>>> However I think your comment implies that this undermines his specific claims more than it actually does. <<<
I assure you this is not the case. I don’t intend to convey an amount of underminding. I rather intend to convey the existence of conflicting evidence and scholarly opinions.
>>> I can’t access the whole of your source but this paragraph itself seems like a substantial exaggeration to me. I don’t think Oldfield is offering a whole litany of Clarkson’s mistakes and exaggerations, only a very small set of critiques. [...] Moreover the whole thesis of Oldfield’s article is that “the Committee’s activities [...] were central to the success of the early abolitionist movement”, which tends to supports the heroic-Clarkson narrative. <<<
That’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. I haven’t only cited historians that are detractors of Clarkson. Oldfield is (as you say) quite sympathetic to Clarkson, but he still does his due diligence.
>>> What’s the source for him burning his papers? <<<
He himself. He merrily informs his executor about it in a letter.[1] He did it too safe his executor the trouble to read through it all. His biographer Wilson complains about only some letters and religious essays remaining.[2]
>>> I still kinda think that he probably is representing himself fairly accurately. The claims that can be checked usually check out pretty well. Even under great scrutiny there are very few clear, glaring errors to point to. <<<
I think that’s a defensible judgment. But we don’t know. Some people only lie about stuff that can’t be easily checked.
>>> However I think your comment implies that this undermines his specific claims more than it actually does. <<<
I assure you this is not the case. I don’t intend to convey an amount of underminding. I rather intend to convey the existence of conflicting evidence and scholarly opinions.
>>> I can’t access the whole of your source but this paragraph itself seems like a substantial exaggeration to me. I don’t think Oldfield is offering a whole litany of Clarkson’s mistakes and exaggerations, only a very small set of critiques. [...] Moreover the whole thesis of Oldfield’s article is that “the Committee’s activities [...] were central to the success of the early abolitionist movement”, which tends to supports the heroic-Clarkson narrative. <<<
That’s exactly the point I’m trying to make. I haven’t only cited historians that are detractors of Clarkson. Oldfield is (as you say) quite sympathetic to Clarkson, but he still does his due diligence.
>>> What’s the source for him burning his papers? <<<
He himself. He merrily informs his executor about it in a letter.[1] He did it too safe his executor the trouble to read through it all. His biographer Wilson complains about only some letters and religious essays remaining.[2]
>>> I still kinda think that he probably is representing himself fairly accurately. The claims that can be checked usually check out pretty well. Even under great scrutiny there are very few clear, glaring errors to point to. <<<
I think that’s a defensible judgment. But we don’t know. Some people only lie about stuff that can’t be easily checked.
T. Clarkson to A. Haldane, n.d. [1845], Thomas Clarkson Papers, St John’s College Library, Cambridge University
Ellen Gibson Wilson (1989), Thomas Clarkson: A Biography, p. 4