William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was a Member of Parliament and evangelical Christian who led the parliamentary movement for the abolition of the slave trade (achieved 1807) and slavery itself (achieved 1833, days before his death). As a founder of the Clapham Sect, he coordinated evangelical social reform and moral renewal. His theological writings and public speeches articulated a vision of "practical Christianity" that integrated personal faith with social justice.

Traditionally, William Wilberforce is venerated as the Christian statesman par excellence—a man of deep evangelical faith who deployed his political talents and social position for the cause of moral reform and justice. He is remembered especially for his persistence in the campaign for abolition, working for forty-six years (1787–1833) for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery. The Clapham Sect, which he helped lead, is itself remembered as a model of coordinated evangelical social reform. His theological articulation of "practical Christianity"—the doctrine that faith must issue in active moral and social engagement—became influential in the evangelical tradition. He is also remembered as a family man and spiritual pilgrim whose personal journals reveal deep prayer and moral seriousness. The tradition emphasizes his integrity, his refusal to compromise the abolitionist cause for political expediency, and his conviction that Christian conscience transcends political calculation.

William Wilberforce was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1759 to a merchant family of substantial means. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he formed friendships with Henry Thornton (a banker) and other young evangelicals. After university, he was elected Member of Parliament for Yorkshire in 1780, at age 21. In his early parliamentary career, he was an accomplished orator and a friend of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger. In 1784–1785, Wilberforce underwent a religious conversion experience, becoming an evangelical Christian. He considered leaving Parliament for the ministry but was encouraged by John Newton (a clergyman and former slave-ship captain, now converted to abolition) to remain in politics as his arena of Christian calling. From this conviction emerged Wilberforce's life work: to use his parliamentary position and personal influence to advance Christian moral reform, beginning with the abolition of the slave trade. Starting in 1787, Wilberforce introduced a series of motions in Parliament calling for the abolition of the slave trade (the trade in enslaved people, though not the institution of slavery itself). These motions met enormous resistance from West Indian planters, slave traders, and many political interests. Wilberforce persevered for twenty years, gathering evidence, organizing support, and speaking repeatedly in Parliament. The Hansard record of his speeches provides primary testimony to his oratory and his marshaling of arguments. In 1807, after sustained effort, the slave trade was abolished in Britain and its empire. Wilberforce then turned to the abolition of slavery itself, a more ambitious and even more contested goal. He continued to introduce bills for emancipation until 1833, when the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by Parliament, days before his death. Alongside his parliamentary work, Wilberforce was a prolific writer. In 1797, he published A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System, a theological work arguing that Christian faith must issue in active moral reform and social engagement. The book was enormously popular and went through multiple editions. He later revised it as Real Christianity. He published numerous tracts, sermons, and essays on Christian duty. In 1797, he married Barbara Spooner, a woman of evangelical conviction, with whom he had six children. He was active in founding and leading the Clapham Sect, an informal network of evangelical clergy and laypeople who met regularly to coordinate moral and social reform movements—abolition, missionary work, reform of manners, education, and more. His home became a center for this network. Wilberforce maintained a rigorous personal piety, recorded in journals and diaries. He was a friend and correspondent of Hannah More, and collaborated with other evangelical leaders. He was increasingly frail in his later years but continued his work for abolition until his death in 1833. He died shortly after the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act, having seen the fruition of his life's great cause.

• Social Reformer