"So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade's wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition."- William Wilberforce
We, the comrades of Unit 1012, will honor and always remember William Wilberforce, an English
Politician, who was the leader of the movement to abolish slave trade. His
story should be an inspiration for us to support victims’ rights and defend the
use of the death penalty (Wilberforce did restrict the use of capital
punishment). We believe that William Wilberforce
would most likely speak out against the ACLU Demons and show support for those
victims’ families.
We will post information about him from Wikipedia.
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William Wilberforce by Karl Anton Hickel,
c. 1794
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Member of Parliament
for Kingston upon Hull |
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In office
31 October 1780 – 25 March 1784 |
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Member of Parliament
for Yorkshire |
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In office
29 November 1784 – 29 September 1812 |
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Member of Parliament
for Bramber |
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In office
24 November 1812 – February 1825 |
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Personal details
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Born
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24
August 1759
Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire |
Died
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29 July
1833 (aged 73)
London |
Political
party
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Independent
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Spouse(s)
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Children
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Religion
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Evangelical
Anglican
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William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29
July 1833) was an English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the
movement to abolish the slave trade. A native of Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire,
he began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent
Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a
conversion experience and became an evangelical Christian, which resulted in
major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform. In 1787, he
came into contact with Thomas Clarkson and a group of anti-slave-trade
activists, including Granville Sharp, Hannah More and Charles Middleton. They
persuaded Wilberforce to take on the cause of abolition, and he soon became one
of the leading English abolitionists. He headed the parliamentary campaign
against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
Wilberforce was convinced of the
importance of religion, morality and education. He championed causes and
campaigns such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice,
British missionary work in India, the creation of a free colony in Sierra
Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society, and the Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. His underlying conservatism led him to
support politically and socially repressive legislation, and resulted in
criticism that he was ignoring injustices at home while campaigning for the
enslaved abroad.
In later years, Wilberforce supported
the campaign for the complete abolition of slavery, and continued his
involvement after 1826, when he resigned from Parliament because of his failing
health. That campaign led to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, which
abolished slavery in most of the British
Empire; Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of
the Act through Parliament was assured. He was buried in Westminster
Abbey, close to his friend William Pitt.
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A statue of William Wilberforce, located
outside Wilberforce House, High Street, Hull, UK.
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Early life
William Wilberforce was born in a
house on the High Street of Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire: England, on
24 August 1759, the only son of Robert Wilberforce (1728–68), a wealthy
merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Bird (1730–98). His grandfather William
(1690–1776) had made the family fortune in the maritime trade with Baltic
countries, and had twice been elected mayor of Hull.
Wilberforce was a small, sickly and
delicate child, with poor eyesight. In 1767 he began attending Hull Grammar
School, at the time headed by a young, dynamic headmaster, Joseph Milner, who
was to become a lifelong friend. Wilberforce profited from the supportive
atmosphere at the school until the death of his father in 1768. With his mother
struggling to cope, the nine-year-old Wilberforce was sent to a prosperous
uncle and aunt with houses in both St James' Place, London, and Wimbledon, at
that time a village 7 miles (11 km) south-west of London. He attended an
"indifferent" boarding school in Putney for two years, spending his
holidays in Wimbledon, where he grew extremely fond of his relatives. He became
interested in evangelical Christianity because of their influence, especially
that of his Aunt Hannah, sister of the wealthy Christian merchant John
Thornton, a philanthropist and a supporter of the leading Methodist preacher
George Whitefield.
Wilberforce's staunchly Church of
England mother and grandfather, alarmed at these nonconformist influences and
at his leanings towards evangelicalism, brought the 12-year-old boy back to
Hull in 1771. Wilberforce was heartbroken to be separated from his aunt and
uncle. His family opposed a return to Hull Grammar School because the
headmaster had become a Methodist; Wilberforce therefore continued his
education at nearby Pocklington School from 1771 to 1776. Influenced by
Methodist scruples, he initially resisted Hull's lively social life, but as his
religious fervour diminished, he embraced theatre-going, attended balls and
played cards.
In October 1776, at the age of 17,
Wilberforce went up to St John's College, Cambridge. The deaths of his
grandfather and uncle in 1776 and 1777 respectively had left him independently
wealthy, and as a result he had little inclination or need to apply himself to
serious study. Instead, he immersed himself in the social round of student
life, and pursued a hedonistic lifestyle enjoying cards, gambling and
late-night drinking sessions—although he found the excesses of some of his
fellow students distasteful. Witty, generous, and an excellent
conversationalist, Wilberforce was a popular figure. He made many friends,
including the more studious future Prime Minister, William Pitt. Despite his
lifestyle and lack of interest in studying, he managed to pass his
examinations, and was awarded a B.A. in 1781 and an M.A. in 1788.
Early
parliamentary career
Wilberforce began to consider a
political career while still at university, and during the winter of 1779–80 he
and Pitt frequently watched House of Commons debates from the gallery. Pitt,
already set on a political career, encouraged Wilberforce to join him in
obtaining a parliamentary seat. In September 1780, at the age of twenty-one and
while still a student, Wilberforce was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for
Kingston upon Hull, spending over £8,000 to ensure he received the necessary
votes, as was the custom of the time. Free from financial pressures,
Wilberforce sat as an independent, resolving to be "no party man".
