William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, philanthropist, abolitionist and leader of the parliamentary campaign against the slave trade.

Early life

Wilberforce was born in Hull, the son of Robert Wilberforce (1728–1768), a wealthy merchant whose father William (1690–1776) had made the family fortune through the Baltic trade.

William Wilberforce the younger attended Hull Grammar School and in 1768, at his father’s death, was sent to live with an uncle and aunt in St James’ Place, London and in Wimbledon. During this time he was educated at school in Putney. It was also at this time that his aunt Hannah, a staunch supporter of George Whitefield, influenced the young Wilberforce towards Methodism.

His mother and grandfather, concerned at his leanings towards evangelicalism, brought him back to Hull in 1771, where he continued his education at Pocklington School.

Wilberforce went up to St John's College, Cambridge in 1776, where he immersed himself in the social round of the students, and felt little inclination to apply himself to serious study. Amongst these surroundings, he befriended the young William Pitt, who would become a lifelong friend. Although at first shocked by the goings on around him, he later pursued a hedonistic lifestyle himself, although the extreme behaviour of some of his fellow students he found distasteful. He was awarded B.A. in 1781 and M.A. in 1788.

Parliamentary career

Having little interest in returning to be involved in the family business, while still at university Wilberforce made the decision to seek election to Parliament. Accordingly, in September 1780, at the age of twenty-one, he was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Hull. As an independent Tory, he took part in debates regarding naval shipbuilding and smuggling, and renewed his friendship with future Prime Minister William Pitt the younger and with Edward Eliot, another contemporary from Cambridge. In autumn 1783 Pitt, Wilberforce and Eliot travelled to France together.

Pitt became prime minister in December 1783 and Wilberforce became a key supporter of his minority government. When Parliament was dissolved in spring 1784, Wilberforce was soon recognised as a Pitt supporter and candidate for the 1784 General Election and, on 6 April, when the Whigs were defeated, he was returned as MP for Yorkshire at the age of twenty-four.

Abolition campaign

In 1785 Wilberforce underwent a spiritual encounter which he described as a conversion experience. He resolved to commit his future life and work wholly in the service of God, and one of the people he received advice from was John Newton, the leading evangelical Anglican clergyman. All those he sought advice from, including Pitt, counselled him to remain in politics.

In 1787 Wilberforce was introduced to Thomas Clarkson and the growing group campaigning against the slave trade by Sir Charles Middleton and Lady Middleton, at their house in Teston, Kent, and was persuaded to become leader of the parliamentary campaign.

After months of planning, on 12 May 1789 he made his first major speech on the subject of abolition in the House of Commons, in which he reasoned that the trade was morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice. Drawing on Clarkson’s evidence, he described in detail the appalling conditions in which slaves travelled from Africa in the middle passage, and argued that abolishing the trade would also bring an improvement to the conditions of existing slaves in the West Indies. He put forward twelve propositions for abolition, largely based upon Clarkson's Essay on the Impolicy of the African Slave Trade, which had been printed in large numbers and widely circulated.

In January 1790 he succeeded in gaining approval for a Parliamentary select committee to consider the slave trade and to examine the vast quantity of evidence which he put forward.

In April 1791 Wilberforce introduced the first Parliamentary Bill to abolish the slave trade, which was easily defeated by 163 votes to 88. As Wilberforce continued to bring the issue of the slave trade before parliament, Clarkson continued to travel and write. Between them, Clarkson and Wilberforce were responsible for generating and sustaining a national movement which mobilised public opinion as never before.

This was the beginning of a protracted parliamentary campaign, during which Wilberforce introduced a motion in favour of abolition during every session of parliament. He took every possible opportunity to bring the subject of the slave trade before the Commons, and moved bills for its abolition again in April 1792 and February 1793. Parliament, however, refused to pass the bill.

War with France

The outbreak of the War with France in 1793 effectively prevented further serious consideration as the public mood was concentrated on the national crisis and the threat of invasion, although Wilberforce still persisted in his efforts to have the subject debated, and brought further motions in February 1795, February 1796 and May 1797.

In 1788 Sir William Dolben's Act had been passed which limited slave carrying capacity on the ships which crossed the Atlantic. However, it was not until 1799 that The Slave Trade Regulation Act was passed to further prevent the overcrowding on slave ships.

There began to be a shift in public attitudes towards slavery and the slave trade, and the early years of the nineteenth century saw greater prospects for abolition. However, it was not until 1804 that Wilberforce had any real hope of moving a bill and this did indeed pass all its stages through the House of Commons by June of that year. Unfortunately, it was too late in the parliamentary session for it to complete its passage through the House of Lords, and Wilberforce was obliged to reintroduce it in the 1805 session, although on this occasion it was defeated on the second reading.

