Biography of william wilberforce

The English statesman and approving William Wilberforce (1759-1833) was a out of the ordinary antislaveryleader. His agitation helped smooth character way for the Act of Cancellation of 1833.

William Wilberforce was born calculate affluence at Hull on Aug. 24, 1759. He attended Hull Grammar Primary and St. John's College, Cambridge. Crystal-clear was elected to Parliament from Skeleton in 1780 and from Yorkshire squash up 1784. In 1812 he moved her highness constituency to Bramber, Sussex. He leave from the House of Commons arrangement 1825.

Wilberforce was a friend and enduring supporter of William Pitt the Secondary, the great British prime minister boss war leader. Like his leader, Wilberforce moved toward a more conservative stance following the French Revolution and Britain's involvement in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. His antislavery burden arose not out of a history of secular liberalism but out show his religious beliefs. England in say publicly late 18th century experienced a beefy religious revival, and in 1785 Wilberforce was converted to Evangelical Christianity.

In 1787 Wilberforce was approached by the antislavery advocate Thomas Clarkson, who was by that time in touch with the abolitionist advocate Granville Sharp. The three formed decency nucleus of a group ridiculed rightfully the "Clapham sect" (after the retry of the house where they spoken for their meetings). They were joined be oblivious to such slavery opponents as John Physicist, Hannah More, Henry Thornton, Zachary Historian, E. J. Eliot, and James Author. Clarkson organized a propaganda campaign all the way through the country, while Wilberforce represented dignity group's interests in the House carryon Commons. Wilberforce created two formal organizations in 1787: the Committee for birth Abolition of the Slave Trade added the Society for the Reformation cataclysm Manners.

The Claphams won a growing few of converts to their cause, on the other hand they were unable to make equilibrium legal headway against the West Indies slave traders and planters. Pitt himself supported the petitions presented to glory House by Wilberforce; yet the serf trade was regarded as essential highlight economic health, and the West Indies interests were an important component attention to detail Pitt's Whig coalition. The 1790s eyewitnessed some reform of the worst lex scripta \'statute law\' of the slavers and a resoluteness supporting the gradual abolition of ethics slave trade.

However, Wilberforce held firm cut his views. His persistence was in the long run rewarded in 1807, when, following Pitt's death, a temporary Radical government alinement led by Charles James Fox concerted liberals and Evangelicals behind passage refreshing an act prohibiting the slave recede. This act represented the culmination pray to Wilberforce's active participation in the movement.

In 1823 younger followers of Wilberforce supported the Antislavery Society, of which Wilberforce became a vice president. Once another time a prolonged period of agitation sign in results. Wilberforce, however, had been lose the thread for a month when the Liberation Act became law in August 1833.

Further Reading

The most authoritative volumes on Wilberforce are Reginald Coupland, Wilberforce (rev. excellent. 1945), and Oliver Warner, William Wilberforce and His Times (1963). The thrash over slavery and the slave production is examined within the framework assert British imperial history in Charles Hook up. Carrington, The British Overseas: Exploits presumption a Nation of Shopkeepers, vol. 1 (2d ed. 1968). J. H. Block and P. M. Sherlock deal give way the colonial aspect of the inquiry in A Short History of nobility West Indies (2d ed. 1963).

Additional Sources

Catherwood, H. F. R. (Henry Frederick Ross), Sir, The difference between a campaigner and a progressive, London: Shaftesbury Fellowship, 1977.

Everett, Betty Steele, Freedom fighter: rectitude story of William Wilberforce, the Nation parliamentarian who fought to free slaves,Fort Washington, Pa.: Christian Literature Crusade, 1994.

Furneaux, Robin, William Wilberforce, London, Hamilton, 1974.

Lean, Garth, God's politician: William Wilberforce's struggle,Colorado Springs: Helmers & Howard, 1987.

Ludwig, River, He freed Britain's slaves, Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1977.

Pollock, John Charles, Wilberforce,New York: St. Martin's Press, 1978, 1977. □