Editing St John's College, Cambridge (section)

===St John's and the abolition of the British slave trade===
[[File:The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, 1840 by Benjamin Robert Haydon.jpg|thumb|St John's alumnus [[Thomas Clarkson]] addresses delegates at the 1840 convention of the [[British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society]]]]

Several of St John's graduates were involved in the efforts to abolish the British Slave Trade that culminated in the [[Slave Trade Act 1807]]. In particular, [[Thomas Clarkson]], [[William Wilberforce]], [[Thomas Gisborne]] and [[Thomas Babington]] were active in the [[Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade]] and other abolitionist efforts.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/chapel_and_choir/bicentenary_2007/ |title=St John's College and the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade |website=www.joh.cam.ac.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927004718/http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/chapel_and_choir/bicentenary_2007/ |archive-date=27 September 2011}}</ref>

As part of the commemoration of the bicentenary of the 1807 Act, and as a representative of one of the [[Ivy League]] universities offering an American historical perspective on the [[Triangular Trade]], President [[Ruth Simmons|Ruth J. Simmons]] of [[Brown University]] (herself a descendant of American slaves) gave a public lecture at St John's College entitled "Hidden in Plain Sight: Slavery and Justice in Rhode Island" on 16 February 2007. St John's College hosted some of the events relating to the commemoration,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/press/dpp/2007021501 |title=Cambridge marks 200th anniversary of slavery's abolition
 |website=www.admin.cam.ac.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606210533/http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/press/dpp/2007021501 |archive-date=6 June 2011}}</ref> including an academic conference and a Gospel Mass in the College Chapel with the London Adventist Chorale.