Book Review: Amazing Grace, by Eric Metaxas

American Public University

Amy M. White

“Africa! Africa! Your sufferings have been the theme that has arrested and engages my heart—your sufferings no tongue can express; no language impart.” William Wilberforce

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Book Review: Amazing Grace

The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries marks a “major watershed in British

political, economic, and intellectual history,” which allowed William Wilberforce to rise to the

ranks of greatness and profess himself as a humble servant of God and country through faith and

service.1 In this period there were actual horrors in the world and the religion that once defined

the Church of England had become antiquated, nothing more than an expression, and the values

of the nation fell to such heinous acts as to mark the century as a “vulgar” and corrupt period.

Though just then as the Church of England was faltering, other religious movements or revivals

began to reach out to ordinary people like never before in an era we know today as the Great

Awakening. Armed with the new ideas of the Great Awakening in his heart and through his

moral courage and Christian principles Wilberforce would reawaken a nation to the

responsibility of humanity and justice.2

William Wilberforce was born to an affluent merchant family in the city of Hull, a port

town on the west coast of Great Britain, known for its “worldly amusements” on August 24th,

1759. Wilberforce was one of four children and the only son born to his parents. 1768 was a

challenging year for the Wilberforce family; William was just eight years old, his oldest sister

died, and shortly thereafter his mother gave birth to his youngest sister, and then just months

later his Father passed away. These deaths must have weighed profoundly on William’s mother,

as she soon became ill with an acute fever, prompting the family to send William to live with his

Uncle William and Aunt Hannah Thornton in Wimbledon, over two hundred miles away. This

was the most critical period of Wilberforce’s childhood. His Aunt and Uncle were rich with no

1 Smith, Ralph A. Austen and Woodruff D, "Images of Africa and British Slave-Trade Abolition: The Transistion to

an Imperialist Ideology, 1787-1807," African Historical Studies, 2, no. 1(1969): 69-83.

2 Metaxas, Eric, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, New York: Harper

San Francisico, 2007, 5.

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children of their own and they quite naturally fell in love with the young William Wilberforce, a

very tender loving, but always a thoughtful boy.

Now it was here in the company of his Aunt and Uncle that Wilberforce was first

exposed to a new world apart from the worldly society he had known in Hull into “the epicenter

of a spiritual renaissance in England.”3 This was a far cry from Hull, where “spirituality” was

more of a status than actual practice, and for Wilberforce this was a dangerous time of change

and a period that would forever enlighten the young boy’s spiritual being within. The Thornton’s

were “close friends” with George Whitefield “the principal human force behind” the Great

Awakening. The Great Awakening was a movement that brought people to a more intimate

relationship with God as it was preached by the Wesley brothers, who taught the importance of a

closer relationship with God obtained through “good works” and building a personal relationship

with God, the movement of the Wesley’s called themselves Methodists.4

Throughout Britain in the eighteenth century the religion ordained through the Church of

England “was now in [a] full-scale retreat.” 5 Through the preaching of the Wesley’s, and more

notably in Wimbledon, George Whitefield, the teachings of the Methodist taught that the core of

Christian salvation (according to scripture) was not in “becoming perfect and holy,” but rather

the key was salvation.6 John Wesley’s preaching “appealed to people’s hearts and minds.” The

Methodist clergy went outside of the church to preach to all persons encouraging each other in

their faith and the task to live their life in the hope of improving the lives of others. The Wesley’s

preached that all people had the opportunity for salvation, and “no-one [was] beyond the reach of

3 Ibid, 6.

4 Halliday, F.E, England: A Concise History, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd., 1995. 158.

5 Metaxas, 7.

6 Ibid, 8.

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God’s love” and redemption. Methodists lived their lives with the hope of obtaining eternity

through good works, including remedying social injustices like slavery.7

The exposure of young Wilberforce to such contacts within the Methodist church inspired

and aroused this intellectual young boy’s heart as he began to embrace Methodist principles. The

Thorntons were also close friends with another key figure, the minister John Newton, a former

slave ship captain that repented and turned back to God, he would become a kind of mentor to

