While studying about the early 19th century, we had to read about William Wilberforce who ended the slave trade in England, with the help of his good friend, William Pitt, the Younger.
Both were both privileged gentlemen with great wealth, a recent Cambridge education, and seats in Parliament.
Both Tories, these influential young men set out to shake the old order.
I was glad to learn all about them with a book, Amazing Grade: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to end Slavery by Eric Metaxas, perfect for our rhetoric studies.
This well-written book is the companion book to the infamous movie made in 2006, Amazing Grace.
I thank God that I live in the age of Wilberforce and that I know one man at least who is both moral and entertaining. -Gerard Edwards, 1782
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE DINES WITH MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE
In 1783, William Wilberforce, William Pitt, and Edward Eliot journeyed to France.
In October they dined with another of my favorites, who also fought for abolition…none other than the Marquis de Lafayette.
A famous American abolitionist was there too…Benjamin Franklin!
I would have loved to have been there and heard their discussion…and how they likely influenced each other in the abolitionist movement.
WILLIAM WILBERFORCE INFLUENCES PARLIAMENT
Three years after Wilberforce’s dinner at Lafayette’s home, he began a fifty-year battle against slavery.
On December 17, 1783, William Pitt, the Younger, became the youngest prime minister in the history of England, at the age of 24.
As Wilberforce struggled between serving the state and serving God, he felt the tug to abandon his Parliament seat to serve God in full time ministry.
However, his friend, John Newton, who wrote the infamous hymn, Amazing Grace, encouraged him that his service in Parliament could indeed be a means of serving God.
As Wilberforce battled slavery, he also battled the intense stomach pain for which doctors prescribed laudanum (opium).
He is known as being one of the few who could use this drug without becoming addicted to it.
TWENTY YEAR BATTLE TO END THE SLAVE TRADE IN ENGLAND
Since 1787, year after year, Wilberforce had put forth his bill, and year after year after year it had been defeated, one way or another…Now, ten long years later, the waters were quite suddenly smooth, and the harbor for which he had longed for two decades seemed finally to open her arms to him. -Amazing Grace, Metaxas, 205-206.
In Parliament, on February 23, 1807:
Everyone caught up in the increasingly charged atmosphere had been waiting, as it were, for some unconscious cue, something to ground the electricity-and Wilberforce’s tears were it. Almost simultaneously, every man in the chamber lost his composure and was carried off by the flood of emotion. Everyone rose, and three deafening cheers rang out for Mr. Wilberforce; they echoed off those historic walls and hallowed them, and all was lost to the tumult.. -Amazing Grace, Metaxas, 210
With a 283 to 16 vote, the slave trade in England came to an end.
THE SLAVE TRADE ENDED A WEEK LATER IN AMERICA
According to Metaxas, Thomas Jefferson was inspired by Wilberforce. (xviii)
A week later, on March 2, 1807, twenty years after the Constitutional Convention, President Thomas Jefferson signed a bill into law the end of the slave trade in the jurisdiction of the United States.
A few years ago, I asked the Thomas Jefferson of Colonial Williamsburg if he had communications with Wilberforce and indeed, he did! Listening to him tell the tale was wonderful!
On December 6, 1865, Congress used Article V of the Constitution to write the thirteenth amendment, ending slavery.
