what was going to happen when they got to Mississippi and what needed to be done. That was finally decided was that there wouldn’t be any violence: as they came over the border, they’d lock them all up.” When they were arrested RFK issued a statement as Attorney General criticizing the activities of the Freedom Riders.

RFK sent John Seigenthaler to accompany the Freedom Riders. In Birmingham the passengers were greeted by members of the Ku Klux Klan with further acts of violence. At Montgomery, the state capital, a white mob beat the riders with chains and axe handles. Seigenthaler was knocked unconscious when he went to the aid of one of the passengers. The Ku Klux Klan hoped that this violent treatment would stop other young people from taking part in freedom rides. However, over the next six months over a thousand people took part in freedom rides.

JFK and RFK were now in a difficult position. With the local authorities unwilling to protect the Freedom Riders, JFK decided to send Byron White and 500 federal marshals from the North to do the job. RFK explained in his interview with Anthony Lewis: “I had this long relationship with John Patterson (the governor of Alabama). He was our great pal in the South. So he was doubly exercised at me – who was his friend and pal – to have involved him with suddenly surrounding this church with marshals and having marshals descend with no authority, he felt, on his cities… He couldn’t understand why the Kennedys were doing this to him.”

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAfreedomR.htm

JFK and RFK were strongly opposed to the strategy being used by Martin Luther King. In an interview with Anthony Lewis (6th December, 1964) he claimed that “there was a lot of feeling that the Negroes didn’t know exactly what they wanted and that they were not very well led”. This is a ridiculous statement to make, especially as JFK and RFK had no problem working out what the racists in the Deep South wanted from the administration.

RFK admitted to Anthony Lewis (22nd December, 1964) that in 1961 he came to the conclusion that King was closely associated with members of the American Communist Party and he asked J. Edgar Hoover “to make an intensive investigation of him, to see who his companions were and also to see what other activities he was involved in… They mad that intensive investigation, and I gave them also permission to put a tap on his phone.”

Hoover reported to RFK that was a “Marxist” and that he was very close to Stanley Levison, who was a “secret member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party”. Hoover informed King that Levison, who was a legal adviser to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was a member of Communist Party. However, when King refused to dismiss Levison, the Kennedys became convinced that King was himself a communist. We now know that Hoover was lying about Levison. Recently released FBI files show that they knew that Levison had broken away from the Communist Party in 1957. In fact, it is possible that by 1960 Levison had been turned and was working as a spy on the civil rights movement. He was questioned twice by the FBI, on 9th February and 4th March, 1960. He also testified at an executive session of the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security, on 30th April 1962. This testimony is still classified.

RFK admitted in an interview with Anthony Lewis (4th December, 1964) that he told Richard Russell, the leader in the Senate of the Deep South politicians fighting against civil rights legislation, that Martin Luther King was a Marxist. According to RFK: “He (Russell) said that he felt that Martin Luther King wasn’t a Communist. He was too smart to be a Communist.” RFK admitted that Russell was unwilling to use this information in a smear campaign against King.

JFK sacked Harris Wofford in 1962 as the Special Assistant to President Kennedy for Civil Rights because of his support for the Freedom Riders and the protests being led by Martin Luther King. RFK told Anthony Lewis (4th December, 1964): “Harris Wofford was very emotionally involved in all these matters and was rather in some areas a slight madman. I didn’t want to have someone in the Civil Rights Division who was dealing not from fact but was dealing from emotion… I wanted advice and ideas from somebody who had the same interests and motivation that I did.”

While it is true that JFK kept his promise to the racist politicians in the Deep South that he would not introduce civil rights legislation, he began to take a more enlightened view by 1963. This is also true of his views on the Cold War and the oil depletion tax. It has been argued that his relationship with Mary Pinchot Meyer may have been responsible for this change in political consciousness. Others have argued that it was the Cuban Missile Crisis that moved him to the left.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmeyerM.htm

The fine speech he made on television on the issue of civil rights on 11th June 1963 is often quoted in support of this more “enlightened” view on race. It included the following passage: “I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public - hotels, restaurants and theatres, retail stores and similar establishments. This seems to me to be an elementary right. I'm also asking Congress to authorize the Federal Government to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education. We have succeeded in persuading many districts to desegregate voluntarily. Dozens have admitted Negroes without violence.”

According to RFK the speech was mainly written by Ted Sorensen, based on ideas given to him by JFK. Sorenson was always the most liberal of his advisers. RFK claims that most members of staff, including “Kenny O’Donnell and Larry O’Brien and really, generally everybody in the White House was opposed to that.” The main opponent was Lyndon Johnson who argued against it on ideological grounds. Others agreed with the sentiments in the speech but believed it was impossible to get the legislation passed. RFK admitted that: “He (JFK) always felt that maybe that was going to be his political swan song.”

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKsorenson.htm

Good man. Though you might want to enquire off Websense, if you're interested, why their software excludes this site for reason 'potentially damaging content'.

My security software said it was ok to enter.

Email from Google:

I’m emailing on behalf of Google because I wondered if you and your Education Forum members would be interested in the YouTube Dream Teachers Competition. http://www.youtube.com/dreamteachers Allied to the TV programme, YouTube is looking for Britain’s most engaging real-life dream teachers. YouTube is asking these teachers to share their skills with the world via YouTube. In return they are offering prize money of £10,000 per subject. The closing date for the competition is next Tuesday 5 April but it’s a great opportunity for teachers of all 7 subjects in the running - Maths, English, History, Geography, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

The old slogan, "better dead than red", should be modified to more accurately portray conventional political "thought" in the US since Upton Sinclair's candidacy was crushed in California in 1934. "Better dead than anything other than right of center" is the most accurate way to sum it up.

