WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM

Antislavery leader and philanthropist; b. Hull, England, Aug. 24, 1759; d. London, July 29, 1833. Wilberforce was educated at Cambridge where he began a lifelong friendship with William Pitt, later prime minister. Both entered parliament in 1780. At Pitt's suggestion, Wilberforce became leader of the antislavery campaign. He continued to champion this cause in and out of parliament until slavery was completely abolished in the British Empire—just a few weeks before his death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Although famous chiefly as an emancipator of slaves, Wilberforce also exercised a profound religious influence. As a young man in London he moved in the privileged circles, light-hearted and self-satisfied, that dominated social and political life. After an intensive study of the New Testament, he was converted to Evangelicalism, abandoned worldly ambitions, and devoted himself to philanthropic works. His Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians won wide popularity, and argued convincingly that reform of society must begin with individual sanctification. His famous diary shows how sincerely he applied this to himself.

As leader of the Evangelical and antislavery movements, Wilberforce linked these two causes. With great skill he used Evangelicalism to help wage the antislavery campaign. At the same time, the Evangelical movement raised the debased public morality of the 18th century to the higher standards of the Victorian Age. After his death, the Evangelical movement began to lose ground, but it had contributed to the abolition of slavery and raised moral standards under Wilberforce's guidance.

During the oxford movement a generation later, three of Wilberforce's four sons were among the many followers of newman who entered the Catholic Church.

Bibliography: r. i. and s. wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, 5 v. r. coupland, Wilberforce. f. h. brown, Fathers of the Victorians: The Age of Wilberforce. a. and h. lawson, The Man Who Freed the Slaves (London 1962).

[r. wilberforce]