William Wilberforce
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William Wilberforce
In 1807 he sponsored the bill (law) in the British parliament abolishing the slave trade in the British Empire. As a result of his law, slaves could not be transported by British ships (for example, from Africa to the West Indies).
After further prolonged efforts, he also succeeded in having laws passed that (1833) banned slavery itself in the British Empire.
Horrified by the cruelty that he had seen inflicted on cattle and horses in England, Wilberforce was also one of the founders of the British animal welfare group, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (R.S.P.C.A.). The society introduced the system of inspectors that enforced humane conditions for animals, both domestic and working.
Amazing Grace (the William Wilberforce story) Trailer
Yes, I'm a Fanatic
"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."
-- William Wilberforce, on accepting the position of leader of the anti-slavery campaign
William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner
William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner
Amazon Price: $12.92 (as of 02/16/2012)
The former leader of Britain's Conservative Party, Hague has lately immersed himself in biography writing. As with William Pitt the Younger (2005), this depiction of William Wilberforce recurs regularly to the political arena of the House of Commons. Pitt and Wilberforce were friends and precocious members, both entering the Commons in their early twenties, but Wilberforce's talents lay not, as Hague describes, in ministerial leadership. Sociable, eloquent, but indolent, Wilberforce experienced an evangelical conversion around 1786 that expelled the laziness from his character without compromising his geniality. Dedicating his political life to moral causes, Wilberforce decided on two: "the reformation of manners," as he confided to his diary, and the abolition of African slavery. Wilberforce's campaign against vice had scant historical effect, but that against slavery in British realms arguably prodded the Western world toward abolition. Why Wilberforce's effort (trade in slaves was banned in 1807; abolition occurred in 1834) followed a tortuous path becomes understandable as Hague explains the parliamentary practicalities that Wilberforce faced. Incorporating Wilberforce's domestic life, Hague's effort is a well-rounded portrait of the pioneering British abolitionist.
William Wilberforce: the man behind the film, Amazing Grace
The Horrors of the Slave Trade
"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; ... 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."
-- William Wilberforce, speech to Parliament, 1789
Latest News on William Wilberforce
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byNever, never will we desist
"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 to Parliament, 1791
Interesting Website Pages on Wilberforce and Slavery
- William Wilberforce - Fighter Against Slavery and Supporter of Rights of Children and Animals
- William Wilberforce, the the famous British anti-slavery campaigner, gave up the privileges of his rich background to take up the unfashionable fight against slavery throughout the British Empire. But he also wanted to have the rights of children recognized and helped found the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (R.S.P.C.A.).
- Slavery
- History with pictures of slavery in the ancient and modern world and of the anti-slavery movement.
More Great Humanitarians
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