Upton Sinclair said in a letter to Norman Thomas on 25th September, 1951: "The American People will take Socialism, but they won't take the label. I certainly proved it in the case of EPIC. Running on the Socialist ticket I got 60,000 votes, and running on the slogan to 'End Poverty in California' I got 879,000. I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie. There is no use attacking it by a front attack, it is much better to out-flank them."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Jupton.htm

This is a very funny song. Make sure you watch it to the very end.

Find out why some people considered Franklin D. Roosevelt a socialist while others believe he prevented the growth of communism in the US.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArooseveltF.htm

He was at best a moderate Social-Democrat, there was very little transfer of the economy to the public sector. The cases where this was done such as the TVA were cases where the private sector was unlikely to act. By the standards of countries just about any western European country his policies were rather conservative.

Thought he seems to have lowered the vote count for the Socialists and other leftist parties i doubt they ever would been able to elect more than a handful of mid-level candidates if FDR had not been elected.

Emanuel Celler, was a left-wing member of Congress when Roosevelt was elected. He wrote about his election in 1953. "The first days of the Roosevelt Administration charged the air with the snap and the zigzag of electricity. I felt it. We all felt it. It seemed as it you could hold out your hand and close it over the piece of excitement you had ripped away. It was the return of hope. The mind was elastic and capable of crowding idea into idea. New faces came to Washington - young faces of bright lads who could talk. It was contagious. We started to talk in the cloak rooms; we started to talk in committees. The shining new faces called on us and talked. In March of 1933 we had witnessed a revolution - a revolution in manner, in mores, in the definition of government. What before had been black or white sprang alive with color. The messages to Congress, the legislation; even the reports on the legislation took on the briskness of authority."

At the time we had a Labour Government in the UK. Our prime minister, Ramsay MacDonald, thought that the New Deal was too left-wing and refused to follow these policies. If you listen to his speeches on the subject of Social Security it reflects the changes that took place in Europe at the end of the Second World War. Roosevelt was the first leader in the western world to accept the theories of John Maynard Keynes. These are theories that are still supported by the non-communist left in Europe.

The Kennedys: Another side of Camelot by Sarah Hughes (The Independent)

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/the-kennedys-another-side-of-camelot-2256588.html

It cost a fortune to make, featured an all-star, awards-bait cast including Greg Kinnear, Tom Wilkinson and Katie Holmes, tackled one of America's most iconic periods, and was supposed to reposition America's History Channel as having more to offer than Second World War documentaries and reality shows about alligator hunters in Louisiana.

Instead The Kennedys, which airs in the US this Sunday, will do so not on the channel which originally commissioned the glossy eight-part mini series, but on the little known cable network ReelzChannel, which paid $7m for the US rights after a number of bigger names turned it down.

So what went wrong? On paper, The Kennedys, which cost $30m to make, had surefire-hit written all over it. The Kennedy family remains a source of fascination throughout America, with documentaries still clogging up the TV channels and magazines such as Vanity Fair continuing to dedicate acres of coverage to the doings of the 35th President, almost 50 years after his death, and an era popularly known as Camelot.

Yet the first sign that all was not right came before production had even begun, with complaints ranging from the banal (the casting of US tabloid favourite Holmes as Jackie) to the rather more serious (issues surrounding the script's accuracy). Concerns about the latter saw the left-wing documentary maker Robert Greenwald, best-known for his attack on Fox News, Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, attacking the script's most questionable scenes on his website, Stopkennedysmears.com. Greenwald was also among those who raised concerns regarding the political opinions of the series' executive producer, Joel Surnow, the man behind 24 and that rare thing, a Hollywood conservative.

From then on, the troubled production was rarely out of the news. President Kennedy's long-term advisor and scriptwriter, Theodore Sorensen, appeared shortly before his death in October 2010 in a video made by Greenwald in which he stated: "Every single conversation with the President in the Oval Office or elsewhere in which I, according to the script, participated, never happened."

A report in The New York Times suggested that the two historians asked to vet the show for accuracy (Steve Gillon, author of The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After and retired history professor and Pulitzer Prize nominee Robert Dallek) had concerns about the final product and had raised those concerns with History. (The production team behind the series have strongly refuted the Times piece, with Surnow calling suggestions that Gillon or Dallek were unhappy "a fiction").

Then in January the History Channel dropped the project, their first attempt at a scripted drama, announcing, rather portentously, that: "this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand" and referring to it as "historical fiction".

By now, rumours were flying about pressure from the Kennedy family, most notably from John's daughter Caroline and her cousin, Maria Kennedy Shriver. In particular A&E Television Networks (AETN), History's parent company, was rumoured to be worried about upsetting Caroline, who is currently editing a book of interviews with her mother, Jackie, for Hyperion Books, an offshoot of Disney, who part-own AETN. Those rumours only intensified after cable channels Showtime, FX and Starz also passed on the project, leaving the barely known Minneapolis-based Reelz to pay $7m for US broadcasting rights.

