Faith and reform

William Wilberforce

1759 to 1833 · England

William Wilberforce (1759 to 1833) was a British member of Parliament whose Christian conversion set him on a lifelong crusade to abolish the slave trade. For decades he brought the cause before Parliament and refused to give up. The Slave Trade Act passed in 1807, and the act to abolish slavery itself across the British Empire passed in 1833, three days before he died. His faith and his politics were one thing.

Life and context

Wilberforce was born in Hull in 1759, wealthy and gifted, and was elected to Parliament at twenty-one. Around 1785 he underwent an evangelical conversion and considered leaving public life; the former slave-trader turned pastor John Newton urged him to stay and serve God there. He named two great aims: the abolition of the slave trade and the moral renewal of the nation. With the circle of evangelical reformers known as the Clapham Sect, he pressed the cause through defeat after defeat. The Slave Trade Act of 1807 ended British trafficking, and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, passed as he lay dying, freed the enslaved across most of the empire.

What he wrote and stood for

In 1797 he published A Practical View of Christianity, arguing that real faith is a matter of the transformed heart, not merely respectable religion, and that such faith must bear fruit in justice. He saw the enslaved as fellow human beings made in God’s image, and made their freedom his life’s work.

What his witness points us to

Wilberforce shows the gospel breaking out of private piety into public justice. He points to the Christ who counts every person of infinite worth, and whose love, once it grips a heart, will not rest while others are in chains.

Frequently asked questions

What did William Wilberforce do?

Wilberforce (1759 to 1833) was a British MP who led the parliamentary campaign to abolish the slave trade. His efforts secured the Slave Trade Act of 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, passed days before his death.

Was Wilberforce religious?

Yes. His evangelical conversion around 1785 drove his politics. He nearly left public life but was urged to stay by John Newton, and he saw abolition and moral reform as the outworking of his Christian faith.

When was slavery abolished in Britain?

Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 and abolished slavery itself across most of the empire with the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, passed three days before Wilberforce died.