Criticised at times for inconsistency, he supported both Tory and Whig
governments according to his conscience, working closely with the party in
power, and voting on specific measures according to their merits. Wilberforce
attended Parliament regularly, but he also maintained a lively social life,
becoming an habitué of gentlemen's gambling clubs such as Goostree's and
Boodle's in Pall Mall, London. The writer and socialite Madame de Staël
described him as the "wittiest man in England" and, according to
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, the Prince of Wales said that he would go
anywhere to hear Wilberforce sing. Wilberforce used his speaking voice to great
effect in political speeches; the diarist and author James Boswell witnessed
Wilberforce's eloquence in the House of Commons and noted: "I saw what
seemed a mere shrimp mount upon the table; but as I listened, he grew, and
grew, until the shrimp became a whale." During the frequent government
changes of 1781–84 Wilberforce supported his friend Pitt in parliamentary
debates, and in autumn 1783 Pitt, Wilberforce and Edward Eliot (later to become
Pitt's brother-in-law), travelled to France for a six-week holiday together.
After a difficult start in Rheims, where their presence aroused police
suspicion that they were English spies, they visited Paris, meeting Benjamin
Franklin, General Lafayette, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, and joined the
French court at Fontainebleau.
Pitt became Prime Minister in December
1783, with Wilberforce a key supporter of his minority government. Despite
their close friendship, there is no record that Pitt offered Wilberforce a
ministerial position in this or future governments. This may have been due to
Wilberforce's wish to remain an independent MP. Alternatively, Wilberforce's
frequent tardiness and disorganisation, as well as the chronic eye problems
that at times made reading impossible, may have convinced Pitt that his trusted
friend was not ministerial material. When Parliament was dissolved in the
spring of 1784, Wilberforce decided to stand as a candidate for the county of
Yorkshire in the 1784 general election. On 6 April, he was returned as MP for
Yorkshire at the age of twenty-four.
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William Wilberforce by John Rising, 1790,
pictured at the age of 29
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Conversion
In October 1784, Wilberforce embarked
upon a tour of Europe which would ultimately change his life and determine his
future career. He travelled with his mother and sister in the company of Isaac
Milner, the brilliant younger brother of his former headmaster, who had been
Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, in the year when Wilberforce first went
up. They visited the French Riviera and enjoyed the usual pastimes of dinners,
cards, and gambling. In February 1785, Wilberforce returned to the United
Kingdom temporarily, to support Pitt's proposals for parliamentary reforms. He
rejoined the party in Genoa, Italy, from where they continued their tour to
Switzerland. Milner accompanied Wilberforce to England, and on the journey they
read The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge,
a leading early 18th-century English nonconformist.
Wilberforce's spiritual journey is
thought to have begun at this time. He started to rise early to read the Bible
and pray and kept a private journal. He underwent an evangelical conversion,
regretting his past life and resolving to commit his future life and work to
the service of God. His conversion changed some of his habits but not his
nature: he remained outwardly cheerful, interested, and respectful, tactfully urging
others towards his new faith. Inwardly, he underwent an agonising struggle and
became relentlessly self-critical, harshly judging his spirituality, use of
time, vanity, self-control, and relationships with others.
At the time religious enthusiasm was
generally regarded as a social transgression and was stigmatised in polite
society. Evangelicals in the upper classes, such as Sir Richard Hill, the
Methodist MP for Shropshire, and Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, were
exposed to contempt and ridicule, and Wilberforce's conversion led him to
question whether he should remain in public life. Wilberforce sought guidance
from John Newton, a leading Evangelical Anglican clergyman of the day and
Rector of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London. Both Newton and Pitt
counselled Wilberforce to remain in politics, and he resolved to do so
"with increased diligence and conscientiousness". Thereafter, his
political views were informed by his faith and by his desire to promote
Christianity and Christian ethics in private and public life.
His views were often deeply conservative, opposed to radical changes in a
God-given political and social order, and focused on issues such as the
observance of the Sabbath and the eradication of immorality through education
and reform. As a result, he was often distrusted by progressive voices because
of his conservatism, and regarded with suspicion by many Tories who saw
Evangelicals as radicals, bent on the overthrow of church and state.
In 1786 Wilberforce leased a house in
Old Palace Yard, Westminster, in order to be near Parliament. He began using
his parliamentary position to advocate reform by introducing a Registration
Bill, proposing limited changes to parliamentary election procedures. He
brought forward a bill to extend the measure permitting the dissection after
execution of criminals such as rapists, arsonists and thieves. The bill also
advocated the reduction of sentences for women convicted of treason, a crime
that at the time included a husband's murder. The House of Commons passed both
bills, but they were defeated in the House of Lords.
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Stowage of the British slave ship Brookes
under the regulated slave trade act of 1788
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"Am I Not A Man And A Brother?"
Medallion created as part of anti-slavery campaign by Josiah
Wedgwood, 1787
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Abolition
of the slave trade
Initial
decision
The British
initially became involved in the slave trade during the 16th century. By 1783,
the triangular route that took British-made goods to Africa to buy
slaves, transported the enslaved to the West Indies, and then brought
slave-grown products such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton to Britain, represented
about 80 percent of Great Britain's foreign income. British ships
dominated the trade, supplying French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and British
colonies, although the Portuguese dominated in slave number, Britain's peak
years of slaving carried forty thousand enslaved men, women and children across
the Atlantic in the horrific conditions of the middle passage. Of the
estimated 11 million Africans transported into slavery, about
1.4 million died during the voyage.
The British
campaign to abolish the slave trade is generally considered to have begun in
the 1780s with the establishment of the Quakers' antislavery committees,
and their presentation to Parliament of the first slave trade petition in 1783.