The final phase

Wilberforce began to collaborate more with the Whigs and the abolitionists within that party and gave general support to the Grenville-Fox administration of February 1806 after the death of Pitt. Wilberforce and Charles Fox thus led the campaign in the House of Commons, with Lord Grenville seeking to persuade the House of Lords to support the measure.

A change of tactics was advised by maritime lawyer James Stephen, at whose suggestion in early 1806 he supported a bill to ban British subjects from aiding or participating in the slave trade to the French colonies. It was a smart move, as the majority of the ships were, in fact, now flying under American flags and were manned by British crews, sailing out of Liverpool. The new Foreign Slave Trade Act, which was quickly passed, and the tactic was successful, as the new legislation effectively also prohibited two-thirds of the British slave trade.

The death of Fox in September 1806 was a further blow for the abolitionists. Wilberforce was again re-elected for Yorkshire after Grenville called a general election and spent the latter part of the year writing A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, an apologetic essay in which he summarised the huge volume of evidence against the trade that he and Clarkson had accumulated over two decades. It was published on 31 January 1807, and formed the basis for the final phase of the campaign.

Lord Grenville had introduced an Abolition Bill in the House of Lords, and made an impassioned speech, during which he criticised fellow members for "not having abolished the trade long ago," and argued that the trade was "contrary to the principles of justice, humanity and sound policy." When a final vote was taken the bill was passed in the House of Lords by the unexpectedly large margin of 41 votes to 20. Sensing that this was at last the breakthrough that had been long anticipated, Charles Grey (now Viscount Howick) moved its second reading in the Commons on 23 February. As tributes were made to Wilberforce, who had laboured for the cause during the preceding twenty years, the bill was carried by 283 votes to 16 and the Slave Trade Act received the royal assent on 25 March, 1807.

Other campaigns

Although most remembered for his work towards the abolition of slavery, Wilberforce was also concerned with other matters of social reform. He had written, "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners." It was at the suggestion of Wilberforce, together with Bishop Porteus and other churchmen, that the Archbishop of Canterbury requested King George III to issue his 'Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice' in 1787, which he saw as a remedy for what he saw as the rising tide of immorality and vice.

The British East India Company had been set up to give the British a share in the East Indian spice trade In 1793, Wilberforce used the renewal of its charter to suggest the addition of clauses enabling the company to employ religious teachers with the aim of 'introducing Christian light into India.'

This plan was unsuccessful and the clauses were omitted, initially because of lobbying by the directors of the company, who feared their commercial interests would be damaged should the proposed legislation result in religious confrontations.

Wilberforce tried again in 1813 when the charter next came up for renewal. Using public petitions and various statistics, this time he managed to persuade the House of Commons to include the relevant clauses and the Charter Act 1813 was passed. His work thus enabled missionary work to become partly a condition of the renewed charter. (Although concerned with the country deeply, Wilberforce himself had never been to India. ^[1].) Eventually, this resulted in the foundation of the Bishopric of Calcutta.

Wilberforce was also a founding member of the Church Missionary Society (since renamed Church Mission Society), as well as the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (now the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). He also gave his support to local projects and was treasurer to a nearby charity school while he was living in Wimbledon.

Emancipation of slaves

Wilberforce continued with his work after 1807, and his concern about slavery led him to found the African Institution, the aim of which was to improve the conditions of slaves in the West Indies. He was also instrumental in developing the Sierra Leone project to help with the eventual goal of taking Christianity in west Africa. Wilberforce's position as the leading evangelical in parliament was acknowledged, and he was by now the foremost member of the so-called Clapham Sect, along with his brother–in-law Henry Thornton and Edward Eliot. Because most of the group held evangelical Christian convictions they were dubbed ‘the Saints.’

By 1820, after a period of ill health and a decision to limit his public activities, Wilberforce was still labouring for the eventual emancipation of all slaves, and in 1821 asked Thomas Fowell Buxton to take over the leadership of the campaign in the Commons.

Wilberforce published his Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies in early 1823, in which he claimed that the moral and spiritual condition of the slaves stemmed directly from their slavery, and claimed that total emancipation was morally and ethically justified, and a matter of national duty before God.

1823 also saw the formation of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery (later the Anti-Slavery Society) and on 15 May 1823 Buxton moved a resolution in Parliament against slavery, a debate in which Wilberforce took an active part. There followed subsequent debates on 16 March and 11 June 1823, at which Wilberforce made his the last speech in the Commons.

In 1824 Wilberforce suffered a serious illness, and early the following year resigned his parliamentary seat. He moved to a small estate in Mill Hill, north of London in 1826. This resulted in his health improving somewhat, although in his retirement he continued his passionate belief in the anti-slavery cause, to which he had given his life, and maintained an active correspondence with his extensive circle of friends, many of whom he continued to visit.

By 1833 his health had begun to decline, and he suffered a severe attack of influenza, from which he never fully recovered. On 26 July 1833 he heard, with much rejoicing, that the bill for the abolition of slavery had finally passed its third reading in the Commons. On the following day he grew much weaker, and died early on the morning of 29 July. One month later, Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act that gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.

