8. Seven Stars
Why we chose this location
Whilst all pubs have history attached to them, the Seven Stars will best be remembered for its links to the abolition of slavery.
Bristol was a city that had made huge sums from the brokerage of slaves but on May 22nd 1787, the association for the abolition of the slave trade was founded and immediately afterwards Thomas Clarkson, one of the founders, came to Bristol.
Thomas Clarkson and the Seven Stars
He was introduced to John Harford, Dr Camplin, Dean Tucker and Matthew Wright and other Quakers. Through them, he was introduced to Thompson, landlord of the Seven Stars. He was, Clarkson says, a very intelligent man who was accustomed to receive sailors when discharged at the end of their voyages, to board them and find them berths on other ships. He avoided all connection with the slave trade, declaring that the credit of his house would be ruined if he was known to send those who put themselves under his care, into it.
Clarkson in disguise
With Thompson as a guide, Clarkson, an English gentlemen disguised himself as a miner, with blackened face and wearing working clothes hiding his true identity made nineteen visits to various public houses and inns in the area frequented by masters of slavers to pick up hands. Setting out about twelve midnight, and usually finished between two and three a.m. From his own observations and from information given him by Thompson, Clarkson was assured that his suspicions were correct, and that crews were obtained by lies and fraud.
Clarkson later gave Thompson credit in his journals for the help and support given to him “I perceived in a little time the advantage of having cultivated an acquaintance with Thompson of the Seven Stars. For nothing could now pass in Bristol relative to the seamen employed in this trade, but it was soon brought to me.”
This information was taken from the Seven Stars website: https://7stars.co.uk/history/
Several plaques were added to the Seven Stars to commemorate the landmark, you can read more about them here.
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