Wilberforce then and later in Wilberforce’s political career.8 It was of course through John

Newton that the young Wilberforce was first exposed to the “evils of the slave trade” during

those most critical years of Wilberforce’s life. While living with the Thorntons or on holiday

from school Wilberforce would often visit Newton and the pair soon “became very close” friends

and developed “a strong bond.”9

Sadly Wilberforce’s mother and grandfather discovered that they had, in fact, sent him to

live in a “glowing hot bed of Methodism,” which was quite frankly “shocking” to the quite

fashionable family of Hull. Wilberforce was thus quickly removed from the home of his Uncle

and Aunt, which caused young Wilberforce distress about which he later noted, “It almost broke

my heart, I was so much attached to them.” Upon his return to Hull, his Mother was quite

determined to squash the dreadful Methodist right out of her young son, going so far as to

prohibit William from attending any church services. Despite the ban from church Wilberforce

tried his hardest to maintain his faith through personal devotion for a time. But as William grew

up in the social atmosphere of Hull his dire attempts to maintain his faith seemed to fall from

7 The Methodist Church in Britain: History, 2011.

http://www.methodist.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=opentogod.content&cmid=1612 (accessed Apr 11,

2011).

8 Metaxas, 6-7.

9 Ibid, 10.

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importance, and by the time he left for his studies at Cambridge in October of 1776 he was more

the boy his “mother and grandfather had always hoped” for.10

Cambridge offered the still impressionable Wilberforce a new outlet of activities and

friends. In his first year, Wilberforce met William Pitt (later known as William Pitt the Younger),

and the two began a lifelong friendship. Despite Cambridge Universities historical business of

training future clergy, for Wilberforce the school brought a secular style of life to which he

jumped into with both feet. The young Wilberforce was in these days becoming a brilliant

example of a fine British man of society, earning him a reputation for his generosity and

“supreme gift for hospitality;” even more so after his wealthy inheritance from both his

grandfather and Uncle Thornton, making Wilberforce a wealthy man by his own right on his

eighteenth birthday. For all of Wilberforce’s great qualities, the young man developed into a

socially attractive friend, and in doing so he “speedily became the center of attraction”

throughout the college.11

The most significant friend Wilberforce would ever have was William Pitt the Younger.

Pitt was the son of the prodigious Prime Minister William Pitt the Elder, known for his strong

politics and oratory presence in Parliament. In the eyes of Pitt, there was nothing more important

than the politics of England. William Pitt the Younger had grown up watching the power of his

father on the floor of the House of Commons, and indeed even then dreamed of the incredible

impact he would have upon Great Britain. Eric Metaxas describes the inspirational winter of

1779 through 1780 when Pitt and Wilberforce would often be found in the gallery of the House

10 Ibid, 11-13.

11 Metaxas, 19.

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of Commons just “watch[ing] the debates” unfold.12 Metaxas states that “Pitt was born to be

there” as he had “lived and breathed politics all his life.”13 For Wilberforce these experiences

undoubtedly inspired him and the tales of the real action of the House of Commons from his dear

friend Pitt only made serving as a Member of Parliament even more daring and exciting than the

prospect of returning to Hull and the family business.

It was now that this prospect seemed as a challenge to young Wilberforce, a man of

society and a graduate of Cambridge University. In the weeks following their observations

William Wilberforce made a decision that would define his life, he would, in fact, run for office.

