William Wilberforce - English Anti-slavery Leader

Abolitionist campaigners

The British initially became involved in the slave trade during the 16th century. The British campaign to abolish the slave trade is generally considered to have begun in the s with the establishment of the Quakers ' anti-slavery committees, and their presentation to Parliament of the first slave trade petition in 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 , and there met Sir Charles Middleton , Lady Middleton, Thomas Clarkson , Hannah More and others, a group that later became known as the Testonites.

William Wilberforce | British politician | www.newyorkethnicfood.com

The book, published in , 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 proslavery tracts. Wilberforce apparently did not follow up on his meeting with Ramsay. In November , he received a letter from Sir Charles Middleton that re-opened his interest in the slave trade.

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". In early , 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, [60] called upon Wilberforce at Old Palace Yard with a published copy of the work. 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.

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 , 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.

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 involvement in the abolition movement was motivated by a desire to put his Christian principles into action and to serve God in public life.

On 22 May , 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 society was highly successful in raising public awareness and support, and local chapters sprang up throughout Great Britain.

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. 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 parliamentary session.

However, in January , he was taken ill with a probable stress-related condition, now thought to be ulcerative colitis. His regular bouts of gastrointestinal illnesses precipitated the use of moderate quantities of opium , which proved effective in alleviating his condition, [98] and which he continued to use for the rest of his life.

In 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 and following months of planning, Wilberforce commenced his parliamentary campaign.

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.

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 as a result of the bloody slave revolt in St.

Domingue later to be known as Haiti , although later briefly restored by Napoleon in In January , 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. William Wilberforce — speech before the House of Commons, 18 April []. Interrupted by a general election in June , the committee finally finished hearing witnesses, and in April with a closely reasoned four-hour speech, Wilberforce introduced the first parliamentary bill to abolish the slave trade.

This was the beginning of a protracted parliamentary campaign, during which Wilberforce's commitment never wavered, despite frustration and hostility.

Thomas Clarkson (1760 - 1846)

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. Wilberforce accepted an invitation to share a house with Henry Thornton in , moving into his own home after Thornton's marriage in 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. Inspired in part by the utopian vision of Granville Sharp , they became involved in the establishment in of a free colony in Sierra Leone with black settlers from Britain, Nova Scotia and Jamaica, as well as native Africans and some whites.

Initially a commercial venture, the British government assumed responsibility for the colony in On 2 April , Wilberforce again brought a bill calling for abolition. The memorable debate that followed drew contributions from the greatest orators in the house, William Pitt the Younger and Charles James Fox , as well as from Wilberforce himself. This was passed by 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.

On 26 February , 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. 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. 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 , 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. 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 session, it was defeated, with even the usually sympathetic Pitt failing to support it.

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. Following Pitt's death in January , 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.

William Wilberforce: The Real Abolitionist?

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. The death of Fox in September was a blow, but was followed quickly by a general election in the autumn of 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.

As tributes were made to Wilberforce, whose face streamed with tears, the bill was carried by votes to In his youth, William Wilberforce showed little interest in women, but when he was in his late thirties his friend Thomas Babington recommended twenty-year-old Barbara Ann Spooner — as a potential bride. 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.

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 s, protesting: He later became a clergyman and, in , he was ordained as a priest. In his later years, he chose to campaign against the slave trade. He wrote a journal of his life on board a slave ship and also an anti-slavery pamphlet. He is particularly famous for the hymn 'Amazing Grace' which tells the story of his redemption through religion. Mary Prince was a slave, born in Bermuda, but brought to Britain by her owners.

Once in Britain, she tried unsuccessfully to gain her freedom and decided to go public with her experiences of being a slave. Her story was narrated to the author Susannah Strickland and was published in Her account particularly appealed to female anti-slavery campaigners as it highlighted the effect slavery had on domestic life. As chairman of the Committee to Abolish the Slave Trade, Sharp was the oldest and most experienced of the members.

He had spoken out against slavery long before it was a popular cause. He came from a wealthy and deeply religious Yorkshire family. He was an extraordinarily active pamphleteer on slavery as well as a whole range of other topics. He also developed a reputation for taking up in court the cases of fugitive slaves who had been brought to London from the West Indies and wanted their freedom.

He won a historic ruling in the James Somerset case of , which forbade owners with black servants in Britain from deporting them back to slavery in the West Indies.

William Wilberforce was the main figurehead in Parliament for the Abolitionist campaign. He was born in Kingston-upon-Hull into a wealthy family of wool merchants and represented the town as MP. He was recruited by Thomas Clarkson, who recognised that, in order to get Parliament to change the law, the anti-slavery cause needed a brilliant advocate inside Parliament itself. Wilberforce was very well suited for this role. He made his first speech in Parliament against slavery in and made a great impression.

However, a mixture of external events including the slave rebellion in Haiti in which hardened public attitudes and poor tactics prevented his abolition bill being passed in the House of Commons in A similar bill proposed in April was passed by MPs only after it was amended and conceded to a 'gradual' abolition of the slave trade. In he introduced 12 resolutions against the slave trade and gave what many newspapers at the time considered among the most eloquent speeches ever delivered in the Commons.

In he again brought a motion to the House of Commons to abolish the slave trade, but it was defeated to In Wilberforce, buttressed by the support of hundreds of thousands of British subjects who had signed petitions favouring the abolition of the slave trade, put forward another motion. However, a compromise measure, supported by Home Secretary Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville , that called for gradual abolition was agreed and passed the House of Commons, much to the disappointment of Wilberforce and his supporters.

For the next 15 years, Wilberforce was able to achieve little progress toward ending the slave trade in part because of the domestic preoccupation with the war against Napoleon. In , however, he finally achieved success: The statute did not, however, change the legal position of persons enslaved before its enactment, and so, after several years in which Wilberforce was concerned with other issues, he and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton urged from the immediate emancipation of all slaves.

In he aided in organizing and became a vice president of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions—again, more commonly called the Anti-Slavery Society. Turning over to Buxton the parliamentary leadership of the abolition movement, he retired from the House of Commons in On July 26, , the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by the Commons it became law the following month ; three days later Wilberforce died.

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