Resource: William Wilberforce Freedom Fighter by Betty Steele Everett. CLC Publications: Fort Washington, PA 19034. 2007 printing.
"A rising star in British politics, young William Wilberforce led a life of privilege and power. Then he turned to Christ, and the Lord changed the focus of his heart. As a newly converted Member of the English House of Commons, he spent the rest of his long and honored political career promoting the freedom and rights of slaves." (Back Cover). In my opinion this was one of the signal turning points in history to address a horrendous evil that had existed since the beginning of humankind!
William Wilberforce was a very slight young man. He had been born in 1759, small and frail. Early in his education he learned about slavery and began to condemn it. Due to the deaths of relatives and the bequests to him, he became a wealthy young man and entered St. John's College at Cambridge University. Early on after graduation he was moved to public service. A significant figure in his life became William Pitt. Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons and for the next 45 years he was committed to this career. Pitt and he became fast friends. William Pitt became Prime Minister of England at 24! A rising star! On a trip to France with his old teacher Isaac Milner, he discovered Milner was an "Evangelical." "These believers were interested in personal religion and living like Jesus. They did not believe that merely going to church was enough to be a true Christian." (31). Wilberforce was urged to meet John Newton, who had been master of a slave ship when he was converted.
"Newton kept William both shocked and spellbound with his stories of cruelty to the blacks. He told in detail how the Africans were branded, then jammed into the slave ships so tightly that they could barely move except when brought up on deck for exercise. He told about the beatings and other inhumane punishments, and of the deaths-and how the bodies were dumped into the ocean without any religious service or attention." (35). This encounter with Newton changed Wilberforce's life. He became a Christian and his life changed. He became an Evangelical, founded by the Wesleys, who had started Methodism. It had appealed to the lower and middle classes as contrasted to the upper classes and their Anglicanism.
Slavery had been banned in England, but not in the colonies. Wilberforce began a crusade for moral improvement in England. He began to support a Slave Trade Bill. His life was threatened. He believed his cause was slavery and it was a religious cause. He continued to pursue his great cause of a law forbidding the slave trade.
On Feb. 23, 1807 the long and arduous path that Wilberforce had walked down was voted into law. "The bill was passed that would make carrying of slaves in British ships, anywhere in the Empire, illegal after May 1." (71). William Wilberforce's crusade took a giant step forward to end parts of this abominable human tragedy that was ended with the act. Be it known "Slavery itself was not outlawed; only the trading and the carrying of slaves were illegal--and, of course, only in the British Empire." (74). But, the slave trade was still alive and well in the United States!!!! Every thing William did came from his deep Christian faith. (90).
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