In “The Tale of Two Cities”, Charles Dickens
wrote about the late 1780s in England and France as “the best of times and the worst of times.”
For the wealthy, life was very good. The evening
entertainment in the clubs of England included theater,
gambling and women. Servants for the wealthy were plentiful.
Yet, on the other hand, times for others were tough. The
Industrial Revolution had just begun. Children were burdened
in enforced labor, often working 15 to 16 hour days under unsafe conditions. Some
worked in the new textile mills. Others worked as chimney
sweeps. Only 25 percent of children made it to adulthood.
For stealing a scarf, children were executed. Public hanging
was entertainment of the day for which people paid
money to get the best seats. The biggest evil of the day,
that of slavery in the plantations of the West Indies, was
the unseen evil. Eleven million human beings had been
captured and taken from Africa to the West Indies to work in
slavery and bondage. Britain had the biggest portion of the
slave trade. Many Africans were thrown overboard
alive so that ship owners could collect insurance.
As a young English member of Parliament,
William Wilberforce influenced prominent wealthy men and
women to understand the wrongfulness of these conditions. He
inspired his friends and others to give of
their time, their talent and their money in order to change the world
around them. Among his most famous and memorable words,
William Wilberforce wrote on Sunday, October 28, 1787, in
his journal:
"God Almighty has set before me two great
objects, the suppression of the Slave Trade and the
Reformation Manners.”
Wilberforce pursued both objectives with vigor
and persistence despite opposition and vilification that was
overwhelming at times and costly to his health. After 20
years of struggle, Wilberforce and his colleagues who lived
in the Clapham five miles south of London
were able to achieve legislation in the England that
abolished the U.K. slave trade, which greatly influenced
the abolition of the slave trade in America and ultimate
in France. In another 26 years, three day before he died on July 29,
1833, Wilberforce was informed that Parliament agreed to
the emancipation of slavery.
Wilberforce and his Clapham colleagues,
including Granville Sharp, John Thornton, Henry Thornton,
Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More and others, each played a part
based on their own skills. Granville Sharp, as a lawyer,
provided legal guidance. The Thortons provided money and a
popular place to meet. Clarkson rode tirelessly on his horse
throughout England, collecting research on slavery by going on
board slave ships and collecting records. Hannah More brought to bear her popularity
as a prominent playwright. Together, they changed the world
in a number of ways:
First, slavery had been a way of life since the early civilizations of Egypt, Greece, Israel and
Rome. It continued through the Middle Ages with the system
of serfdoms. While some may have found it distasteful, there
was never an organized movement to abolish slaver until the late
18th century. After studying slavery,
particularly the “Middle Passage”, Wilberforce jumped into
action. “So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the
Trade’s wickedness appear,” as Wilberforce told Parliament, “that
my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the
consequences be what they would, I from this time determined
that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”
Second, Wilberforce spearheaded the effort
in Parliament through his friendships among the closest of
which was Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, and invented issue campaigning along the way. Today, when people
promote issues--such as cancer research
through Lance Armstrong’s familiar yellow bracelet--they
draw upon the pioneering work of Wilberforce. Wilberforce
encouraged Josiah Wedgwood to design a medallion of a black
slave in chains on his knees with the inscription “Am I not
a man and a brother?” This medallion was put on plates and
used as dinner launchers to bring out a discussion of
African slaves. Few in England had ever seen these slaves in person, but all
who owned land in the West Indies, including many
Members of Parliament, had benefited from the slave trade financially. With
the backdrop of the French Revolution in 1789, the Reign of
Terror sent thousands to the guillotine, including
the French King and Queen. Wilberforce and his friends organized
massive petition against the slave trade rom the people of England, an incredibly
risky undertaking given the nervousness of the
establishment. One of the many petitions contained more than 800,000 signatures, approximately 10 percent of the
population in England and was rolled down the floor of
Parliament . This would be equivalent of
collecting 28 million signatures in America and rolling the
signatures down the House and the Senate in Congress.
Wilberforce and his friends were incredibly effective in
bringing issues of the times to the fore.
Third, Wilberforce and his friends pioneered
the field of philanthropy. Wilberforce either started or
provided leadership in
69 charities. He created the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals, a huge issue of the day. He
also started the Society for the Betterment of the Poor and
was a founder of the British and Foreign Bible Society, now
the Bible Society, and so many more efforts for education,
health and the needs of the poor. Wilberforce wanted
to make a statement through his philanthropic initiatives.
For example, he paid for African children to come to England
and be educated so that he could demonstrate that Africans
were every bit as intelligent as any one else. Wilberforce and his friends
had a compassion for the oppressed and poor that was turned
into action over a broad range of issues, although the
abolition of slavery was always first and foremost. Yet,
much of the money given was done so anonymously as
Wilberforce sought no credit.
Fourth, Wilberforce was motivated
because of his “great
change," when he came face to face with a deeper
experience of Christianity in 1784 as he traveled through
Europe with his former headmaster, Issac Milner. The old
Wilberforce had been the “pit bull” of the Prime Minister
William Pitt and viciously attacked the
opposition. The new Wilberforce became the kind, but firm leader who worked with
everyone possible and grew to be so greatly admired by all,
ultimately even
by the political opposition. Wilberforce was even able to work with the
likes of Charles Fox who he had previously attacked. To mark
his change and to encourage this change in others, Wilberforce--while
a busy a Member of
Parliament-- wrote “A Practical View of Christianity” which
became a best seller for 50 years. It became a classic, the first
religious book other than the Bible to do so at the time.
William Cowper, the British poet, in a tribute to
Wilberforce in a sonnet, described Wilberforce as bringing
“the better hour.”
William Wilberforce is an unsung hero of the
humanities and a giant in his own time. While virtually
unknown in United States today, Wilberforce was acknowledged
by Abraham Lincoln in 1856 as a person that “every school
boy” in America knew. The emancipation leader Frederick
Douglass saluted the energy of Wilberforce and his
co-workers “that finally thawed the British heart into
sympathy for the slave, and moved the strong arm of
government in mercy to put an end to this bondage. Let no
American, especially no colored American, withhold generous
recognition of this stupendous achievement—a triumph of
right over wrong, of good over evil, and a victory for the
whole human race.