"I don't know if that's the case; I've heard the rumours, but that's all that they are, and I doubt that the Kennedys had the show pulled," says the series director Jon Cassar, who worked with Surnow on 24. "The fact is that any true story is going to have people who like it and people who object to it, and a true story about politics is even worse because people can not help but take sides. It's just instinctive, especially here in the US. It happened with the Reagan miniseries [which was dropped by CBS following complaints by conservative pressure groups about bias and eventually picked up by Showtime] and with the recent The Path to 9/11. People condemned them, a lot of times without even seeing the finished product."

The bullish Surnow, however, has little doubt that, Kennedys or not, his involvement ultimately led to the History Channel's refusal to show the series. "Because I am a known conservative, it appears that I was deemed unfit to be the person to produce this miniseries," he told The Hollywood Reporter last week. "I am a proud American, proud of the Kennedys for their accomplishments and their place in history, but none of that was given voice. I wasn't Emmy Award-winning Joel Surnow; I was Rush Limbaugh's and Roger Ailes's [President of Fox News Channel] friend Joel Surnow. And that's all that mattered."

Cassar strikes a more conciliatory note. "You have to realise that Greenwald was using a very early script to draw his conclusions. Do I think that Joel's political beliefs fuelled accusations of bias? In any true-life political story accusations of bias will come into play, but the thing that people should remember is that this programme was commissioned by the History Channel. We had two respected historians checking every detail and were making script changes to ensure accuracy right up to the 11th hour. It was important to everyone involved that we made no mistakes with the subject matter."

So what of the end product? Early reviews have been mixed. The right-leaning New York Post called it "one of the best, most riveting, historically accurate dramas... that has ever been done for TV", but Newsweek's senior writer Ramin Setoodeh was more dismissive, calling it "a strange production... not very believable," before adding: "You kind of roll your eyes at some parts, because it's really cheesy."

The truth, as so often, falls somewhere between the two views. Kinnear gives a strong performance as John, Wilkinson is suitably reptilian as paterfamilias Joe, the always watchable Barry Pepper excels as the conflicted Bobby and Holmes certainly looks the part as Jackie, although the feeling persists that she was cast more for her resemblance to the former First Lady than anything else.

As to the accuracy or otherwise, there are a few controversial scenes: Joe is shown engaging in sharp practices to ensure that his son wins a congressional seat and meeting with mob boss Sam Giancana to swing the Presidential election in his son's favour; John receives amphetamine injections for debilitating pain and spreads his famous charms widely, if not always that wisely. More surprisingly, Sorensen no longer features, his dialogue split between John and Bobby (to keep the focus on the main characters, according to the series makers). Most likely to enrage Kennedy sympathisers are the sexual scenes – apparently considerably toned down from the original script – including a moment where Joe gropes his secretary in front of his sons and another where he fondles an aide as his long-suffering wife, Rose, looks impassively on.

But even these are hardly bombshells and the worst you could say about the series is that it's a little soapy at some points and a little stilted at others. Indeed, as Kinnear told Entertainment Weekly: "I don't think there's anything in there that you can't read in my daughter's school library."

Certainly the furore in the US has done little to put off foreign investors. The show will air on the UK's History Channel on 7 April before being repeated on BBC2 in either May or June and has also been sold to France and Canada. Meanwhile, proving that the Kennedy's erstwhile glamour still exerts a tug on American hearts, the tiny Reelz, whose owner Stan E Hubbard comes from a prominent Minnesotan Republican family, has seen its subscription rates increase from three million to over five million since they bought the drama.

Ultimately, despite the problems associated with bringing the series to the small screen, Cassar is pleased with the finished product. "I think people will be surprised," he says. "They are expecting some sort of soap opera affair and it isn't that. There was a lot of press coverage about the casting of Katie, but she gives a great performance. I couldn't have asked for more. All the actors put in a lot of work. They read round the subject, they did the best that they could to present an accurate picture of the relationship between these people at this particular time. And I'm proud of that, I'm proud of what we've achieved."

TES Resources provides ideas for lessons. Discover over 50,000 free tried and tested classroom resources that bring your lessons to life.

http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resources/

Find out why some people considered Franklin D. Roosevelt a socialist while others believe he prevented the growth of communism in the US.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArooseveltF.htm

It is amazing that this very important story did not appear on the BBC news yesterday (radio or television).

Thank you!

Disk Space Allowed 1800MB

Disk Space In Use 1936MB

Admins are able to manage attachments in Admin CP - not I for risk of shouts of bias and conspiracy!

Members must also be encouraged to manage their own attachments with a little more circumspection. For instance does your image REALLY need to be uploaded to this forum when a link to its location elsewhere would suffice? Images should be compressed first before being uploaded. This clearly is not taking place.

I am not sure this is the problem. It will not let me upload the avatars of new members. Invision said it is trying to sort the problem out.

National Geographic Television is doing a documentary on the JFK Assassination. I have been approached by them for help with this production. I am not interested in doing this. However, I am willing to pass on the emails of anyone else who is.

Everything looks normal in the board settings; I'm guessing it is a bug beyond our control. We'll have to get a job logged with IPS, but we have to wait for John or Andy to do that as they are the registered owners.

I have informed them of the problem.

Mungo Park

Mungo Park was never against slavery but Travels to the Interiors of Africa, published in 1799, did inspire the anti-slavery movement.