The same year, Wilberforce, while dining with his old Cambridge friend
Gerard Edwards, met Rev. James Ramsay, a ship's surgeon who had
become a clergyman on the island of St Christopher (later St Kitts) in
the Leeward Islands, and a medical supervisor of the plantations
there. What Ramsay had witnessed of the conditions endured by the slaves, both
at sea and on the plantations, horrified him. Returning to England after
fifteen years, he accepted the living of Teston, Kent in 1781,
and there met Sir Charles Middleton, Lady Middleton, Thomas Clarkson,
Hannah More and others, a group that later
became known as the Testonites. Interested in promoting Christianity and
moral improvement in Britain and overseas, they were appalled by Ramsay's
reports of the depraved lifestyles of slave owners, the cruel treatment meted
out to the enslaved, and the lack of Christian instruction provided to the
slaves. With their encouragement and help, Ramsay spent three years writing An
essay on the treatment and conversion of African slaves in the British sugar
colonies, which was highly critical of slavery in the West Indies. The
book, published in 1784, was to have an important impact in raising public
awareness and interest, and it excited the ire of West Indian planters who in
the coming years attacked both Ramsay and his ideas in a series of pro-slavery
tracts.
Wilberforce
apparently did not follow up on his meeting with Ramsay. However, three years
later, and inspired by his new faith, Wilberforce was growing interested in humanitarian
reform. In November 1786 he received a letter from Sir Charles Middleton that
re-opened his interest in the slave trade. At the urging of Lady Middleton, Sir
Charles suggested that Wilberforce bring forward the abolition of the slave
trade in Parliament. Wilberforce responded that "he felt the great
importance of the subject, and thought himself unequal to the task allotted to
him, but yet would not positively decline it". He began to read widely on
the subject, and met with the Testonites at Middleton's home at Barham
Court in Teston in the early winter of 1786–87.
In early
1787, Thomas Clarkson, a fellow graduate of St John's, Cambridge, who had
become convinced of the need to end the slave trade after writing a prize-winning
essay on the subject while at Cambridge, called upon Wilberforce at Old Palace
Yard with a published copy of the work. This was the first time the two men had
met; their collaboration would last nearly fifty years. Clarkson began to visit
Wilberforce on a weekly basis, bringing first-hand evidence he had obtained
about the slave trade. The Quakers, already working for abolition, also
recognised the need for influence within Parliament, and urged Clarkson to
secure a commitment from Wilberforce to bring forward the case for abolition in
the House of Commons.
It was
arranged that Bennet Langton, a Lincolnshire landowner and mutual
acquaintance of Wilberforce and Clarkson, would organize a dinner party in
order to ask Wilberforce formally to lead the parliamentary campaign. The
dinner took place on 13 March 1787; other guests included Charles
Middleton, Sir Joshua Reynolds, William Windham, MP, James
Boswell and Isaac Hawkins Browne, MP. By the end of the evening,
Wilberforce had agreed in general terms that he would bring forward the
abolition of the slave trade in Parliament, "provided that no person more
proper could be found".
The same
spring, on 12 May 1787, the still hesitant Wilberforce held a conversation
with William Pitt and the future Prime Minister William Grenville as
they sat under a large oak tree on Pitt's estate in Kent. Under what came to be
known as the "Wilberforce Oak" at Holwood, Pitt challenged his
friend: "Wilberforce, why don't you give notice of a motion on the subject
of the Slave Trade? You have already taken great pains to collect evidence, and
are therefore fully entitled to the credit which doing so will ensure you. Do
not lose time, or the ground will be occupied by another." Wilberforce's
response is not recorded, but he later declared in old age that he could
"distinctly remember the very knoll on which I was sitting near Pitt and
Grenville" where he made his decision.
Wilberforce's
involvement in the abolition movement was motivated by a desire to put his
Christian principles into action and to serve God in public life. He and other
Evangelicals were horrified by what they perceived was a depraved and
unchristian trade, and the greed and avarice of the owners and traders.
Wilberforce sensed a call from God, writing in a journal entry in 1787 that
"God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the
Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners [moral values]". The
conspicuous involvement of Evangelicals in the highly popular anti-slavery movement
served to improve the status of a group otherwise associated with the less
popular campaigns against vice and immorality.
Early
parliamentary action
On 22 May 1787, the first meeting
of the Society for
Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade took place, bringing like-minded
British Quakers and Anglicans together in the same organisation for the first
time. The committee chose to campaign against the slave trade rather than
slavery itself, with many members believing that slavery would eventually
disappear as a natural consequence of the abolition of the trade. Wilberforce,
though involved informally, did not join the committee officially until 1791.
The society was highly successful in
raising public awareness and support, and local chapters sprang up throughout
Great Britain. Clarkson travelled the country researching and collecting
first-hand testimony and statistics, while the committee promoted the campaign,
pioneering techniques such as lobbying, writing pamphlets, holding public
meetings, gaining press attention, organising boycotts and even using a
campaign logo: an image of a kneeling slave above the motto "Am I not a
Man and a Brother?" designed by the renowned pottery-maker Josiah
Wedgwood. The committee also sought to influence slave-trading nations such as
France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Holland and the United States, corresponding
with anti-slavery activists in other countries and organising the translation
of English-language books and pamphlets. These included books by former slaves
Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano, who had published influential works on
slavery and the slave trade in 1787 and 1789 respectively. They and other free
blacks, collectively known as "Sons of Africa", spoke at debating
societies and wrote spirited letters to newspapers, periodicals and prominent
figures, as well as public letters of support to campaign allies. Hundreds of
parliamentary petitions opposing the slave trade were received in 1788 and
following years, with hundreds of thousands of signatories in total. The
campaign proved to be the world's first grassroots human rights campaign, in
which men and women from different social classes and backgrounds volunteered
to end the injustices suffered by others.
Wilberforce had planned to introduce a
motion giving notice that he would bring forward a bill for the Abolition of
the Slave Trade during the 1789 parliamentary session. However, in January 1788
he was taken ill with a probable stress-related condition, now thought to be
ulcerative colitis. It was several months before he was able to resume work,
and he spent time convalescing at Bath and Cambridge. His regular bouts of
gastrointestinal illnesses precipitated the use of moderate quantities of
opium, which proved effective in alleviating his condition, and which he
continued to use for the rest of his life.