This was an “ambitious idea” and the cost would be substantial, but a “small fortune” the young

Wilberforce had. Wilberforce “spent the entire summer “canvassing” for votes,” and despite all

these efforts the events of August 24, 1780, surely won Wilberforce his ticket to the House of

Commons. It was on this day (his birthday) that the young man would truly turn heads by giving

himself a “coming of age” party in the form of an “old-fashioned ox roast,” to which he invited

the entire town of Hull. The party was a success and the Election Day that followed just two

weeks later brought William Wilberforce a victory and a seat in the Commons!14

William Wilberforce was officially a Member of Parliament from the city of Hull

and his dear friend William Pitt the Younger followed a few months later. Pitt quickly gained

prestige in the House, but Wilberforce seemed to be taking his time to settle into the ranks of the

Parliament by working up the social ladder with his unique wit and charm. Wilberforce was quite

12 Ibid, 20.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid, 23-24.

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“suddenly” socializing with the “celebrities of his day,” these men were the “giants of their era,”

but of course Wilberforce would soon join those ranks.15

Life in the House of Commons for the young representative from the city Hull was dull

as Wilberforce elected to say “little” aside from the business that affect his “district.”

Nevertheless, the wit of Wilberforce came to the forefront in early 1782 as he suddenly released

his “frightening gift of sarcasm and oratory” on Lord North, from the opposition. From this

moment Wilberforce “grew into his own as a parliamentary debater.” Over the next few years,

his dear friend Pitt forced the opposition out and was officially “appointed” to the chair of Prime

Minister of Great Britain on December 18th, 1783. Wilberforce became the new Prime Minister’s

“greatest ally” and the two friends began to build their power through their unmatched power of

speech in the House.16

As Pitt triumphed in Parliament and rose up the ranks, Wilberforce to set his ambitions

on prestige and honor. Wilberforce now “entertained the outrageous idea” to run for one of two

seats of the County Yorkshire, the county to which the city of Hull belonged. This was a

shockingly unprecedented attempt by a young Member of Parliament to attempt as Yorkshire

was “the most powerful” seat in Parliament. The day to win the votes came and it was a typical

day in Yorkshire County, “bitterly cold” as torrential rain lashed at the crowd as the speeches

were made. Finally, it was Wilberforce’s turn to speak. His small, wiry frame perched himself on

top of a table and Wilberforce spoke defiantly with eloquence and “heroic dignity.” Metaxas

describes Wilberforce’s speech as a “performance for the ages.” Wilberforce resonated with the

crowd, and he was thus elected to the seat of representative for the county of Yorkshire in 1784.

15 Ibid, 27.

16 Ibid, 30-36.

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Arriving back in London as the newly elected representative of York, Wilberforce was satisfied

with all the glamor of society and pomp that came with his new position. Wilberforce’s new title

had earned Pitt power too and with that the two were set for long and fantastic careers.17

Wilberforce was at the top of his game and as a part of the elite of eighteenth-century

Britain, but the allure of prestige would soon change for the Wilberforce when he would

experience what he called his “Great Change.” That winter Wilberforce, his mother, sister, and

cousin decided to head to the French Rivera for a milder season. Wilberforce had stayed in touch

with his old tutor and friend the academically celebrated theologian Isaac Milner, and now

Wilberforce invited Milner to come along as his traveling companion. The group would take two

carriages, one for the ladies and another in front for the men.18

It was on their return trip that Milner and Wilberforce began reading and discussing

religion. At this point in Wilberforce’s life, he had lived in the world and of the world with the

ideas of the Methodist reform forgotten and buried within. Nevertheless, the theology the two

men began discussing the trip to London deeply touched Wilberforce. Wilberforce’s beliefs and

religious understandings were challenged to a point where the Member of Parliament’s own

diary began to show a “great change” quite abruptly. Wilberforce returned to London as the

Elite Member from Yorkshire, but quite “suddenly” he was “untouched by its charms.”

Wilberforce was still the intellectual giant that had brought him to his present status, but now he

began the transformation into another giant, one of the morals and honesty. Wilberforce saw

everything that he had worked so hard to become something he no longer desired; now all that

17 Ibid, 36- 41.

18 Ibid, 42.

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mattered to him was God. His mindset had changed, and his drive now came to serve not his

country but his God and to do anything, but that would be a waste of his “life and talents.”19

It was at this time that Wilberforce began to search out his life’s purpose, wherever that

might lead him he was willing to take that step of faith. At the same time, Wilberforce composed

a letter to his good friend Pitt, explaining his religious revival and of his intentions to “live now

for God.”20 Pitt cautiously encouraged his friend to remain in Parliament where “God could use

him.”21 However, Wilberforce was tormented by the “time lost” in religious devotion to a point

that he felt he must “play catch-up.” Wilberforce began doing all he could to grow closer to the

