Wilberforce, by John Pollock (David C Cook Publishing, 1977), brings us close to the man who, as much as any single person, achieved the end of the slavery in Great Britain. It’s a story of dogged persistence, courage, compassion for the oppressed, and above all surrender to Christian conscience. William Wilberforce (1759-1833) arguably not only ended the slave trade but pushed Great Britain’s culture toward Christ, an influence that lasted generations. He was gifted and well-situated for influence, sure, but also flawed in many ways. Pollack shows us what God can do through someone who is surrendered to Christ, whose imagination was captured by Christ’s heart.
He converted to Christianity, ‘The Great Change,’ as he termed it, in 1785. With the help of William Unwin, an Evangelical pastor in Essex. It was not a quick conversion. For a time, Wilberforce gave intellectual consent to the claims of historical Christianity but did not much alter his social and political life (he was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1780). But by October 1785, he was experiencing spiritual anguish. He became appalled at his own selfishness and aimlessness. In his description, “I was filled with sorrow. I am sure that no human creature could suffer more than I did for some months.” By November of that year, he had determined that if he were ever to truly live for God, he must withdraw from the world. His friend and political colleague, William Pitt, attempted to persuade him to continue to use his massive talents to aid mankind. Wilberforce was unconvinced.
But Wilberforce came to believe that he must have a spiritual counselor if he were to avoid losing his mind. Pitt suggested John Newton, now sixty and Rector of St. Mary Woolnoth. Newton, the former slave trader (and famous composer of the beloved hymn, “Amazing Grace,” as well as many other celebrated hymns, sermons, and essays), was not taken aback by Wilberforce’s questions and doubts and the lack of a sudden spiritual transformation. His own conversion had been slow.
Newton helped and guided Wilberforce. And he talked him out of abandoning public life. Newton wrote to Wilberforce in 1785: “It is hoped and believed that the Lord has raised you up for the good of His church and for the good of the nation.” Wilberforce followed his advice, which was contrary to the current of typical Evangelical thought at the time, which avoided the worldliness of public life. There is no doubt that Wilberforce’s primary motivation for his relentless decades-long campaign against slavery was his Christian conviction. That he wanted his politics to reflect his commitment to Christ was illustrated in a letter to a constituent a few years after his conversion: “A man who acts from the principles I profess reflects that he is to give an account of his political conduct at the Judgement seat of Christ.”
From the early days of his political career, as a young man in his early 20s, Wilberforce was attracted to the Abolition movement. His meeting with the Thomas Clarkson, author of the influential “Essay on Slavery,” in 1787 was an important development in the movement. The two met weekly in the first months of 1787 to share evidence of the slave trade and to form strategy. Soon, there were regular meetings of like-minded reformers. Wilberforce’s presence in the House of Commons became the group’s key source of influence.
Wilberforce diligently studied the available evidence regarding the slave trade and pursued his own investigations. One key finding would be a main plank of argument through the debates of the coming decades: the slave death rate on the ‘Middle Passage’ between Africa and the Caribbean was extremely high. He would tell the House, “I confess to you, so enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did its wickedness appear 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.”
He was fiercely introspective, with the goal of great spiritual and personal growth. From his personal journals, letters, as well as others’ accounts, Wilberforce set high standards for himself, standards that, by his own reckoning, he regularly failed to achieve. For example, he was a highly social creature, enjoying the habits of the upper class at the time regarding lengthy, sumptuous meals, usually including heavy wine consumption. Wilberforce would frequently record in his diary his disappointment that he had yet again fallen to “temptations of the table.” He wrote that such failings “disqualify me for every useful purpose in life, waste my time, impair my health, fill my mind with thoughts of resistance before and self-condemnation afterwards.” He was exacting in his rules for himself, but never legalistic. He believed that joy was an indicator of genuine Christianity. He cultivated a deep joy in the hope that his faith promised.
What motivated Wilberforce to buck his culture and become a champion for the lowly slaves? He was compelled by Christian convictions. He took to heart the commands to make disciples of all nations. He grieved at the thought of slaves not being exposed to the Gospel of Christ. As he was first forming his opinions on the slave trade, he was conflicted by the claims of merchants and planters that abolishing the trade would lead to economic ruin for the West Indies. In the end, however, Wilberforce could not God had arranged the world so that the prosperity of one group depended on the devastation of another.
Wilberforce was of course not alone in his battle for abolition in the United Kingdom. But he was as important as any other in achieving the goal. So, how did he do it? What were his distinctive contributions?
First, he had a bedrock conviction that compelled him. He talked as if he had no choice but to fight for abolition, and do so skillfully. To fail to do so would be to lose his integrity. For example, in a famous 1789 address to Parliament (three and half hours!), he said, “There is a principle above everything that is political. And when I reflect on the command that says, ‘Thou shalt do no murder’, believing the authority to be divine, how can I dare set up any reasonings of my own against it? And, Sir, when we think of eternity, and of the future consequences of all human conduct, what is there in this life which should make any man contradict the principles of his own conscience, the principles of justice, the laws of religion, and of God?”
A society that is host to a great structural evil while also needing to think of itself as mostly good must do a lot of rationalizing. England was no exception. The rationalizations for the slave trade were many, but Wilberforce would have none of it. He was willing to speak the truth as he saw it, regardless of popularity. For example, one rationalization was the claim that all those sold into slavery were criminals who would otherwise be executed. Wilberforce knew this to be absurdly false, and said so.
In trying to persuade, he steered away from the passionate polemics that were commonplace in British politics. His speeches to Parliament were genuinely intended to appeal to the members’ reason and humanity. He did not gratuitously insult his colleagues; nor did he exclude himself from guilt. His famous May, 1789 address calling for members to vote for Abolition is typical in this regard: “I ask only for their cool and impartial reason…I mean not to accuse anyone but to take the shame upon myself, in common indeed with the whole Parliament of Great Britain, for having suffered this horrid trade to be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty – we ought all to plead guilty, and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others.”
Wilberforce tirelessly worked to move England toward a more just and moral society. He constantly explored new ideas and anyone with a cause or an improvement plan had his ear. He advised, encouraged, and, as needed, corrected. In his later years, his home became something of a clearinghouse for charities and reform initiatives. He knew he didn’t have the time to pursue most of his own ideas, so he liked to inspire others to carry them out. Still, the charities he founded and helped establish were numerous. It’s been estimated that he was president, vice-president or committee man of at least sixty-nine societies. Among those, Wilberforce regarded the Bible Society as “one of the most excellent and useful institutions that ever existed.”
Abolishing the slave trade, and then slavery itself in England, was a long slog. It involved decades of persuasion, shrewd political maneuvering, alliance building, and persisting after setbacks. The Slave Trade Act (abolishing the British slave trade) was not passed until 1807. The Slavery Abolition Act, barring slavery in most of the British empire, passed in 1833. Wilberforce died just days after being assured of its passage. He had lived to see the fruit of his lifetime of commitment to cause of the slaves. He died contented, expressing gratitude to God.