Park left for Africa on 22nd May 1795. He arrived in Pisania on the Gambia River in July. Soon after arriving he developed malaria and he spent the next five months in the house of Dr John Laidley, a long-established slave-trader. After his recovery, accompanied by two slaves, Park began to explore the area. He encountered the Mandingo tribe that were part of the Mali Empire. "The Mandingoes, generally speaking, are of a mild, sociable, and obliging disposition. The men are commonly above the middle size, well shaped, strong, and capable of enduring great labour; the women are good-natured, sprightly, and agreeable. The dress of both sexes is composed of cotton cloth, of their own manufacture; that of the men is a loose frock, not unlike a surplice, with drawers which reach half way down the leg; and they wear sandals on their feet, and white cotton caps on their heads. The women's dress consists of two pieces of cloth, each of which they wrap round the waist, which, hanging down to the ankles, answers the purpose of a petticoat: the other is thrown negligently over the bosom and shoulders."

Most of the people he encountered were slaves: "I suppose, not more than one-fourth part of the inhabitants at large; the other three-fourths are in a state of hopeless and hereditary slavery; and are employed in cultivating the land, in the care of cattle, and in servile offices of all kinds, much in the same manner as the slaves in the West Indies. I was told, however, that the Mandingo master can neither deprive his slave of life, nor sell him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his conduct; or, in other words, bringing him to a public trial; but this degree of protection is extended only to the native of domestic slave. Captives taken in war, and those unfortunate victims who are condemned to slavery for crimes or insolvency, and, in short, all those unhappy people who are brought down from the interior countries for sale, have no security whatever, but may be treated and disposed of in all respects as the owner thinks proper. It sometimes happens, indeed, when no ships are on the coast, that a humane and considerate master incorporates his purchased slaves among his domestics; and their offspring at least, if not the parents, become entitled to all the privileges of the native class."

He commented in his journal: "And although the African mode of living was at first unpleasant to me, yet I found, at length, that custom surmounted trifling inconveniences, and made everything palatable and easy." By the end of the year Park had covered over 300 miles, and reached the Bambara state of Kaarta. Soon afterwards he was captured by the Moors. He was held for three months before being allowed to continue his journey.

Park, who had lost his two slaves, continued his search for the Niger River. He eventually reached it at Ségou. He wrote in his journal: "I saw with infinite pleasure the great object of my mission; the long sought for majestic Niger, glittering to the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly to the eastward". However, the ruler denied him entry to his city. After reaching Bamako he turned west. Severely ill with fever, he struggled on to Kamalia where he found a friendly Muslim trader, Karfa Taura, who agreed to look after him.

On 10 June 1797 Park and Taura reached Pisania. The explorer recorded in his journal that this was a slave-trading area: "The slaves are commonly secured by putting the right leg of one, and the left of another into the same pair of fetters. By supporting the fetters with string they can walk very slowly. Every four slaves are likewise fastened together by the necks. They were led out in their fetters every morning to the shade of the tamarind tree where they were encouraged to sing diverting songs to keep up their spirits; for although some of them sustained the hardships of their situation with amazing fortitude, the greater part were very much dejected, and would sit all day in the sort of sullen melancholy with their eyes fixed upon the ground."

Park joined an American slave ship, Charlestown, where he was employed as a surgeon, bound for South Carolina. He later recalled the journal: "The number of slaves received on board this vessel... was one hundred and thirty; of whom about twenty-five had been, I suppose, of free condition in Africa, as most of them, being Bushreens, could write a little Arabic. Nine of them had become captives in the religious war between Abdulkader and Damel.... My conversation with them, in their native language, gave them great comfort; and as the surgeon was dead, I consented to act in a medical capacity in his room for the remainder of the voyage. They had in truth need of every consolation in my power to bestow; not that I observed any wanton acts of cruelty practised either by the master or the seamen towards them; but the mode of confining and securing Negroes in the American slave ships, owing chiefly to the weakness of their crews, being abundantly more rigid and severe than in British vessels employed in the same traffic, made these poor creatures to suffer greatly, and a general sickness prevailed amongst them. Besides the three who died on the Gambia, and six or eight while we remained at Goree, eleven perished at sea, and many of the survivors were reduced to a very weak and emaciated condition."

He eventually arrived back to England after an absence of two years, seven months. Park was able to provide the African Association with a detailed map of the area that he explored. Mungo Park's book, Travels to the Interiors of Africa, was published in 1799. It was a best-seller with three editions published during the first year. His biographer, Christopher Fyfe, has pointed out: "Written in a straightforward, unpretentious, narrative style, it gave readers their first realistic description of everyday life in west Africa, depicted without the censorious, patronizing contempt which so often has disfigured European accounts of Africa... "

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USASpark.htm

I have just read Michael Smith's Six: A History of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (2010). He argues that two other MI6 agents could have been involved in the killing of Rasputin:

Cudbert Thornhill

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSthornhill.htm

Paul Dukes

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSdukes.htm

John Newton?

You can find my page on John Newton here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SnewtonJ.htm

I have mixed feelings about Newton and would not describe him as a "hero" of the campaign against slavery. At the age of eleven he went to sea with his father. A few years later he became a crew member of a slave-ship. He later recalled that he was based in Sierra Leone "for the purpose of purchasing and collecting slaves, to sell to the vessels that arrived from Europe."