Lord, “reading everything,” becoming even more charitable and basing every aspect of his life

on his revived Christian morals.22

Wilberforce willingly turned his life upside down to be a better person and a better

Christian, often going to the extreme to learn a lesson through self-discipline and ridged self-

assessments. The real question came to Wilberforce asking if he could indeed serve to the best of

his abilities as a Member of Parliament and “live now for God” simultaneously.23 For

Wilberforce the answer came, as always, from the love and encouragement of his friends. Pitt

delicately encouraged Wilberforce to use his talents from God for “the good of the nation” and

put his faith and principles and turn these intense feelings into “action.”24

19 Ibid, 49 & 52.

20 Ibid, 59.

21 Ibid.

22 Ibid, 64- 65.

23 Ibid, 54.

24 Ibid, 68.

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During this time, fervent Christians became concerned with charity, through education,

labor, and political support encouraged by the clergy, especially the Wesley brothers and the

Methodist movement. As the eighteenth century was a “vulgar” period and slavery was just

another of the various institution that’s horrors went unnoticed by the people of society and

wealth. Nonetheless, the pulpit became communities of great conscious, and the congregations

swelled with spiritual assistance in the name of good works. The issue of slavery had gone, for

the most part, unnoticed.

After all Slavery had been outlawed in England since 1772, and so it is understandable

that to the average British citizen the terrors of slavery and the slave trade went unseen. The

actual deed of slavery did exist, but it was three thousand miles away in the West Indies and off

the coast of West Africa along the Middle Passage, and perhaps this evil was seen as a necessary

act for the welfare of the nation; what we do know is at the close of the eighteenth century

evangelicals were no longer willing to ignore the issue of slavery or its injustices.25 However, as

it was in England, religion had taken a dormant attitude, turning priest and congregations into

“lukewarm” examples of the Christian faith under the leadership of the Church of England.26 To

be a religious zealot like Wilberforce after all “simply was not fashionable” and his water was

just beginning to boil. Despite the general ignorance of his fellow countrymen, young

Wilberforce was certainly aware of “the evils of the slave trade.” In his childhood Wilberforce

had been exposed to the terror by his dear friend John Newton; his young eyes had been opened

to the horrors and now as a man the question of slavery came again to the forefront.27

25 Ibid, 69- 70, & 95.

26 Ibid, 70 & 171.

27Ibid, 72.

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Even in Parliament the members were in a sort of disarray of personal wreckage, where

many arose to duty drunk; tainted with the “epidemic” that swept through the classes of the day,

alcoholism.28 It was amongst the carnage that Wilberforce hoped to awaken his fellow

countrymen to the heinous way of life they were inclined to live, and show them the way to a

truly Christian life through example. Wilberforce’s first giant to tackle was the Slave Trade, not

as a political ploy, but an act of faith and “principle.”29

Throughout the eighteenth century, slavery and the abolition had slowly become a

common topic among the British public. As early as Wilberforce’s first year in Parliament he had

developed a “strong” interest in the life of the slaves in the colonies. “In 1774 John Wesley”

became “one of the first to come out publically against the trade.” This was a part of an “acutely

Christian” movement through an entirely moral and principled drive of faith to bring about the

abolition of slavery. After all it is known that the leadership of the English Church was alone

responsible for the heinous realities of the slave trade and slavery itself that had their own

investments within the trade to think about. It was the view of the evangelicals that the Church of

England was indeed hypocritical of their principles to their actions in the permitted conduct of

the trade. The fact remains that the Church of England had indeed become a “pseudo-Christian”

church of the “government sponsored” evils of slavery.30

Economically the status of the Great Britain rested alone in the hands of their mighty

international trade. The slave trade provided Britain’s cash flow for the last two centuries and

thus it was everything to the economy of Great Britain.31 For the Methodists and other

