William Wilberforce: Abolitionist, Politician, Writer (Paperback)

Chapter One

I have good news for you, William," said Thomas Macaulay, one of William Wilberforce's longtime friends. "God has answered your prayers and brought victory in your life's struggle."

    "Yes, I heard about the vote in Parliament to eliminate slavery in the empire. I've been thanking God since the word came." Wilberforce refused to take any credit for himself, however. Countless people had labored for years to reach this goal, and the victory was God's. Besides, victory was yet to come for those still enslaved in the United States of America and many other places in the world.

    Macaulay felt certain that his friend did not have long to live, so the victory must be sweet for him, despite his humility. Wilberforce's body had been weakened by numerous ailments, but it was apparent that William Wilberforce still possessed a keen mind and was fully aware of what was happening in the world. He had so much to teach! Macaulay settled back in his chair and encouraged his friend to share some of his life experiences.

    "What's wrong, Macaulay? Don't you think I'm going to live much longer? Well, if you have the time, so do I. Will you promise to stop me if I tell you more than you want to know?"

    One of William's grandsons brought tea and biscuits for the two men and checked to make sure the aging Wilberforce was comfortable. The sun streamed in through the curtains in the house where the Wilberforce family was staying to be near medical care.

    Wilberforce had been well into his political career before he saw any need to surrender his life to Christ as Savior and Lord. He had been elected to the seat from Hull when he was barely old enough to serve. Then the opportunity came to move up a bit and win one of the seats from Yorkshire, which was about twenty times as large as Hull. On March 25, 1784, the Yorkshire Association called a meeting, of the voters of the district to solicit support for reforms in Parliament and get more backing for Prime Minister William Pitt. Wilberforce went to York to help out the cause of his friend Pitt, whom he had known from Cambridge and had been working with in the House of Commons. No one at the York meeting, including Wilberforce, expected that the day would end with his being positioned as a likely choice for one of the two Yorkshire seats.

    The amazing thing about the rally at York was that four thousand voters showed up, even though it was a miserably cold day. Not only did they show up, but they stayed through the whole day to hear the various speakers. The organizers of the meeting wanted the group to adopt a petition to the king, asking for an immediate election. This tactic was meant to give prominence to the reform goals of the Yorkshire Association and help William Pitt's supporters win seats in the House of Commons.

    The speeches continued on through the afternoon. It seemed that all the important people in Yorkshire had been given a chance. Wilberforce's district of Hull was within Yorkshire, even though it was separate for the purpose of representation in Commons; so some of his constituents were there that day, but no one thought he would be given an opportunity to speak. At about 4:00 P.M., his turn finally came. It was not much of an honor to be given the platform when the crowd was tired, cold, and restless, so Wilberforce half expected most of the people would leave before he could get much said. To his surprise; the people became quiet and listened to him. Wilberforce held their attention for nearly an hour.

    When he was about to bring his speech to a close, Wilberforce saw a commotion on the edge of the crowd. He thought at first it was a group starting to head home but soon realized that a messenger from the king was trying to reach the platform. Wilberforce motioned him forward and took it on himself to read the message. Then he announced that the king had dissolved Parliament the day before and the election was going to happen in the near future. He called on the group to join forces behind the efforts for reform and to assure that Prime Minister Pitt would be able to continue giving his strong leadership. Not only was there great support in the crowd for this proposition, but some in the crowd began to shout out that Wilberforce should be considered for one of Yorkshire's two seats. Prior to that, he was a literal unknown in most of Yorkshire, but within days a canvass was held, and he got one of the seats.

    "God works in amazing ways, even for those who don't acknowledge Him. Don't you ever forget that, Macaulay" Wilberforce admonished his Mend.

    Macaulay leaned forward with his next question. "Was your conversion experience as dramatic as your selection to the Yorkshire seat in Commons?"

    "No, it was not dramatic at all" Wilberforce replied. "If you're hoping to hear about something like the apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, you are going to be disappointed." Wilberforce smiled. "Actually, my spiritual rebirth did happen on a road, but there was no blinding light or voice from God. It was on the road to and from the Riviera that God began to speak to me."

