EuropaWorld 8/12/2000 William Wilderforce

William Wilberforce was born in what was then the great northern seaport of Hull in 1759. A frail child, and almost blind at birth, he would nonetheless become a renowned politician and one of the pioneers of the anti-slavery movement.

Having lost his father at the age of nine, the young William was sent to be cared for by relatives. There he came under the influence of the Reverend John Newton - a former captain of a slaveship, who had converted to become not just a preacher but a hymnwriter ("Amazing Grace") and spiritual counselor. He was to have a profound effect on the boy, who became instilled with both a strong spiritual faith and an abhorrence of the slave trade.

Wilberforce attended university at Cambridge and although not a brilliant academic student, he was a talented and eloquent speaker. He entered the House of Commons in 1780, at the age of twenty-one. Moving into higher social circles allowed him access to the vices of the day, and both Wilberforce's morals and faith were weakened. However, he was to undergo a second spiritual conversion whilst travelling through Europe and this time his faith would prove unshakeable. Having considered joining the clergy, he was persuaded by Christian friends that his calling was to serve God through politics. He became a major supporter of programmes for popular education, overseas missions, parliamentary reform, and religious liberty. His most recognised achievement however, is his untiring commitment to the abolition of slavery.

At the time, Britain was the world's leader in the trafficking of slaves. Deprived of all human rights and liberties, slaves were picked up in West Africa and exported in chains in ships with subhuman conditions and without sanitation facilities. Once put ashore, they were fattened up to disguise months of malnutrition and mistreatment. They were then paraded naked before buyers so that their physique could be assessed and market-value assigned. In the ten years following 1783 one British seaport alone (Liverpool) shipped 303,737 slaves to the New World. In no time Britain had supplied three million to French, Spanish and British colonies. Even atrocities such as casting slaves overboard to lighten a vessel's load failed to rouse politicians or policy-makers to take action against the trade.

Outraged at the barbarity and inhumanity of slave-trading, Wilberforce introduced his first anti-slavery motion in the House of Commons in 1788. Pleading economic necessity and moral superiority, the pro-slavery forces rallied support and the bill was defeated. Undeterred, Wilberforce brought it up again every year for the next eighteen years, despite personal and professional costs. In 1793 he advanced a bill in the House of Commons advocating gradual abolition. It failed by eight votes, most members absenting themselves form the House so as not to have to vote. Next he brought forward a bill prohibiting British ships from carrying slaves to foreign territories. It lost by two votes in a near-empty House. Despite the setbacks Wilberforce continued his campaign. Eventually, the tide began to turn.

In 1807, nineteen years after Wilberforce's first proposal, Britain finally outlawed trading in slaves. Wilberforce turned his attention to other governments, lobbying incessantly until they also abolished the trade. However this was only a partial victory. Abolition of slave trading only prevented further slavery - it did not give freedom to those who had already been enslaved.
It was for this freedom that Wilberforce then lobbied for the next twenty-five years. The bill for the abolition of all slavery in British territories passed its crucial vote just four days before his death on 29 July 1833. A year later, on 31 July 1834, nearly one million slaves in British territories were set free. Wilberforce died knowing that, in the British territories at least, the evils of a legally-condoned trade in human life were over.

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