28 Ibid, 73.

29 Ibid, 96.

30 Ibid, 91 & 96-7.

31 James, Lawrence, The Rise & Fall of the British Empire, London : Abacus, 2008, 151.

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evangelicals, like Wilberforce, abolition was at the forefront of evil. To be a good Christian one

must go as Paul did and spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and to truly be able to accept the

salvation of Jesus Christ, one must first be free to make that most critical decision. These two

acts were greatly intertwined, and it was believed that by abolishing slavery, former slaves would

then truly be able to come to know Christ on their own and obtain eternal salvation. These

feelings and beliefs marked the one true desire of the abolitionist work that spurred William

Wilberforce on in his crusade to bring down the slave trade and ultimately pave the way for its

total abolition in all of the British Empire.

The very idea of slavery became an “offensive” thought to Europe in the late eighteenth

and early nineteenth centuries. This movement towards abolition was fought for the rights of

slaves, but the planters continued to insist that slavery was a human establishment, despite the

evidence. The slave trade’s arrangement comprised of the “triangular trade.” The first point

began in the various ports of Great Britain where the ships were filled with various goods. Then

those ships would take the goods south to the West Coast of Africa and negotiation a trade for

their goods for human cargo. Once their hulls were filled with their newly acquired human cargo,

the ships began the voyage of the Middle Passage; perhaps the most horrific “passage across the

Atlantic.”32 The next leg of the trip took the ships across the Atlantic to numerous ports in the

West Indies where their human cargo was offloaded and traded for goods from the West Indies

and New England (products made by slave labor) and returned to Great Britain.

32 Metaxas, 97.

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It is understood that the Middle Passage was the most grueling journey for these slave

ships. The Slaves were brutally torn from their homes, sold for petty goods, and thrown into the

hulls of the slave ships, which began their voyage across the Atlantic to the West Indies, if they

survived the passage, where their lives would start as property. Each slave was designated a

small space onboard the ship for their trans-Atlantic voyage, these areas consisted of a space no

bigger than one foot at the head, two feet at the ends and a typical depth of just twenty-eight

inches (See Figure 1). Many times the Africans were forced to “lie” in their human waste while the

keel of the ship swelled with vomit, human waste, and blood causing an unbearable atmosphere.

The space was not so much the issue as the quality of air and the length of the trip. The

designated air ports on the ship were often closed during bad weather, causing “excessive heat”

that ultimately “rendered the slave’s situation

intolerable.” These conditions were recorded by

a ship’s surgeon, Alexander Falconbridge, as he

declared that the conditions on board a slave ship

“resembled the conditions of “a slaughter-

house.”’ Due to the horrid conditions “nearly

one-half of [the slaves] died before the ships

arrived in the West Indies.”33

The purpose of the slave trade was, in

fact, to “sell human beings,” but for William

33 Ibid, 99.

Figure 1: Slave Confinement

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Wilberforce each life was a child of God.34 As though these conditions were not heinous enough

nothing more than the supreme abuses of power set the abolitionist on fire more than that of the

incident involving the slave ship the Zong. In 1781, the Zong was sailing west towards the West

Indies under the control of an “inexperienced captain” with a full load of “470 slaves.”35 On this

particular voyage, the captain, Luke Collingwood, made a series of miscalculation and errors in

navigation that ultimately set the typical ten-day trip into a “nightmarish” grueling four-month

journey.36 As the cargo of the Zong remained in their confinements under terrible weather

conditions, they suffered more than usual and, as a result, many became gravely ill. Collingwood

then realized an opportunity of calculation. Collingwood deduced that the monetary value of the

ship would continue to go down as his sick cargo began to die. However, the captain became

conscious of the fact that if the load were “lost at sea” then the insurance providers would cover

their expected value.37 Consequently, the captain explained this monetary crisis to his crew and

orders the men to throw the sickest slaves overboard. Some of the crew resisted, but ultimately

gave in and followed orders tossing “the sick slaves, not the expensive shackles” into the

