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William Wilberforce William Wilberforce We may think that Black History Month has little to do with Hull, but it's easy for us to forget that in the 18th Century there was a white man from this city who has come to hold an important place in black history. William Wilberforce was the son of a wealthy Hull merchant. He was born in 1759 in the house that is now the Museum that bears his name in High Street. His grandfather had made the family fortune in the maritime trade with the Baltic countries. William was a small, sickly and delicate child, with poor eyesight. He attended Hull Grammar School but, when he was 9 years old, his father died and, with his mother struggling to cope, William was sent to stay with his uncle and aunt in Wimbledon. Influenced by them, he becam interested in evangelical Christianity. This did not please his mother and grandfather who brought him back to Hull when he was 12 years old and sent him to complete his schooling at Pocklington. At the age of 17, William went to Cambridge University. Shortly afterwards, the deaths of his grandfather and uncle left him independently wealthy and, as a result, he had little inclination or need to apply himself to serious study. Instead, he immersed himself in the social side of student life, with plenty of drinking and gambling. Witty, generous, and an excellent conversationalist, he was a popular figure. He made many friends, including the future Prime Minister William Pitt. Despite his lifestyle and lack of studying he managed to pass his examinations! William began to consider a political career while still at university and was encouraged by William Pitt to join him in obtaining a parliamentary seat. In September 1780, at the age of 21 and while still a student, Wilberforce was elected MP for Hull, spending over £8,000 to ensure he received the necessary votes, as was the custom of the time. Wilberforce sat as an independent, resolving to be "no party man" and voted on matters according to his conscience. He attended Parliament regularly, but he also maintained a very lively social life. When William was 25 he went on a tour of Europe. During the tour he read a book called The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Whether it was this book or something else that caused it, William's life changed at this time. He started to rise early to read the Bible and pray. He underwent an evangelical conversion, regretting his past life and resolving to commit his future life and work to the service of God. His conversion changed his habits but not his nature: he remained outwardly cheerful although, from his private journal, it can be seen that inwardly, he underwent an agonising struggle and became relentlessly self-critical. Thereafter, William's political views were informed by his faith and by his desire to promote Christianity and Christian ethics in private and public life. His views were often deeply conservative. As a result, he was often distrusted by progressive voices because of his conservatism, and regarded with suspicion by many Tories who saw evangelicals as radicals, bent on the overthrow of the established church. William was passionate about education, prison reforms and ending child labour. He was also one of the founders of the RSPCA. He began using his parliamentary position to advocate reforms in these areas. However, it is his long struggle for the abolition of the slave trade for which he is remembered. The British initially became involved in the slave trade during the 16th century. By 1783, the triangular route that took British-made goods to Africa to buy slaves, transported the enslaved to the West Indies, and then brought slave-grown products such as sugar, tobacco, and cotton to Britain, represented about 80 percent of Britain's foreign income. British ships dominated the trade, supplying French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese and British colonies, and in peak years carried forty thousand enslaved men, women and children across the Atlantic in horrific conditions. Of the estimated 11 million Africans transported into slavery, about 1.4 million died during the voyage. William became leader of The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade and campaigned to bring an end to British involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. The society was highly successful in raising public awareness and support but the campaign also made William many enemies, especially among those who had made huge profits from the slave trade. The campaign used pioneering techniques such as lobbying, writing pamphlets, holding public meetings, gaining press attention, organising boycotts and even using a campaign logo: an image of a kneeling slave above the motto Am I not a Man and a Brother? In 1791 with a closely reasoned four-hour speech, William introduced the first parliamentary bill to abolish the slave trade. However, after two evenings of debate, the bill was easily defeated by 163 votes to 88. This was the beginning of a protracted parliamentary campaign, during which Wilberforce's commitment never wavered, despite frustration and hostility. He was supported in his work by fellow members of the “Clapham Sect”, a group of friends holding evangelical Christian convictions, who mainly lived, as did William at that time, in large houses surrounding Clapham Common. Pro-slavery advocates claimed that enslaved Africans were lesser human beings who benefited from their bondage. The Clapham Sect and others were anxious to demonstrate that Africans, and particularly freed slaves, had human and economic abilities beyond the slave trade; that they were capable of sustaining a well-ordered society, trade and cultivation. They became involved in the establishment in 1792 of a free colony in Sierra Leone with black settlers from the United Kingdom, Nova Scotia and Jamaica, as well as native Africans and some whites. William subscribed liberally to the project in money and time. The dream was of an ideal society in which races would mix on equal terms; the reality was fraught with tension, crop failures, disease, death, war and defections to the slave trade. Initially a commercial venture, the British government assumed responsibility for the colony in 1808. The colony, although troubled at times, was to become a symbol of anti-slavery in which residents, communities and African tribal chiefs, worked together to prevent enslavement at the source. In 1792, William again brought a bill calling for abolition. After long debate the Home Secretary proposed a compromise solution of "gradual abolition" over a number of years. This was passed by 230 to 85 votes, but the compromise was little more than a clever ploy, with the intention of ensuring that total abolition would be delayed indefinitely. The following year another vote to abolish the slave trade was defeated by eight votes. General interest in the abolition of the slave trade waned with the French Revolution and Britain's war with France, but William continued to introduce abolition bills throughout the 1790s, but was defeated time after time. The early years of the 19th century once again saw an increased public interest in abolition of the slave trade and after several more unsuccessful attempts eventually, in 1807, the bill finally passed through parliament to end British involvement in the slave trade. However, the new law did not make slavery itself unlawful in the British Empire. William had married Barbara Spooner in 1797 and they had 6 children. William was a loving and devoted husband and father. He retired from politics in 1825 due to ill health but continued to campaign for the abolition of slavery and the freedom of slaves. Finally, in 1833, as William lay on his deathbed, he was told that the Slavery Abolition Bill, granting freedom to all slaves within the British Empire, would pass through Parliament which it did just a month after he died. Under the new law nearly 800,000 African slaves were later freed, the vast majority in the Caribbean. In recognition of his achievements, William's body was buried in Westminster Abbey. While tributes were paid and he was laid to rest, both Houses of Parliament suspended their business as a mark of respect. He is remembered in Hull by the Wilberforce Monument outside Hull College which was erected shortly after his death and was paid for by public subscription. Wilberforce University in the USA was founded in 1856 and named after him. The university was the first owned by African-American people. In Canada, Wilberforce Colony was founded by black reformers, and inhabited by free slaves from the United States. .
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