Best william wilberforce biography

But integrity paid off. Wilberforce was a great leader because, based on personal principles, he was willing to stand against public opinion and party expectations. He was committed to seeing justice served, even when it was personally inconvenient. Between and Wilberforce campaigned tirelessly for a legislated end to the British slave trade, a part of the economy financially analogous to our defense industry today.

But inthe vote went in his favor to 16, an event historian G. During his career, he often joined with philosophical opponents in pursuit of common goals. Abolition was one such instance; his prison reform work with the Utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham was another. Wilberforce and Bentham subscribed to very different worldviews, but to Wilberforce this did not preclude the possibility of collaboration.

Bentham deeply respected Wilberforce for this and dedicated an early draft of his famous Essay on the Poor Laws to Wilberforce. More petitions were collected, further meetings held, extra pamphlets published, and a boycott of sugar was organised. The campaign was not helped by news of the revolutions in France and Haiti. Perhaps sensing that a hardening of attitudes was becoming increasingly likely Wilberforce again brought the question of abolition before the House and, almost a year after the previous defeat, on 2 Aprilonce more found himself addressing the House of Commons.

Every account we have of this speech shows that it was an intense and lengthy emotional harangue. Public feeling was outraged and, on this occasion, so was the feeling of the House. But not quite enough. Henry Dundas suggested an amendment to the Abolition Bill: the introduction of the word 'gradual'. The bill passed as amended, by votes to 85, and gradual abolition became law, the final date for slave trading to remain legal being later fixed at But this gave the 'West India Interest' - the slave traders' lobby - room to manoeuvre.

Once again parliamentary delaying tactics came into play, further evidence was demanded, and it became clear that gradual abolition was to mean no abolition. This event marked a turning point in the fortunes of the abolition camapign. Partly because of a hardening of attitudes caused by the outbreak of war with France, and partly because of determined resistance from the West-India Interest there was a collapse in public enthusiasm for the cause.

Some abolitionists withdrew from the campaign entirely.

Best william wilberforce biography

Wilberforce did not, but his speeches best william wilberforce biography on ever deafer ears. Although Wilberforce reintroduced the Abolition Bill almost every year in the s, little progress was made even though Wilberforce remained optimistic for the long-term success of the cause. He directed some of his efforts into other arenas, largely evangelical or philanthropic, and was instrumental in setting up organisations such as The Bible Society and The Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor.

In he published a book, A Practical view of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, a work of popular theology with a strong evangelical hue which sold well on publication and throughout the nineteenth century. On 30 Mayafter a short romance, he married Barbara Ann Spooner. If the first two years of the new century were particularly bleak ones for the abolition movement, the situation was rapidly reversed in The association of abolitionism with Jacobinism dispersed as Napoleon's hostility to emancipation became known.

Members of Parliament, especially the many new Irish members, increasingly tended toward abolition. The Abolition Society reformed with a mixture of experienced older members and new blood. Wilberforce assumed his old role of parliamentary leader, and introduced the Abolition Bill before parliament. The Bill fell in andbut gave the abolitionists an opportunity to sound out support.

InWilberforce published an influential tract advocating abolition and, in June that year, resolutions supporting abolition were passed in parliament. A public campaign once again promoted the cause, and the new Whig government was in favour as well. The family agreed and, on 3 AugustWilberforce was buried in the north transept, close to his friend William Pitt.

The biography was controversial in that the authors emphasised Wilberforce's role in the abolition movement and played down the important work of Thomas Clarkson. Clarkson wrote a book refuting their version of events, and the sons eventually made a half-hearted private apology to him and removed the offending passages in a revision of their biography.

Later historians have noted the warm and highly productive relationship between Clarkson and Wilberforce, and have termed it one of history's great partnerships: without both the parliamentary leadership supplied by Wilberforce and the research and public mobilisation organised by Clarkson, abolition could not have been achieved. More recent historians have noted that the sugar industry was still making large profits at the time of the abolition of the slave trade, and this has led to a renewed interest in Wilberforce and the evangelicals, as well as a recognition of the anti-slavery movement as a prototype for subsequent humanitarian campaigns.

In Westminster Abbey, a seated statue of Wilberforce by Samuel Joseph was erected inbearing an epitaph praising his Christian character and his long labour to abolish the slave trade and slavery. For the general reader, however, The Life of William Wilberforce is exceedingly tedious to slog through not to mention expensive. It has little to no narrative arc, and only gluttons for punishment would read it for fun when there are other options on the table.

Fortunately, for all of our sakes, there are. Both are out of print, though scanned reproductions can be found on Amazon or downloaded for free at archive.