Atlantic.38 In the end, Collingwood and his men pitched 131 of their “sickest captives into the

endless ocean” all to turn a profit.39 The incident was taken to the courts, but the “deliberate

34 Ibid, 99.

35 Ibid, 103.

36 Ibid.

37 Ibid, 104.

38 Ibid.

39 Ibid, 106-7.

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drowning of 131 human beings” went with little consequence as the court merely acted “as if

horses had been thrown overboard” and that was it.40

Wilberforce was “painfully conscious” of the years he had “wasted” doing nothing for

the Lord; but with encouragement of his friends Wilberforce was “steadily coming to the

conclusion that abolition was indeed that single cause to which God was calling him.” The day

was May 12, 1787 during a visit to Prime Minister Pitt’s estate at Holwood with another good

friend William Glenville, under an old tree that William Wilberforce truly decided to take on the

task of the abolition of the slave trade. From there Wilberforce began working with other

abolitionist societies and fellow Members of Parliament, compiling information to present to the

House of Commons calling for the abolition of the slave trade. For Wilberforce and his

colleagues tactics were everything. In order to bring about abolition it was understood that they

must first bring the concept to the Commons with information that the opposition might

genuinely care about, and they decided that they must first make an effort to educate Parliament

on the terrors of the trade. All types of media were then produced during those early years,

depicting the sorrow of the Africans and people were horror-struck, but Parliament seemed only

to care about the issues surrounding Great Britain. For that reason, they began looking into

different variables of the dreadful slave trade to discover a tool to which they could use as a

political attack on the opposition. 41

The first concept that the abolitionist presented to the Commons was the have emotional

impact of the white mariners involved in the slave trade. It was discovered that many of these

“white sailors involved were nearly always miserable” and were indeed dying “on board slave

ships” of the “same diseases that killed the slaves, and just as often.” In fact every year twenty-

40 Ibid, 106.

41 Ibid, 112-3.

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five percent of white sailors ultimately died on their voyages. Wilberforce and his colleagues

sought out more information to take the “appalling conditions” of “white Englishmen” that were

“working in the slave trade” to Parliament.42

Another concept made by Wilberforce and his colleagues was for the welfare of Africa.

They were greatly concerned with the British debt to the failing African economy, which they

believed to be directly caused by the slave trade. The abolitionists demonstrated the cause and

effect of the trade and how Britain’s economy stood to improve if assistance was given to the

continent. They proved how the trade had destroyed the African economy, and the abolitionists

believed therefore that “debt was owed to the African continent.”43 The campaigns that were

created were to educate people so that the public might begin to understand the facts and

concepts of actual slavery, and the “momentum” was gained in public favor towards abolition.44

By educating the public the abolitionist finally made abolition “fashionable,” which essentially

won half the battle in Britain for abolition.45

Wilberforce and his colleagues worked tirelessly and at the end of 1787, Wilberforce

“rose in the Commons to announce that early in the New Year he would put forward a motion for

abolition.” Then the unthinkable happened in mid-February 1788, Wilberforce’s health took a

turn for the worse, and he nearly died.” Thankfully he improved, but throughout the rest of that

winter of 1788 Wilberforce would continue to relapse into sickness to the point that several

doctors indicated that the young politician was close to death and “would die soon.” Finally,

Wilberforce was prescribed the “standard drug” of opium to combat his pain and the drug

42 Ibid, 117.

43 Ibid, 120.

44 Oldfield, J. R., "The London Committee and Mobilization of Public Opinion Against the Slave Trade," The

Historical Journal, 35, no. 2 (June 1992): 331-43.

45 Ibid, 334.

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seemed to work miraculously, and Wilberforce “would [continue] to take it for the rest of his

life.” It was determined that Wilberforce was ultimately suffering from ulcerative colitis, which

is an “inflammatory bowel disease that affects the lining of the large intestine.”46

Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger made a resolution that May that the “House

should officially investigate the trade in the following session.”47 The announcement was taken

with rebuttal from the opposition and Pitt replied that if the trade “could not be conducted in a

manner different than” its current evils than he would vote for abolition, calling the trade

“shocking to humanity” and a disgrace to Great Britain.48 The Privy Council was then erected to

investigate the matter of abolition and the slave trade more thoroughly. April of 1789 brought the

results of the Privy Council’s investigation. The document was no less than “850 pages long”49

Over the next three weeks Wilberforce and his colleagues poured themselves over each page of

the document.

