William Wilberforce

Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

William Wilberforce


William Wilberforce was born in Hull in 1759.

He was a deeply religious man who dedicated his whole life to fighting a number of causes. He became a Member of Parliament for Hull, and later for Yorkshire.


He is most remembered as the leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish the Slave Trade.


William Wilberforce was born in Wilberforce House on 24th August 1759.

‘His frame from infancy was feeble, his stature small, his eyes weak’Robert and Samuel Wilberforce


William went to school in Hull and in London. When he was seventeen, in 1776 he went to Cambridge University.


At University Wilberforce met his lifelong friend, William Pitt, the future Prime Minister. Their friendship grew when they started to attend the gallery of the House of Commons to watch the politicians debating. When Wilberforce graduated he was keen to develop a career in politics.


When Wilberforce graduated he was keen to develop a career in politics. He also became very interested in Religion, becoming a very committed Christian.


Wilberforce was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Hull in 1780.

Wilberforce spent £8,000 on the election and roasted an ox to encourage people to vote for him.

He was elected an MP for Yorkshire in 1784.


Wilberforce became interested in the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the 1780s.


At the time Wilberforce lived, Britain was heavily involved in the slave trade.

British ships sailed to Africa full of goods to trade for Africans.


Enslaved Africans were shackled, loaded onto ships and transported to the Americas.

The conditions were terrible. Many slaves died on the journey.


Slaves usually arrived in the Caribbean. They were then forced to work on Plantations. Lots of wealthy people in England owned plantations.

Plantations grew crops such as sugar and tobacco.


Wilberforce was concerned over raising the abolition issue in Parliament due to the wealth invested in the slave trade by MPs.

He made many enemies. He concentrated first on the abolition of the slave trade and then the complete abolition of slavery.

“The promoters of abolition are either fanatics or hypocrites and in one of these class I rank Mr Wilberforce”King William IV


Wilberforce made his first abolition speech in 1789. For many years, he presented the abolition bill to Parliament and it kept being defeated.

“I must speak of the transit of the slaves in the West Indies. This I confess, in my own opinion, is the most wretched part of the whole subject. So much misery condensed in so little room, is more than the human imagination had ever before conceived”


The campaign involved many people, not just Wilberforce.

People in Britain boycotted sugar as it was made by slaves on plantations. The anti-slavery campaign had what we would call a slogan:

‘Am I not a man and a brother?’


In 1807, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill was finally passed. It became illegal in Britain to buy and sell people.

Parliament gave a round of applause to Wilberforce who had tears running down his face.


Wilberforce retired from Parliament in 1825, but carried on campaigning.

It was illegal to buy and sell people, but it was still allowed to keep slaves and force them to work.


It wasn’t until 1833, that the Abolition of Slavery Act was passed.

Wilberforce died three days later.


Wilberforce is remembered not only in Hull, but throughout the world for his part in the campaign against slavery.

There is a statue in Queens Gardens in Hull commemorating his work, and a monument in Westminster Abbey where he is buried.

William Wilberforce

Documents

Transcript of William Wilberforce