Civil Rights Trailblazer: William Wilberforce's Fight For Freedom

Civil Rights Trailblazer - William Wilberforce

Bimdini Perera

“The heartbroken mother was to be separated from her little boy for the rest of her life” - Derick Bingham. This was what happened to many mothers and their children before slavery was put an end to. A man fought for the freedom of these slaves. He’s name was William Wilberforce.

William Wilberforce was born on 24 August 1759 to Robert Wilberforce and Elizabeth Bird. Wilberforce had three sisters. Two of them who passed away at the ages of 8 and 14. Only his oldest sister, Sarah Wilberforce and himself lived onto be adults. Along with Wilberforce's’ sister's death he has also faced his father’s death at a younger age. His mom, who at the time had a hard time coping with Robert

Ships took Britain-made goods to Africa to buy slaves. From there, the slaves were transported to West Indies and then brought slave-grown products. These products done using the slave trade act supplied French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and British colonies. During the voyage to West Indies about 1.4 million people including children passed away. Once on a tour through Europe Wilberforce met Rev. James Ramsey who was a ship surgeon that informed him about all the miserable things he has witnessed during the slave trade act. This was Wilberforce’s turning point as he completely started over and turned into another person. Wilberforce woke up early every morning to read the bible thus making him more religious. Wilberforce went on to take his career as a politician more seriously to help those in need. Wilberforce hated himself for fooling around in college. He thought he wasted his time spent in college. Wilberforce finally came to a decision to try to end the slave-trade act and to free the slaves. The campaign was supported by many members of the Clapham Sect(group of Church of England reformers based in Claphams) who raised public awareness for the cause using books, pamphlets and rallies. Wilberforce has never lost an election during the 44 years he served at Parliament. The act to end slave trade was denied 11 times by the Parliament but this didn’t stop Wilberforce from trying again until he succeeded. In 1807 the act to end slave trade was accepted but it only ended slave-trade. There is still slaves being bought and sold around the world. It took another 26 years to pass an act wherein slavery was abolished from the whole of the British Empire. The bill passed by 283 votes for and 16 votes against. William Wilberforce passed away on the 24th july 1833 which was just three days after hearing that slavery has been abolished in the British