On May 12, 1789, the debates began, and Wilberforce in all his eloquence dissected the

report, “detailing every aspect” of the slave trade.50 In response to the replies of the oppositions

jeering, Wilberforce did so with facts and dignity to counter every faulty argument from the

“ridiculous to the serious.”51 In the end, the battle reached a stalemate. Parliament heard “fact

46 George F. Longstreth, M.D., Ulcerative Colitis, Dec 13, 2010,

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001296/ (accessed Mar 31, 2011). Metaxas, 122-3.

47 Metaxas, 124.

48 Ibid, 125.

49 Ibid, 130.

50 Ibid, 132.

51 Ibid, 134-5.

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after fact” and still closed the session of Parliament with a “non-decisive” ruling to “hear more

evidence” later and recessed for the summer52

In the early years the unsuccessful attempts were met with grim defeat, but Wilberforce

did not consider giving up and so motions were entered for abolition to the House of Commons

in that first year of 1789, again in 1791, and yet again in 1792. In 1792 the House of Commons

pledged to “regulate” the Slave trade “in four years’ time but the House of Lords refused to take

action” the next year in 1793; which mostly made the steps that had been taken in the Commons

then null in void. 53 Still the abolitionist canvassed the nation sending out propaganda

everywhere as the public’s opinion “continued to swell; petitions continued to be taken from

every corner of the country.”54 “But what was happening in France, in all of its ugliness had at

the same time created a countercurrent and a backlash in the British political class” that resulted

in no action towards abolition but rather took away from the cause.55

Despite the general British public support for abolition of the trade, Parliament refused to

heed their call for two reasons. One Parliament was faced with a call for parliamentary reform;

and second, the fear that the deadly radicalism of the French was reaching Britain. During this

time Pitt and his allies offered up any action that smelled of radicalism to the chopping block,

abolition was one. The politically minded Pitt was desperate to keep his government intact and a

very “distinct distaste for reform” swept through the political body.56

52 Ibid, 136.

53 Smith, 70.

54 Metaxas, 149.

55 Ibid.

56 Ibid, 150.

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The government reacted to the movement of the French Revolution that caused great

anxiety in London by defining such ideas of abolition as radical, against the state and, therefore,

a seditious.57 Britain feared the type of revolution that shed blood across the channel as this was

a war on the government and their monarch, a revolution like this would bring down the king to

whom each Member of Parliament had sworn a sacred oath to protect. The country shortly fell

into a war with the new French Republic and a dangerous stage for Pitt’s government. After a

decade of war against the French, the war began to pull in favor of the British. With the Royal

Navy in the hands of Nelson, success at sea was accomplished, and the Empire came back into

superiority taking down Napoleons forces. With Britain safe from its foreign foes, the political

waters also began to calm in London.58

Since the original call for abolition decisively failed, and with the war with France over

the fears of reform now became a distant memory and the nineteenth century seemed to be much

more promising for abolition. The post-revolutionary Europe began to settle the idea of “personal

freedoms” and the rights of man and thoughts of abolition became more acceptable talk in Great

Britain.59 The years of revolution and war had seen an incredible change in Wilberforce’s private

life too. Wilberforce had met and married Miss Barbra Ann Spooner. The courtship was short,

and they were married in 1797.60 The newlyweds then began to settle into their new life with old

and new friends of “similar interest in Clapham” (The Clapham Circle) where Wilberforce

would now begin once more drawing up new tactics for their drive towards abolition.61 The

