AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED BY CLARKSON, 17 JANUARY 1811 FROM LONDON, TO WILLIAM FREND, DISCUSSING DR. WILLIAM DICKSON'S UPCOMING PUBLICATION ABOUT SLAVERY: "MY FRIEND, AND OLD FELLOW-LABOURER, DR. DICKSON IS GOING TO PUBLISH A WORK, NOT ONLY SHEWING HOW SLAVES MAY BE GRADUALLY BROUGHT FROM A STATE OF SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, BUT ALSO THAT THE PURCHASE OF NEW NEGROES IS ALWAYS ATTENDED WITH LOSS. THIS LATTER PROPOSITION, IF REDUCED TO AN AXIOM, WOULD HAVE ITS MIGHT, AND HE IS THEREFORE VERY DESIROUS, THAT YOU, AS AN ABLE MATHEMATICIAN, SHOULD GIVE HIM ABOUT 3 HOURS [IT WILL REQUIRE NO MORE] TO INVESTIGATE IN YOUR OWN CLOSET HIS NEW THEOREM. I HAVE NO DOUBT, FROM THE GREAT INTEREST YOU HAVE ALWAYS TAKEN IN THIS GREAT QUESTION, THAT YOU WILL MOST READILY COMPLY WITH DR. DICKSON'S REQUEST. WHEN I COME TO TOWN IN MAY, I WILL CALL UPON YOU. YOURS TRULY, T. CLARKSON "
London: January 17, 1811. One page, 7" x 9," written on recto in neat ink manuscript. With a four-line ink manuscript note on verso, signed by the activist Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan: "This letter was addressed to my father William Frend who had worked with Thomas Clarkson some years before..... More