William
Wilberforce was born in 1759 and served in Parliament from 1780 to 1825. A
turning point in his religious life was a tour of Europe. In the luggage of a
travelling companion he saw a copy of William Law's book, A Serious Call to a Devout and
Holy Life. He asked his friend, "What is this?" and received the
answer, "One of the best books ever written." The two of them agreed
to read it together on the journey, and Wilberforce embarked on a lifelong
program of setting aside Sundays and an interval each morning on arising for
prayer and religious reading. He considered his options, including the clergy,
and was persuaded by Christian friends that his calling was to serve God
through politics. He was a major supporter of programs for popular education,
overseas missions, parliamentary reform, and religious liberty. He is best
known, however, for his untiring commitment to the abolition of slavery and the
slave trade. He introduced his first anti-slavery motion in the House of
Commons in 1788, in a three-and-a-half hour oration that concluded: "Sir,
when we think of eternity and the future consequence of all human conduct, what
is there in this life that shall make any man contradict the dictates of his
conscience, the principles of justice and the law of God!"
The motion was
defeated. Wilberforce brought it up again every year for eighteen years, until
the slave trade was finally abolished on 25 March 1806. He continued the
campaign against slavery itself, and the bill for the abolition of all slavery
in British territories passed its crucial vote just four days before his death
on 29 July 1833. A year later, on 31 July 1834, 800,000 slaves, chiefly in the
British West Indies, were set free.
The biographies were written by James Kiefer