During Wilberforce's absence, Pitt,
who had long been supportive of abolition, introduced the preparatory motion
himself, and ordered a Privy Council investigation into the slave trade,
followed by a House of Commons review.
With the publication of the Privy
Council report in April 1789 and following months of planning, Wilberforce
commenced his parliamentary campaign. 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 Thomas Clarkson's mass of 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 moved 12
resolutions condemning the slave trade, but made no reference to the abolition
of slavery itself, instead dwelling on the potential for reproduction in the
existing slave population should the trade be abolished. With the tide running
against them, the opponents of abolition delayed the vote by proposing that the
House of Commons hear its own evidence, and Wilberforce, in a move that has
subsequently been criticised for prolonging the slave trade, reluctantly
agreed. The hearings were not completed by the end of the parliamentary
session, and were deferred until the following year. In the meantime,
Wilberforce and Clarkson tried unsuccessfully to take advantage of the
egalitarian atmosphere of the French Revolution to press for France's abolition
of the trade, which was, in any event, to be abolished in 1794 as a result of
the bloody slave revolt in St Domingue (later to be known as Haiti), although
later briefly restored by Napoleon in 1802.
In January 1790 Wilberforce succeeded
in speeding up the hearings by gaining approval for a smaller parliamentary
select committee to consider the vast quantity of evidence which had been
accumulated. Wilberforce's house in Old Palace Yard became a centre for the
abolitionists' campaign, and a focus for many strategy meetings. Petitioners
for other causes also besieged him there, and his ante-room thronged from an
early hour, like "Noah's Ark, full of beasts clean and unclean",
according to Hannah More.
Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonour to this country.William Wilberforce,Speech before the House of Commons, 18 April 1791
Interrupted by a general election in
June 1790, the committee finally finished hearing witnesses, and in April 1791
with a closely reasoned four-hour speech, Wilberforce introduced the first
parliamentary bill to abolish the slave trade. However, after two evenings of
debate, the bill was easily defeated by 163 votes to 88, the political climate
having swung in a conservative direction in the wake of the French Revolution,
and in reaction to an increase in radicalism and to slave revolts in the French
West Indies. Such was the public hysteria of the time that even Wilberforce
himself was suspected by some of being a Jacobin agitator.
This was the beginning of a protracted
parliamentary campaign, during which Wilberforce's commitment never wavered,
despite frustration and hostility. He was supported in his work by fellow
members of the so-called Clapham Sect, among whom was his best friend and
cousin Henry Thornton. Holding evangelical Christian convictions, and consequently
dubbed "the Saints", the group mainly lived in large houses
surrounding the common in Clapham, then a village to the south-west of London.
Wilberforce accepted an invitation to share a house with Henry Thornton in
1792, moving into his own home after Thornton's marriage in 1796. The
"Saints" were an informal community, characterised by considerable
intimacy as well as a commitment to practical Christianity and an opposition to
slavery. They developed a relaxed family atmosphere, wandering freely in and
out of each other's homes and gardens, and discussing the many religious,
social and political topics that engaged them.
Pro-slavery advocates claimed that
enslaved Africans were lesser human beings who benefited from their bondage.
Wilberforce, the Clapham Sect and others were anxious to demonstrate that
Africans, and particularly freed slaves, had human and economic abilities
beyond the slave trade; that they were capable of sustaining a well-ordered
society, trade and cultivation. Inspired in part by the utopian vision of
Granville Sharp, they became involved in the establishment in 1792 of a free
colony in Sierra Leone with black settlers from the United Kingdom, Nova Scotia
and Jamaica, as well as native Africans and some whites. They formed the Sierra
Leone Company, with Wilberforce subscribing liberally to the project in money
and time. The dream was of an ideal society in which races would mix on equal
terms; the reality was fraught with tension, crop failures, disease, death, war
and defections to the slave trade. Initially a commercial venture, the British
government assumed responsibility for the colony in 1808. The colony, although
troubled at times, was to become a symbol of anti-slavery in which residents,
communities and African tribal chiefs, worked together to prevent enslavement
at the source, supported by a British naval blockade to stem the region's slave
trade.
On 2 April 1792, Wilberforce
again brought a bill calling for abolition. The memorable debate that followed
drew contributions from the greatest orators in the house, William Pitt and
Charles James Fox, as well as from Wilberforce himself. Henry Dundas, as home
secretary, proposed a compromise solution of so-called "gradual
abolition" over a number of years. This was passed by 230 to 85 votes, but
the compromise was little more than a clever ploy, with the intention of
ensuring that total abolition would be delayed indefinitely.
War with
France
On 26 February 1793, another vote
to abolish the slave trade was narrowly defeated by eight votes. The outbreak
of war with France the same month effectively prevented any further serious
consideration of the issue, as politicians concentrated on the national crisis
and the threat of invasion. The same year, and again in 1794, Wilberforce
unsuccessfully brought before Parliament a bill to outlaw British ships from
supplying slaves to foreign colonies. He voiced his concern about the war and
urged Pitt and his government to make greater efforts to end hostilities.
Growing more alarmed, on 31 December 1794, Wilberforce moved that the
government seek a peaceful resolution with France, a stance that created a
temporary breach in his long friendship with Pitt.
Abolition continued to be associated
in the public consciousness with the French Revolution and with British radical
groups, resulting in a decline in public support. In 1795, the Society for
Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade ceased to meet, and Clarkson retired
in ill-health to the Lake District. However, despite the decreased interest in
abolition, Wilberforce continued to introduce abolition bills throughout the
1790s.