On 21st March, 1748, Newton was aboard The Greyhound when he encountered a severe north Atlantic storm. Newton resorted to saying his prayers and because he survived he developed a new faith in God. Newton began to read the Bible and other religious books. However, he continued to work on ships taking slaves from the Guinea coast and the West Indies (1748–9). He became master of slave-trading ships, The Duke of Argyle (1750–51) and The African (1752–54). Bruce Hindmarsh has argued "Newton has sometimes been accused of hypocrisy for holding strong religious convictions at the same time as being active in the slave trade, praying above deck while his human cargo was in abject misery below deck."

Newton did not write about the evils of the slave-trade until 1787 when he published Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade (1787). He admitted that this was "a confession, which... comes too late....It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders."

Ottobah Cugoano

Ottobah Cugoano was born in Africa in about 1757. As a child he was kidnapped by slave-traders. He later recalled: "I was early snatched away from my native country, with about eighteen or twenty more boys and girls, as we were playing in a field. We lived but a few days' journey from the coast where we were kidnapped... Some of us attempted, in vain, to run away, but pistols and cutlasses were soon introduced, threatening, that if we offered to stir, we should all lie dead on the spot."

Cugoano was placed on a slave-ship bound for the West Indies. "We were taken in the ship that came for us, to another that was ready to sail from Cape Coast. When we were put into the ship, we saw several black merchants coming on board, but we were all drove into our holes, and not suffered to speak to any of them. In this situation we continued several days in sight of our native land. And when we found ourselves at last taken away, death was more preferable than life; and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the flames: but we were betrayed by one of our own countrywomen, who slept with some of the headmen of the ship, for it was common for the dirty filthy sailors to take the African women and lie upon their bodies; but the men were chained and pent up in holes. It was the women and boys which were to burn the ship, with the approbation and groans of the rest; though that was prevented, the discovery was likewise a cruel bloody scene."

On his arrival he was sold as a slave to plantation owners in Grenada. According to Cugoano he was treated very badly: "Being in this dreadful captivity and horrible slavery, without any hope of deliverance, for about eight or nine months, beholding the most dreadful scenes of misery and cruelty, and seeing my miserable companions often cruelly lashed, and, as it were, cut to pieces, for the most trifling faults; this made me often tremble and weep, but I escaped better than many of them. For eating a piece of sugar-cane, some were cruelly lashed, or struck over the face, to knock their teeth out. Some of the stouter ones, I suppose, often reproved, and grown hardened and stupid with many cruel beatings and lashings, or perhaps faint and pressed with hunger and hard labour, were often committing trespasses of this kind, and when detected, they met with exemplary punishment. Some told me they had their teeth pulled out, to deter others, and to prevent them from eating any cane in future. Thus seeing my miserable companions and countrymen in this pitiful, distressed, and horrible situation, with all the brutish baseness and barbarity attending it, could not but fill my little mind horror and indignation."

Ottobah Cugoano remained in the Caribbean until purchased by an English merchant. He was taken to England in 1772 where he was set free and was baptized "John Stuart" at St James's Church, Piccadilly on 20 August 1773. Later he entered the service of the royal artist, Richard Cosway.

Cugoano became one of the leaders of London's black community. In 1786 he played an important role in the case of Henry Demane, a black man who had been kidnapped and was about to be shipped to the West Indies as a slave. He contacted Granville Sharp, who managed to get Demane rescued before the ship left port. According to his biographer, Vincent Carretta: "Cugoano was one of the first identifiable Afro-Britons actively engaged in the fight against slavery. In 1786 he joined William Green, another Afro-Briton, in successfully appealing to Granville Sharp to save a black person, Harry Demane, from being forced into West Indian slavery. With Olaudah Equiano... he continued the struggle against slavery with public letters to London newspapers."

Cugoano was taught to read and write. In 1787, with the help of his friend, Olaudah Equiano, he published an account of his experiences, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa. Copies of his book was sent to George III, Edmund Burke and other leading politicians. He failed to persuade the king to change his opinions and like other members of the royal family remained against abolition of the slave trade. In his book Cugoano was the first African to demand publicly the total abolition of the slave trade and the freeing of all slaves.

In Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787) he criticised religious and secular pro-slavery arguments and demanded the immediate abolition of the slave trade and emancipation of all slaves. He also called for punishments for slave owners, including enslavement by their former slaves.

In 1793 Cugoano upset William Wilberforce by describing him as a hypocrite when he refused to support the campaign to end slavery in the British Empire. Vincent Carretta has pointed out: "No record has been found of Cugoano's either having opened a school or having participated in settling Sierra Leone.... The cause, date, and place of Cugoano's death, and the date and place of his burial are unknown."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAScugoano.htm

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, an Igbo village in the kingdom of Benin (now Nigeria) in 1745. His father was one of the province's elders who decided disputes. According to James Walvin "Equiano described his father as a local Igbo eminence and slave owner".

When he was about eleven, Equiano was kidnapped and after six months of captivity he was brought to the coast where he encountered white men for the first time. Equiano later recalled in his autobiography, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of America (1787): "The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions, too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country."

Olaudah Equiano was placed on a slave-ship bound for Barbados. "I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a greeting in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. The air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died. The wretched situation was again aggravated by the chains, now unsupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable."

After a two-week stay in the West Indies Equiano was sent to the English colony of Virginia. In 1754 he was purchased by Captain Henry Pascal, a British naval officer. He was given the new name of Gustavus Vassa and was brought back to England. According to his biographer, James Walvin: "For seven years he served on British ships as Pascal's slave, participating in or witnessing several battles of the Seven Years' War. Fellow sailors taught him to read and write and to understand mathematics. He was also converted to Christianity, reading the Bible regularly on board ship. Baptized at St Margaret's Church, Westminster, on 9 February 1759, he struggled with his faith until finally opting for Methodism."

