Inspirational Quotes by William Wilberforce (English Social Reformer)

William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was an English politician, philanthropist, and social reformer. A prominent campaigner for abolishing the slave trade, his efforts resulted in its outlawing in the British West Indies (1807) and the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. Wilberforce’s third son, Samuel, became an Anglican prelate.

Born the son of a wealthy merchant in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire, Wilberforce was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1780, he was elected MP for Hull, and in 1784 for Yorkshire, he became a close friend of William Pitt, the Younger, while remaining independent of any party. In 1784–85, during a tour on the Continent, he converted to evangelical Christianity, and, in 1787, he founded an association for the reformation of manners.

In 1788, supported by abolitionist Thomas Clarkson and the Quakers, Wilberforce began a 19-year campaign to abolish the slave trade in the British West Indies, which he finally achieved in 1807. He next sought to secure the abolition of the slave trade abroad and the total abolition of slavery itself, but declining health compelled him in 1825 to retire from parliament.

Wilberforce died one month before the Slavery Abolition Act was passed. Wilberforce was for long a central figure in the ‘Clapham sect’ of Evangelicals. He published A Practical View of Christianity in 1797, helped to found the Christian Observer (1801,) and promoted many schemes for the community’s welfare.

Wilberforce’s sons, Robert and Samuel, published a five-volume biography about their father in 1838 and a collection of his letters in 1840.

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