Wilberforce had shown little interest
in women, but in his late thirties twenty-year-old Barbara Ann Spooner (1777–1847) was
recommended by his friend Thomas
Babington as a potential bride. Wilberforce met her two days later on
15 April 1797, and was immediately smitten; following an eight-day
whirlwind romance, he proposed. Despite the urgings of friends to slow down,
the couple married in Bath, Somerset, on 30 May 1797. They were devoted to
each other and Barbara was very attentive and supportive to Wilberforce in his
increasing ill health, though she showed little interest in his political
activities. They had six children in fewer than ten years: William (b. 1798),
Barbara (b. 1799), Elizabeth (b. 1801), Robert Isaac Wilberforce (b. 1802), Samuel Wilberforce (b. 1805) and Henry William Wilberforce (b. 1807).
Wilberforce was an indulgent and adoring father who revelled in his time at
home and at play with his children.
The early years of the 19th century
once again saw an increased public interest in abolition. Since Napoleon had
reintroduced slavery in the French colonies, support of Abolition was no longer
perceived as being pro-French.
In 1804, Clarkson resumed his work and
the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade began meeting again,
strengthened with prominent new members such as Zachary
Macaulay, Henry Brougham and James Stephen. In June 1804,
Wilberforce's bill to abolish the slave trade successfully passed all its
stages through the House of Commons. However, it was too late in the
parliamentary session for it to complete its passage through the House of
Lords. On its reintroduction during the 1805 session it was defeated, with even
the usually sympathetic Pitt failing to support it. On this occasion and
throughout the campaign, abolition was held back by Wilberforce's trusting,
even credulous nature, and his deferential attitude towards those in power. He
found it difficult to believe that men of rank would not do what he perceived
to be the right thing, and was reluctant to confront them when they did not.
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The House of Commons at Westminster: This
engraving was published as Plate 21 of Microcosm of London (1808)
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Final phase
of the campaign
Following Pitt's death in January 1806
Wilberforce began to collaborate more with the Whigs, especially the
abolitionists. He gave general support to the Grenville-Fox administration,
which brought more abolitionists into the cabinet; Wilberforce and Charles Fox
led the campaign in the House of Commons, while Lord Grenville advocated the
cause in the House of Lords.
A radical change of tactics, which
involved the introduction of a bill to ban British subjects from aiding or
participating in the slave trade to the French colonies, was suggested by
maritime lawyer James Stephen. It was a shrewd move since the majority of
British ships were now flying American flags and supplying slaves to foreign
colonies with whom Britain was at war. A bill was introduced and approved by
the cabinet, and Wilberforce and other abolitionists maintained a self-imposed
silence, so as not to draw any attention to the effect of the bill. The
approach proved successful, and the new Foreign Slave Trade Bill was quickly
passed, and received the Royal Assent on 23 May 1806. Wilberforce and
Clarkson had collected a large volume of evidence against the slave trade over
the previous two decades, and Wilberforce spent the latter part of 1806 writing
A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which was a comprehensive
restatement of the abolitionists' case. The death of Fox in September 1806 was
a blow, and was followed quickly by a general election in the autumn of 1806.
Slavery became an election issue, bringing more abolitionist MPs into the House
of Commons, including former military men who had personally experienced the
horrors of slavery and slave revolts. Wilberforce was re-elected as an MP for
Yorkshire, after which he returned to finishing and publishing his Letter,
in reality a 400-page book which formed the basis for the final phase of the
campaign.
Lord Grenville, the Prime Minister,
was determined to introduce an Abolition Bill in the House of Lords rather than
in the House of Commons, taking it through its greatest challenge first. When a
final vote was taken, the bill was passed in the House of Lords by a large
margin. Sensing a breakthrough that had been long anticipated, Charles Grey
moved for a second reading in the Commons on 23 February 1807. As tributes
were made to Wilberforce, whose face streamed with tears, the bill was carried
by 283 votes to 16. Excited supporters suggested taking advantage of the large
majority to seek the abolition of slavery itself but Wilberforce made it clear
that total emancipation was not the immediate goal: "They had for the
present no object immediately before them, but that of putting stop directly to
the carrying of men in British ships to be sold as slaves." The Slave
Trade Act received the Royal Assent on 25 March 1807.
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| Unfinished portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1828 |
Other
concerns
Political and
social reform
Wilberforce was deeply conservative
when it came to challenges to the existing political and social order. He
advocated change in society through Christianity and improvement in morals,
education and religion, fearing and opposing radical causes and revolution. The
radical writer William Cobbett was among those who attacked what they saw as
Wilberforce's hypocrisy in campaigning for better working conditions for slaves
while British workers lived in terrible conditions at home. "Never have
you done one single act, in favour of the labourers of this country", he
wrote. Critics noted Wilberforce's support of the suspension of habeas
corpus in 1795 and his votes for Pitt's "Gagging Bills", which
banned meetings of more than 50 people, allowing speakers to be arrested
and imposing harsh penalties on those who attacked the constitution.
Wilberforce was opposed to giving workers' rights to organise into unions, in
1799 speaking in favour of the Combination Act, which suppressed trade union
activity throughout the United Kingdom, and calling unions "a general
disease in our society". He also opposed an enquiry into the 1819 Peterloo
Massacre in which eleven protesters were killed at a political rally
demanding reform. Concerned about "bad men who wished to produce anarchy
and confusion", he approved of the government's Six Acts which further
limited public meetings and seditious writings. Wilberforce's actions led the
essayist William Hazlitt to condemn him as one "who preaches vital
Christianity to untutored savages, and tolerates its worst abuses in civilised
states."
