Clarkson determined
that this man should be produced as a witness, and knew no better way
than to go personally to all the ships in ordinary, until the
individual was found. He actually visited every seaport town, and
boarded every ship, till in the very _last_ port, and on the very
_last_ ship, which remained, the individual was found, and found
to be possessed of just the facts and information which were
necessary. By the labors of Clarkson and his contemporaries an
incredible excitement was produced throughout all England. The
pictures and models of slave ships, accounts of the cruelties
practised in the trade, were circulated with an industry which left
not a man, woman, or child in England uninstructed. In disseminating
information, and in awakening feeling and conscience, the women of
England were particularly earnest, and labored with that whole-hearted
devotion which characterizes the sex.
It seems that after the committee had published the facts, and sent
them to every town in England, Clarkson followed them up by journeying
to all the places, to see that they were read and attended to. Of the
state of feeling at this time Clarkson gives the following account:--
"And first I may observe, that there was no town through which I
passed in which there was not some one individual who had left off the
use of sugar.
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