William Wilberforce was buried in Westminster Abbey on 3 August, 1833. The funeral was attended by many members from both Houses of Parliament, as well as many members of the public, and the pall bearers including the Lord Chancellor and the Duke of Gloucester.

A statue to the memory of one of Britain’s greatest parliamentarians was erected in Westminster Abbey in 1840, and a memorial column was erected in Hull in 1834.

Writings

In April 1797 Wilberforce completed A Practical View of the Prevailing religious system of professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of this Country Contrasted with Real Christianity, which he had been working on since 1793 , which was an exposition of New Testament doctrine and teachings and a call for revival of the Christian religion, in view of what he saw as the moral decline of the nation. It was an influential work and illustrates, far more than any other of his writings, his own personal testimony and the views which inspired him in his life's work.

After the death of Fox in September 1806 Wilberforce was again re-elected for Yorkshire and spent the latter part of the year writing A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, an apologetic essay in which he summarised the huge volume of evidence against the trade that he and Clarkson had accumulated over two decades. It was published on 31 January 1807, and formed the basis for the final phase of the abolition campaign.

In early 1823 Wilberforce published his Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies, in which he claimed that the moral and spiritual condition of the slaves stemmed directly from their slavery, and claimed that total emancipation was morally and ethically justified, and a matter of national duty before God.

Marriage and family

On 15 April 1797, he met Barbara Ann (1777–1847), eldest daughter of Isaac Spooner of Elmdon Hall, Warwickshire, a banker. Within a fortnight of their first meeting William had proposed. The couple were married in Bath on 30 May 1797. Their children were William (b 1798), Barbara (b 1799), Elizabeth (b 1801), Robert Isaac Wilberforce (b 1802), Samuel Wilberforce (b 1805) and Henry William Wilberforce (b 1807).

Trivia

The 17th-century house in which he was born is today Wilberforce House museum in Kingston upon Hull. A sixth-form college is named after him in the east of the city, as is a building at the university.

A film titled Amazing Grace, about the life of Wilberforce and the struggle against slavery, directed by Michael Apted, with Ioan Gruffudd playing the role of Wilberforce, is due to be released on February 25, 2007 – to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the date the Parliament of the United Kingdom voted to ban the transport of slaves by British subjects.

Wilberforce University located in Wilberforce, Ohio is named for William Wilberforce. The university is the first one owned by African-Americans, and is a historically black college (HBCU).

References

Tomkins, Stephen "William Wilberforce" (Oxford: Lion, 2007)
Piper, John. Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2006) ISBN 9781581348750.
Carey, Brycchan. British Abolitionism and the Rhetoric of Sensibility: Writing, Sentiment, and Slavery, 1760-1807 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)
Hochschild, Adam. Bury the Chains, The British Struggle to Abolish Slavery (Basingstoke: Pan Macmillan, 2005)
Keay, John. India: A History. (New York: Grove Press Books, 2000) ISBN 0-8021-3797-0
Pollock, John. Wilberforce. (London: Constable, 1977)
Stephen, Leslie. William Wilberforce in The Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford: University Press, 1900)
Vaughan, David J. Statesman and Saint: The Principled Politics of William Wilberforce. (Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2001) ISBN 1-58182-224-3
Wolffe, John. William Wilberforce in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: University Press, 2006)
Belmonte, Kevin. Hero of Humanity: A Biography of William Wilberforce (Navpress 2005)
Furneaux, Robin. William Wilberforce (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1974, reprinted 2006) ISBN 9781573833431
Pura, Murray Andrew. Vital Christianity: The Life and Spirituality of William Wilberforce (Toronto: Clements, 2002) ISBN 1894667107

Citations

^ Keay, John. India: A History (New York: Grove Press Books, distributed by Publishers Group West, 2000). pp. 429

External links

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by Lord Robert Manners David Hartley	Member of Parliament for Kingston upon Hull 2-seat constituency (with Lord Robert Manners, to 1782; David Hartley, 1782–March 1784; Samuel Thornton, from March 1784) 1780–1784	Succeeded by Samuel Thornton Walter Spencer Stanhope
Parliament of Great Britain
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Duncombe Francis Ferrand Foljambe	Member of Parliament for Yorkshire 2-seat constituency (with Henry Duncombe, to 1796; Henry Lascelles, 1796–1806 Walter Ramsden Fawkes, 1806–1807 Viscount Milton, from 1807) 1784–1812	Succeeded by Viscount Milton Henry Lascelles
Preceded by Henry Jodrell John Irving	Member of Parliament for Bramber 2-seat constituency (with John Irving) 1812–1825	Succeeded by John Irving Arthur Gough-Calthorpe

[1] Keay, John. India: A History (New York: Grove Press Books, distributed by Publishers Group West, 2000). pp. 429

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