Wilberforce's views of women and
religion were also conservative: he disapproved of women anti-slavery activists
such as Elizabeth Heyrick, who organised women's abolitionist groups in the
1820s, protesting: "[F]or ladies to meet, to publish, to go from house to
house stirring up petitions – these appear to me proceedings unsuited to
the female character as delineated in Scripture." Wilberforce initially
strongly opposed bills for Catholic emancipation which would have allowed
Catholics to become MPs, hold public office and serve in the army, although by
1813 he had changed his views, and spoke in favour of a similar bill.
More progressively, Wilberforce
advocated legislation to improve the working conditions for chimney-sweeps and
textile workers, engaged in prison reform, and supported campaigns to restrict
capital punishment and the severe punishments meted out under the Game Laws. He
recognised the importance of education in alleviating poverty, and when Hannah
More and her sister established Sunday schools for the poor in Somerset and the
Mendips, he provided financial and moral support as they faced opposition from
landowners and Anglican clergy. From the late 1780s onward Wilberforce
campaigned for limited parliamentary reform, such as the abolition of rotten
boroughs and the redistribution of Commons seats to growing towns and cities,
though by 1832, he feared that such measures went too far. With others,
Wilberforce founded the world's first animal welfare organisation, the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later the Royal Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals). He was also opposed to duelling, which he described as
the "disgrace of a Christian society" and was appalled when his
friend Pitt engaged in a duel in 1798, particularly as it occurred on a Sunday,
the Christian day of rest.
Wilberforce was generous with his time
and money, believing that those with wealth had a duty to give a significant
portion of their income to the needy. Yearly, he gave away thousands of pounds,
much of it to clergymen to distribute in their parishes. He paid off the debts
of others, supported education and missions, and in a year of food shortages
gave to charity more than his own yearly income. He was exceptionally
hospitable, and could not bear to sack any of his servants. As a result, his
home was full of old and incompetent servants kept on in charity. Although he
was often months behind in his correspondence, Wilberforce responded to
numerous requests for advice or for help in obtaining professorships, military
promotions, and livings for clergymen, or for the reprieve of death sentences.
Evangelical
Christianity
A supporter of the evangelical wing of
the Church of England, Wilberforce believed that the revitalisation of the
Church and individual Christian observance would lead to a harmonious, moral
society. He sought to elevate the status of religion in public and private
life, making piety fashionable in both the upper- and middle-classes of
society. To this end, in April 1797 Wilberforce published A Practical View
of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and
Middle Classes of This Country Contrasted With Real Christianity, on which
he had been working since 1793. This was an exposition of New Testament
doctrine and teachings and a call for a revival of Christianity, as a response
to the moral decline of the nation, illustrating his own personal testimony and
the views which inspired him. The book proved to be influential and a
best-seller by the standards of the day; 7,500 copies were sold within six
months, and it was translated into several languages.
Wilberforce fostered and supported
missionary activity in Britain and abroad. He was a founding member of the
Church Missionary Society (since renamed the Church Mission Society), and was
involved, with other members of the Clapham Sect, in numerous other evangelical
and charitable organisations. Horrified by the lack of Christian evangelism in
India, Wilberforce used the 1793 renewal of the British East India Company's
charter to propose the addition of clauses requiring the company to provide
teachers and chaplains and to commit to the "religious improvement"
of Indians. The plan was unsuccessful due to lobbying by the directors of the
company, who feared that their commercial interests would be damaged. Wilberforce
tried again in 1813 when the charter next came up for renewal. Using petitions,
meetings, lobbying, and letter writing, he successfully campaigned for changes
to the charter. Speaking in favour of the Charter Act 1813, he criticised the
British in India for their hypocrisy and racial prejudice, while also
condemning aspects of Hinduism including the caste system, infanticide,
polygamy and suttee. "Our religion is sublime, pure beneficent", he
said, "theirs is mean, licentious and cruel".
Moral reform
Greatly concerned by what he perceived
to be the degeneracy of British society, Wilberforce was also active in matters
of moral reform, lobbying against "the torrent of profaneness that every
day makes more rapid advances", and considered this issue and the abolition
of the slave trade as equally important goals. At the suggestion of Wilberforce
and Bishop Porteus, King George III was requested by the Archbishop of
Canterbury to issue in 1787 the Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice, as
a remedy for the rising tide of immorality. The proclamation commanded the
prosecution of those guilty of "excessive drinking, blasphemy, profane
swearing and cursing, lewdness, profanation of the Lord's Day, and other
dissolute, immoral, or disorderly practices". Greeted largely with public
indifference, Wilberforce sought to increase its impact by mobilising public
figures to the cause, and by founding the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
This and other societies in which Wilberforce was a prime mover, such as the Proclamation
Society, mustered support for the prosecution of those who had been charged
with violating relevant laws, including brothel keepers, distributors of
pornographic material, and those who did not respect the Sabbath. Years later,
the writer and clergyman Sydney Smith criticised Wilberforce for being more
interested in the sins of the poor than those of the rich, and suggested that a
better name would have been the Society for "suppressing the vices of
persons whose income does not exceed £500 per annum". The societies were
not highly successful in terms of membership and support, although their
activities did lead to the imprisonment of Thomas Williams, the London printer
of Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason. Wilberforce's attempts to legislate against
adultery and Sunday newspapers were also in vain; his involvement and
leadership in other, less punitive, approaches were more successful in the
long-term, however. By the end of his life, British morals, manners, and sense
of social responsibility had increased, paving the way for future changes in
societal conventions and attitudes during the Victorian era.