By the end of the Seven Years' War he reached the rank of able seaman. Although he was freed by Pascal he was re-enslaved in London in 1762 and shipped to the West Indies. For four years he worked for a Montserrat based merchant, sailing between the islands and North America. "I was often a witness to cruelties of every kind, which were exercised on my unhappy fellow slaves. I used frequently to have different cargoes of new Negroes in my care for sale; and it was almost a constant practice with our clerks, and other whites, to commit violent depredations on the chastity of the female slaves; and these I was, though with reluctance, obliged to submit to at all times, being unable to help them." James Walvin points out that "Equiano... also trading to his own advantage as he did so. Ever alert to commercial openings, Equiano accumulated cash and in 1766 bought his own freedom."

Equiano now worked closely with Granvile Sharpe and Thomas Clarkson in the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Equiano spoke at a large number of public meetings where he described the cruelty of the slave trade. In 1787 Equiano helped his friend, Offobah Cugoano, to published an account of his experiences, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of America. Copies of his book was sent to George III and leading politicians. He failed to persuade the king to change his opinions and like other members of the royal family remained against abolition of the slave trade.

Equiano published his own autobiography, The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African in 1789. He travelled throughout England promoting the book. It became a bestseller and was also published in Germany (1790), America (1791) and Holland (1791). He also spent over eight months in Ireland where he made several speeches on the evils of the slave trade. While he was there he sold over 1,900 copies of his book.

David Dabydeen has argued: "With Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce and Granville Sharpe, Equiano was a major abolitionist, working ceaselessly to expose the nature of the shameful trade. He travelled throughout Britain with copies of his book, and thousands upon thousands attended his readings. When John Wesley lay dying, it was Equiano's book he took up to reread."

On 7th April 1792 Equiano married Susanna Cullen (1761-1796) of Soham, Cambridgeshire. The couple had two children, Anna Maria (16th October 1793) and Johanna (11th April 1795). However, Anna Maria died when she was only four years old. Equiano's wife died soon afterwards. During this period he was a close friend of Thomas Hardy, secretary of the London Corresponding Society. Equiano became an active member of this group that campaigned in favour of universal suffrage.

Olaudah Equiano was appointed to the expedition to settle former black slaves in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. However, he died at his home at Paddington Street, Marylebone, on 31st March, 1797 before he could complete the task.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Sequiano.htm

I have the Beeb on I was surprised to see that "Red Ed" Milliband supported the no-fly zone.

No surprise in the UK. As Milliband stated in the House of Commons today, unlike the illegal invasion of Iraq, the UN voted on the decision to create a "no-fly zone". Unlike some of my left-wing friends, I fully support the UN decision and think that this will trigger a rebellion against Gadhafi from within. I think Obama has played a blinder. By taking a back-seat he has stopped China and Russia applying a veto.

Thomas Fowell Buxton was born at Castle Hedingham, Essex on 1st April 1786. His mother was a member of the Society of Friends and she introduced him to the famous Quaker family, the Gurneys from Norwich. Thomas became a close friend of Joseph Gurney and his sister, Elizabeth Fry.

Although a member of the Church of England, Buxton began attending meetings of the Society of Friends with the Gurney family. After studying at Trinity College in Dublin, Buxton married Joseph's sister, Hannah Gurney in 1807. Buxton became involved in the Quaker campaign for social reform. This included raising money for the weavers in London who were suffering from the economic consequences of the textile factory system.

Buxton's biographer, Olwyn Mary Blouet has pointed out: "In 1808 Buxton joined the brewers Truman, Hanbury & Co. of Spitalfields, London, where his maternal uncle was a partner. His mother had stressed the importance of philanthropy and, encouraged by William Allen, he became involved in various charitable activities in Spitalfields, especially those connected with education, the Bible Society, and the relief of distressed weavers. He defended the Bible Society in 1812 against the attacks of Herbert Marsh, bishop of Peterborough. In 1816, when hunger was widespread in Spitalfields, Buxton delivered a forcible speech, based on his own investigations of conditions, at a meeting at the Mansion House which raised £43,369."

Buxton also supported Elizabeth Fry and her work for prison reform. In 1817 he joined Fry's Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate. The following year he published An Inquiry into Prison Discipline, a book based on his investigations of Newgate Prison. The book went through five editions in a year and was translated into French and widely circulated in Europe. Its publication led to the formation of the Society for the Reformation of Prison Discipline, of which Buxton was a committee member.

In 1818 Buxton was elected as MP for Weymouth. His friend, Joseph Gurney, wrote to him arguing: "Do not let thy independence of all party be the means of leading thee away from sound Whiggism. Let us take special care to avoid the spirit of Toryism. I mean that spirit which bears the worst things with endless apathy, because they are old."

In the House of Commons Buxton worked for changes in the criminal law, prison reform and the abolition of the slave trade. In 1820 he became involved in the campaign to abolish capital punishment. He argued that "to inflict death needlessly, can be called by no other name than that of legal murder." Although he never achieved this, he was largely responsible for reducing the number of crimes punishable by death reduced from over two hundred to eight. Following the deaths of his eldest son and three daughters, during an outbreak of whooping cough, he moved with his wife and four remaining children from Hampstead to Cromer Hall in Norfolk. Later, another son died of consumption.