57 Oldfield, 339-40.

58 Halliday, 163-5.

59 James, 187.

60 Metaxas, 173.

61 Ibid, 178.

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Clapham Circle was the group in which Wilberforce had been a key component of for many

years. The group consisted of people who felt the “passionate” desire to fully “serve God” in any

way they could by their Methodist beliefs.62 All the members of the group were instrumental in

various aspects of the abolition campaign and through careful encouragement and inspiration to

assist in Wilberforce’s passion to change the world.63

The change began again with Wilberforce’s greatest friend William Pitt; the pair had

throughout the years remained good friends and allies, despite the typical ups and downs of such

a long friendship. However, all good things must, of course, come to an end, and the end came to

William Pitt the Younger on January 23rd, 1806. Pitt “was forty-six” years old when he died, but

in his death Wilberforce’s ultimate goal would be fully realized.64 His death marked a significant

change in London and for the abolitionist movement. It was the end of an era and the beginning

of a new age.

Since beginning the fight towards abolition more than twenty years before Wilberforce

had come before the Commons every year to present his bill to Parliament and each year the law

was struck down by the opposition and petty defeat. William Wilberforce was after all growing

weary and old, and as each year passed more slaves died in the terror of the trade without the true

salvation of God despite his best efforts. However, each year Wilberforce continued with the

support and encouragement of his friends and mentors. With the death of Pitt, the King

consequently appointed William Grenville Prime Minister. Grenville had after all been the third

62 Ibid, 183.

63 Ibid, 186.

64 Ibid , 204.

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man with Wilberforce and Pitt under that old tree in Holwood that day the crusade began, and it

would be Grenville that would take the battle to victory.

Wilberforce was not as optimistic as Grenville, but that next year in early 1807 with the

supreme assistance of Grenville, the die was cast. Grenville sought out the House of Lords “first,

where [the bill] had always encountered its greatest difficulties.” The bill was read to the Lords

by Grenville himself. A few months later the second reading of the bill in the House of Lords

was carried out, and the debate began. Grenville chose not to “focus” on the establishment and

economy of the slave trade, “but directly” concentrated “on the moral question of the slave trade

itself.” All tactics were put aside, and the real Christian spirit of Wilberforce’s crusade was

honestly carried forward. 65

Grenville asked his fellow Lords, “Is it to be endured, that this detestable traffic is to be

continued, and such a mass of human misery produced?”66 On the third and final reading of the

Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill in the House of Lords, Wilberforce remained “cautiously

optimistic,” but for the first time in the presentation of any abolition bill victory was won.

Grenville then took the bill directly to the House of Commons for its first reading. Each time the

bill was presented Wilberforce held his breath in attention and finally bill’s final reading in the

Commons was set for February 23rd, 1807.

This was the moment for the ages, where the spiritual drive of one man for justice was

won, and Parliament passed the Abolition of the slave trade. With 283 votes for the resolution

and just 16 against, the entire Commons stood in honor as the Member of Parliament, William

Wilberforce, and his career-defining accomplishment; abolition of the slave trade was obtained.

65 Ibid, 206-7.

66 Ibid, 206-7.

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Wilberforce took the victory of his twenty-year odyssey as a sign of God’s work and fully

“expressed humble gratitude” to God for this paramount success.67

William Wilberforce would go on to serve as a Member of Parliament for close to

another two decades, taking on various causes in and out of government, and at home he would

continue to raise his six children, always surrounding himself with his ever endearing friends. On

July 26th, 1833 Wilberforce heard the news he had dreamed about his entire adult life,” slavery

was finally abolished.68 He had lived to see the final abolition of slavery in Great Britain. Three

days later, on July 29th, 1833, William Wilberforce went home to be with the Lord, a “humble

and hopeful” servant right “to the end.”69 People around the world mourned the passing of

William Wilberforce, not an old politician, but a great and ever devout Christian man.

Wilberforce will forever be renowned as a hero of Great Britain, as “more than any man, he had

founded in the conscience of the British people a tradition of humanity and of responsibility

towards the weak,” his everlasting legacy.70

67 Ibid, 213.

68 Ibid, 275.

69 Ibid, 275.

70 Ibid, 273.

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