Emancipation
of enslaved Africans
The hopes of the abolitionists
notwithstanding, slavery did not wither with the end of the slave trade in the
British Empire, nor did the living conditions of the enslaved improve. The
trade continued, with few countries following suit by abolishing the trade, and
with some British ships disregarding the legislation. Wilberforce worked with
the members of the African Institution to ensure the enforcement of abolition
and to promote abolitionist negotiations with other countries. In particular,
the US had abolished the slave trade in 1808, and Wilberforce lobbied the
American government to enforce its own prohibition more strongly.
The same year, Wilberforce moved his
family from Clapham to a sizeable mansion with a large garden in Kensington
Gore, closer to the Houses of Parliament. Never strong, and by 1812 in
worsening health, Wilberforce resigned his Yorkshire seat, and became MP for
the rotten borough of Bramber in Sussex, a seat with little or no constituency
obligations, thus allowing him more time for his family and the causes that
interested him. From 1816 Wilberforce introduced a series of bills which would
require the compulsory registration of slaves, together with details of their
country of origin, permitting the illegal importation of foreign slaves to be
detected. Later in the same year he began publicly to denounce slavery itself,
though he did not demand immediate emancipation, as "They had always
thought the slaves incapable of liberty at present, but hoped that by degrees a
change might take place as the natural result of the abolition."
In 1820, after a period of poor
health, and with his eyesight failing, Wilberforce took the decision to further
limit his public activities, although he became embroiled in unsuccessful
mediation attempts between King George IV, and his estranged wife Caroline of
Brunswick, who had sought her rights as queen. Nevertheless, Wilberforce still
hoped "to lay a foundation for some future measures for the emancipation
of the poor slaves", which he believed should come about gradually in
stages. Aware that the cause would need younger men to continue the work, in
1821 he asked fellow MP Thomas Fowell Buxton to take over leadership of the
campaign in the Commons. As the 1820s wore on, Wilberforce increasingly became
a figurehead for the abolitionist movement, although he continued to appear at
anti-slavery meetings, welcoming visitors, and maintaining a busy
correspondence on the subject.
The year 1823 saw the founding of the
Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery (later the Anti-Slavery Society), and the publication of
Wilberforce's 56-page 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 his treatise, Wilberforce urged that total emancipation was
morally and ethically required, and that slavery was a national crime that must
be ended by parliamentary legislation to gradually abolish slavery. Members of
Parliament did not quickly agree, and government opposition in March 1823 stymied
Wilberforce's call for abolition. On 15 May 1823, Buxton moved another
resolution in Parliament for gradual emancipation. Subsequent debates followed
on 16 March and 11 June 1824 in which Wilberforce made his last speeches in the
Commons, and which again saw the emancipationists outmanoeuvred by the
government.
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Wilberforce was buried in Westminster Abbey
next to Pitt. This memorial statue, by Samuel Joseph (1791-1850), was erected
in 1840 in the north choir aisle.
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Last years
Wilberforce's health was continuing to
fail, and he suffered further illnesses in 1824 and 1825. With his family
concerned that his life was endangered, he declined a peerage and resigned his
seat in Parliament, leaving the campaign in the hands of others. Thomas
Clarkson continued to travel, visiting anti-slavery groups throughout Britain,
motivating activists and acting as an ambassador for the anti-slavery cause to
other countries,
while Buxton pursued the cause of reform in Parliament. Public meetings and
petitions demanding emancipation continued, with an increasing number
supporting immediate abolition rather than the gradual approach favoured by
Wilberforce, Clarkson and their colleagues.
In 1826, Wilberforce moved from his
large house in Kensington Gore to Highwood Hill, a more modest property in the
countryside of Mill Hill, north of London, where he was soon joined by his son
William and family. William had attempted a series of educational and career
paths, and a venture into farming in 1830 led to huge losses, which his father
repaid in full, despite offers from others to assist. This left Wilberforce
with little income, and he was obliged to let his home and spend the rest of
his life visiting family members and friends. He continued his support for the
anti-slavery cause, including attending and chairing meetings of the Anti-Slavery
Society.
Wilberforce approved of the 1830
election victory of the more progressive Whigs, though he was concerned about
the implications of their Reform Bill which proposed the redistribution of
parliamentary seats towards newer towns and cities and an extension of the
franchise. In the event, the Reform
Act 1832 was to bring more abolitionist MPs into Parliament as a result of
intense and increasing public agitation against slavery. In addition, the 1832 slave
revolt in Jamaica convinced government ministers that abolition was
essential to avoid further rebellion. In 1833, Wilberforce's health declined
further and he suffered a severe attack of influenza from which he never fully
recovered. He made a final anti-slavery speech in April 1833 at a public
meeting in Maidstone, Kent. The following month, the Whig government introduced
the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery,
formally saluting Wilberforce in the process. On 26 July 1833, Wilberforce
heard of government concessions that guaranteed the passing of the Bill for the
Abolition of Slavery. The following day he grew much weaker, and he died early
on the morning of 29 July at his cousin's house in Cadogan Place, London.
One month later, the House of Lords
passed the Slavery Abolition Act, which abolished
slavery in most of the British Empire from August 1834. They voted plantation
owners £20 million in compensation, giving full emancipation to children
younger than six, and instituting a system of apprenticeship requiring other
enslaved peoples to work for their former masters for four to six years in the
British West Indies, South Africa, Mauritius, British Honduras and Canada.
Nearly 800,000 African slaves were freed, the vast majority in the Caribbean.
Funeral
Wilberforce had requested that he was
to be buried with his sister and daughter at Stoke Newington, just north of
London. However, the leading members of both Houses of Parliament urged that he
be honoured with a burial in Westminster Abbey. The family agreed and, on
3 August 1833, Wilberforce was buried in the north transept, close to his
friend William Pitt. The funeral was attended by many Members of Parliament, as
well as by members of the public. The pallbearers included the Duke of
Gloucester, the Lord Chancellor Henry Brougham and the Speaker of the House of
Commons Charles Manners-Sutton. While tributes were paid and Wilberforce was
laid to rest, both Houses of Parliament suspended their business as a mark of
respect.