In 1823 Buxton helped form the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. In a speech in Parliament he argued: "The slave sees the mother of his children stripped naked and flogged unmercifully; he sees his children sent to market, to be sold at the best price they will fetch; he sees in himself not a man, but a thing - an implement of husbandry, a machine to produce sugar, a beast of burden!" His biographer, Olwyn Mary Blouet, pointed out: "In May 1823 Buxton began the parliamentary campaign against colonial slavery by introducing a motion in the House of Commons for the gradual abolition of slavery. It was carried with the addition of some words proposed by Canning to protect planters' interests. The government issued a circular to colonial authorities, recommending ameliorative reforms, but the proposals needed the support of colonial legislatures, which was not forthcoming."

After William Wilberforce retired in 1825, Buxton became the leader of the campaign in the House of Commons. Buxton, with the help of Thomas Clarkson, set about collecting information about slavery and compiling demographic statistics. In a speech on 23rd May 1826 he described the conditions on board a slave-ship: "The voyage, the horrors of which are beyond description. For example, the mode of packing. The hold of a slave vessel is from two to four feet high. It is filled with as many human beings as it will contain. They are made to sit down with their heads between their knees: first, a line is placed close to the side of the vessel; then another line, and then the packer, armed with a heavy club, strikes at the feet of this last line in order to make them press as closely as possible against those behind... Thus it is suffocating for want of air, starving for want of food, parched with thirst for want of water, these poor creatures are compelled to perform a voyage of fourteen hundred miles. No wonder the mortality is dreadful!"

On 15th April 1831, Buxton introduced his resolution for the abolition of slavery, but once again this attempt at legislation failed. The 1832 General Election resulted in a reforming Whig government. The House of Commons now passed a measure to end slavery in the colonies. The Slavery Abolition Act received the royal assent on 23rd August 1833. The colonial legislatures carried the act into effect, and emancipation day was 1st August 1834.

In 1839 Buxton published The African Slave Trade and Its Remedy. In the book Buxton urged the British government to make anti-slave trade treaties with the different rulers in Africa. The government accepted Buxton's suggestion and in 1841 they sent an expedition to the Niger River Delta. A missionary headquarters was established and negotiations began but the party suffered so many deaths from fever they were recalled to London. Although Buxton did not accompany the group, it was later claimed that his health was affected by the failure of the project.

Thomas Fowell Buxton died at Northrepps Hall, Norfolk, on 19th February 1845, and was buried in the ruined chancel of Overstrand Church.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REfowell.htm

Elizabeth Heyrick

Elizabeth Coltman was born in Leicester on 4th December 1769. Her father, John Coltman, a committed Unitarian, was a successful worsted manufacturer. Her mother, Elizabeth Cartwright (1737–1811), was a published poet and book reviewer. Her parents held progressive political views and as a young women she was introduced to the ideas of Tom Paine.

On 10th March 1787 Elizabeth married John Heyrick, a Methodist lawyer. Elizabeth Heyrick was still childless when her husband died of a heart-attack eight years later. According to her biographer: "The marriage was said to have been stormy, but she mourned fervently, with lifelong observance of the anniversary of his death. They had no children."

After the death of her husband Elizabeth moved back into her parents home. Elizabeth, now a member of the Society of Friends, renounced all worldly pleasures and devoted herself to social reform. She campaigned against bull-baiting and became a prison visitor. Elizabeth also wrote eighteen political pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects including, the Corn Laws and the harsh treatment of vagrants.

Isobel Grundy has argued: "Elizabeth Heyrick's philanthropy has been better recognized than her executive acumen, her grasp of power systems and of pressure-group politics, and her forceful analysis of the interdependence of social evils... Her twenty or more books and pamphlets also address war, prisons, corporal punishment, the level of wages and the plight of the industrial poor, election issues, and vagrancy legislation. In 1809 she stopped a bull-baiting at Bonsall in Derbyshire by purchasing the bull."

Heyrick's main concern was the campaign against slavery. Elizabeth organised a sugar boycott in Leicester and with the help of Mary Lloyd, Lucy Townsend, Sophia Sturge and Sarah Wedgwood helped to form the Birmingham Ladies Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves (later the group changed its name to the Female Society for Birmingham).

In 1824 Elizabeth Heyrick published her pamphlet Immediate not Gradual Abolition. In her pamphlet Heyrick argued passionately in favour of the immediate emancipation of the slaves in the British colonies. This differed from the official policy of the Anti-Slavery Society that believed in gradual abolition. The leadership of the organisation attempted to suppress information about the existence of this pamphlet and William Wilberforce gave out instructions for leaders of the movement not to speak at women's anti-slavery societies.

Most of the Women's Anti-Slavery groups in Britain supported Heyrick's call for the immediate emancipation of slaves. In 1830, Heyrick who was the leader of the Leicester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and treasurer of the Female Society for Birmingham, had helped to establish a network of women's anti-slavery groups and her pamphlet, Immediate not Gradual Abolition, was distributed and discussed at meetings all over the country.

In 1830, the Female Society for Birmingham submitted a resolution to the National Conference of the Anti-Slavery Society calling for the organisation to campaign for an immediate end to slavery in the British colonies. Heyrick, who was treasurer of the organisation suggested a new strategy to persuade the male leadership to change its mind on this issue. She suggested that the society should threaten to withdraw its funding of the Anti-Slavery Society if it did not support this resolution. This was a serious threat as it was one of the largest local society donors to central funds, and also had great influence over the network of ladies associations which supplied over a fifth of all donations. At the conference in May 1830, the Anti-Slavery Society agreed to drop the words "gradual abolition" from its title. It also agreed to support Female Society's plan for a new campaign to bring about immediate abolition.

Elizabeth Heyrick died on 18th October 1831 and therefore did not live to see the passing of the 1833 Abolition of Slavery Act.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REheyrick.htm

Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp, the ninth and youngest son of Thomas Sharp (1693–1758) and his wife, Judith Wheler,was born in Durham on 10th November 1735. The son of the archdeacon of Northumberland, and the grandson of John Sharp, the Archbishop of York, he decided against a career in the Church of England and instead served an apprenticeship in May 1750 to a Quaker linen draper in London.

According to his biographer, Grayson Ditchfield: "These contacts encouraged Sharp to engage in theological disputation, and he used his leisure to acquire that largely self-taught knowledge of Greek and Hebrew which formed an important basis for his career as a writer."

In 1757 he completed his apprenticeship and became a freeman of the City of London as a member of the Fishmongers' Company. The following year he obtained a post as a clerk in the Ordnance Office at the Tower of London. In 1764 he received promotion to the minuting branch as a clerk-in-ordinary.

In 1765 Sharp was living with his brother, a surgeon in Wapping. One day Jonathan Strong, a black man, arrived at the house. Strong was a slave who had been so badly beaten by his master, David Lisle, that he was close to death. Sharp took Strong to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he had to spend four months recovering from his injuries. Strong told Sharp how Lisle, had brought him to England from Barbados. Lisle had apparently been dissatisfied with Strong's services and after beating him with his pistol, had thrown him onto the streets.

After Jonathan Strong had regained his health, David Lisle paid two men to recapture him. When Sharp heard the news he took Lisle to court claiming that as Strong was in England he was no longer a slave. However, it was not until 1768 that the courts ruled in Strong's favour. The case received national publicity and Sharp was able to use this in his campaign against slavery.

In 1769 Sharp published A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous Tendency of Tolerating Slavery. Soon afterwards he began to correspond and collaborate with the Quaker abolitionist Anthony Benezet and the Philadelphia abolitionist Benjamin Rush. He also took up the cases of other slaves such as Thomas Lewis and James Somersett, and convinced the courts that "as soon as any slave sets foot upon English territory, he becomes free."

Granville Sharp developed radical political opinions about other issues as well. He argued in favour of parliamentary reform and an increase in the low wages paid to farm labourers. Sharp also supported the American colonists against the British government and as a result, had to resign from the civil service in 1776.

Sharp became a member of the Society for Constitutional Information that had been formed by Major John Cartwright in 1780. Grayson Ditchfield points out that "Sharp corresponded with Christopher Wyvill, John Jebb, and other reformers; he wrote strongly against triennial parliaments as an insufficient measure; and he supported the legislative independence of the Irish parliament. In the belief that the ancient constitution represented people rather than property, and as an alternative to the universal suffrage for which he was not an enthusiast, Sharp advocated a revival of the Anglo-Saxon system of frankpledge. It would involve a system of administration from tithing courts to parliament, which would secure the involvement in government, and the preservation of the rights, of an active citizenry."

In 1787 Sharp and his friend Thomas Clarkson decided to form the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Although Sharp and Clarkson were both Anglicans, nine out of the twelve members on the committee, were Quakers. Influential figures such as John Wesley and Josiah Wedgwood gave their support to the campaign. Sharp was the only member of the committee who wanted the immediate abolition of slavery itself as well as an end to the slave-trade. Later the society persuaded William Wilberforce, the MP for Hull, to be their spokesman in the House of Commons.

Every year William Wilberforce introduced his motion for abolition in the House of Commons, but Parliament refused to pass the bill. Sharp and Thomas Clarkson became extremely unpopular when they supported the French Revolution. According to Grayson Ditchfield: "In common with many radicals Sharp compared the state of slavery to that of political reformers allegedly repressed by an unjust government in his own country. Like them, too, he was more concerned with constitutional issues than with the social grievances of the poor in Britain."

After the passing of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807 Sharp joined with Thomas Clarkson and Thomas Fowell Buxton to form the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. However, Granville Sharp was not to see the final abolition of slavery as he died on 6th July, 1813 and was buried in Fulham churchyard seven years later.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REsharp.htm

John Clarkson

Thomas Clarkson sent his brother, 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 1196 settlers, to Sierra Leone, which they reached on 6th March, 1792. Although sixty-five of the Nova Scotians died during the voyage, they continued to support Clarkson who they called "their Moses".

John Clarkson became governor of the colony that was appropriately named as Freetown. However, as Hugh Brogan has argued: "It was the understanding between Clarkson and the Nova Scotians that got the colony through its very difficult first year. Clarkson's services were at first generally recognized. But great strains arose between him and the company directors, partly religious (he was not sympathetic to the insistent evangelicalism of Henry Thornton, the company chairman), partly because of the usual tension between head office and the man on the spot, and above all because Clarkson insisted on putting the views and interests of the Nova Scotians first, whereas the directors wanted the enterprise to show an early profit, so that they could compete successfully with the slave traders and bring to Africa Christianity." Clarkson was dismissed as governor on 23rd April 1793.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REclarksonJ.htm