Legacy
Five years after his death, sons
Robert and Samuel Wilberforce published a five-volume biography about their
father, and subsequently a collection of his letters in 1840. The biography was
controversial in that the authors emphasised Wilberforce's role in the
abolition movement and played down the important work of Thomas Clarkson.
Incensed, Clarkson came out of retirement to write a book refuting their
version of events, and the sons eventually made a half-hearted private apology
to him and removed the offending passages in a revision of their biography.
However, for more than a century, Wilberforce's role in the campaign dominated
the history books. Later historians have noted the warm and highly productive
relationship between Clarkson and Wilberforce, and have termed it one of
history's great partnerships: without both the parliamentary leadership
supplied by Wilberforce and the research and public mobilisation organised by
Clarkson, abolition could not have been achieved.
As his sons had desired and planned,
Wilberforce has long been viewed as a Christian hero, a statesman-saint held up
as a role model for putting his faith into action. More broadly, he has also
been described as a humanitarian reformer who contributed significantly to
reshaping the political and social attitudes of the time by promoting concepts
of social responsibility and action. In the 1940s, the role of Wilberforce and
the Clapham Sect in abolition was downplayed by historian Eric Williams, who
argued that abolition was motivated not by humanitarianism but by economics, as
the West Indian sugar industry was in decline. Williams' approach strongly
influenced historians for much of the latter part of the 20th century. However,
more recent historians have noted that the sugar industry was still making
large profits at the time of abolition, and this has led to a renewed interest
in Wilberforce and the Evangelicals, as well as a recognition of the
anti-slavery movement as a prototype for subsequent humanitarian campaigns.
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The Wilberforce Monument in the grounds of
Hull College, Hull, erected in 1834.
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Memorials
Wilberforce's life and work have been
commemorated in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In Westminster Abbey, a
seated statue of Wilberforce by Samuel Joseph was erected in 1840, bearing an
epitaph praising his Christian character and his long labour to abolish the
slave trade and slavery itself.
In Wilberforce's home town of Hull, a public
subscription in 1834 funded the Wilberforce Monument, a 31-metre (102 ft) Greek
Doric column topped by a statue of Wilberforce, which now stands in the grounds
of Hull College near Queen's Gardens. Wilberforce's birthplace was acquired by
the city corporation in 1903 and, following renovation, Wilberforce
House in Hull was opened as Britain's first slavery museum. Wilberforce
Memorial School for the Blind in York was established in 1833 in his honour,
and in 2006 the University of Hull established the Wilberforce
Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation in a building adjoining
Wilberforce's birthplace. Since September 2007 an annual arts and music
festival known as Freedom Festival has been held in Hull city
centre in honour of Wilberforce and the city's link to the abolition of the
slave trade.
Various churches within the Anglican
Communion commemorate Wilberforce in their liturgical calendars, and Wilberforce
University in Ohio, United States, founded in 1856, is named after him. The
university was the first owned by African-American people, and is a historically
black college. In Ontario, Canada, Wilberforce Colony was founded by black
reformers, and inhabited by free slaves from the United States.
Amazing Grace, a film about Wilberforce
and the struggle against the slave trade, directed by Michael Apted and
starring Ioan Gruffudd was released in 2007 to coincide with the 200th
anniversary of Parliament's anti-slave trade legislation.
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William Wilberforce’s famous quote [PHOTO
SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/278082]
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INTERNET
SOURCE: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce
Sourced
- “God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners”
- C. MacFarlane & T. Thomson. (1792), The comprehensive history of England, from the earliest period to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt, page 752.
- When we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life that should make any man contradict the dictates of his conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God? Sir, the nature and all the circumstances of this trade are now laid open to us; we can no longer plead ignorance, we can not evade it; it is now an object placed before us, we can not pass it; we may spurn it, we may kick it out of our way, but we can not turn aside so as to avoid seeing it; for it is brought now so directly before our eyes that this House must decide, and must justify to all the world, and to their own consciences, the rectitude of the grounds and principles of their decision.
- "On the Horrors of the Slave Trade", speech delivered in the House of Commons (12 May 1789)
- Let us not despair; it is a blessed cause, and success, ere long, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been suffered to exist so long a disgrace and dishonour to this country.
- Speech before the House of Commons (18 April 1791)
- You may choose to look the other way but you can never again say you did not know.
- Close of a speech in House of Commons (1791), as quoted in Once Blind : The Life of John Newton (2008) by Kay Marshall Strom, p. 225
- The gospel freely admitted makes a man happy. It gives him peace with God, and makes him happy in God. It gives to industry a noble, contented look which selfish drudgery never wore; and from the moment that a man begins to do his work for his Saviour's sake, he feels that the most ordinary employments are full of sweetness and dignity, and that the most difficult are not impossible. And if any of you, my friends, is weary with his work, if dissatisfaction with yourself or sorrow of any kind disheartens you, if at any time you feel the dull paralysis of conscious sin, or the depressing influence of vexing thoughts, look to Jesus, and be happy. Be happy, and your joyful work will prosper well.
- Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 368.
William Wilberforce (2007)
Quotes
of Wilberforce from the biography by William Hague
- If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.
- Accepting the position of leader of the anti-slavery campaign.
- God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners (morality).
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William Wilberforce’s famous quote [PHOTO
SOURCE: http://www.epm.org/blog/2013/Jul/1/look-other-way]
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