    It had been important that Wilberforce accompany his mother, sister, and two cousins on their way to the coast of France. The trip required a long carriage ride to the port, a passage by ship across the Channel, then another carriage ride to Nice. Even though Wilberforce had plenty to attend to in his new duties representing Yorkshire, it would have been unthinkable to send the ladies off without a male escort to look after their needs.

    Wilberforce had had difficulty finding a male friend to accompany them—someone he could talk to on the way and who would help with the arrangements. He was getting a little desperate, so he asked someone he didn't know very well—Isaac Milner, a lecturer at Cambridge who had been a teacher at the primary school Wilberforce had attended. He knew Milner was a very bright person and thought they would have many interesting things to talk about during the trip.

    What he didn't know was that Milner had become what Wilberforce and his friends scoffingly called a "Methodist." Wilberforce and his friends felt that these methodists, or evangelicals, were way off the track. They talked about the need for a conversion experience quite apart from one's baptism into the church as a child. That seemed ridiculous to Wilberforce. Besides, the evangelicals seemed to put way too much emphasis on emotionalism. Religion to Wilberforce was a part of one's social obligations. He had no great problem with the sermons he heard in church, but the talk about Jesus forgiving one's sins seemed totally absurd.

    "So, William, did Isaac Milner try to convert you to his type of evangelical faith?" Macaulay asked.

    "Not really. He didn't even bring up the subject."

    Wilberforce's favorite theologian at the time was Theophilus Lindsey, who was the first in the Church of England to talk about God as one being, not the Trinity. Unitarianism sounded great to a young intellectual who didn't want to deal with the many supernatural things in the New Testament.

    Along the way, Wilberforce picked up a copy of a book by Philip Doddridge. He asked Milner what he thought of the book, and Milner said it was one of the best he had ever read. Milner and Wilberforce read it together and talked about it on the way home to England, and Wilberforce began to realize the truth of the gospel. But he was still not ready to make a commitment.

    Isaac Milner agreed to accompany Wilberforce back to France to bring the women home at the end of the season. On the way, they discussed the Bible and what it means to be a follower of Christ. They read and discussed the New Testament in Greek, since both of them had studied the language at Cambridge. There actually was no single moment at which Wilberforce prayed for the forgiveness of his sins and asked Jesus to be his Savior. It happened to him over a period of months. Gradually he began to turn his back on his frivolous ways and began to meditate, pray, and write his thoughts and questions in a journal. By the end of the year, he had become a serious follower of Christ.

    "May I prevail on you to tell me about one other great event in your life, the Victory in Parliament over slavery in the British Empire?" asked Macaulay.

    "Certainly. The success of that effort is the result of the work of many people. I did what I could before retiring from Parliament—and even after that—but others deserve most of the credit."

    "Why didn't you just go ahead and work for the abolition of slavery back in 1807, instead of settling for a bill that outlawed British participation in the slave trade?"

    Almost all of those involved in the abolition movement would have preferred to take care of the slavery problem all at once. They had worked in the cause for more than twenty years and had no desire to drag it out for another twenty-five, but in politics one has to settle for modest steps toward accomplishing a larger goal. As strong as the support for slavery was, they would never have succeeded in passing emancipation in 1807. They had to settle for putting an end to the trade and trust that the public conscience would begin to understand that slavery itself was the evil, not just slave trafficking.

    On the night the abolition bill passed, Wilberforce hardly said a word in Parliament. Most of their efforts had been in the House of Commons, but in this case some very clever planning in the House of Lords led to the tactic of attaching an abolition measure to another bill that was expected to get the support of the proslavery forces. It worked, removing the possibility of the House of Lords' blocking action at a later time.

    When the discussion proceeded in Commons, it seemed almost anticlimactic; government ministers backed the abolition measure. So dramatic was the shift toward support of the measure, only sixteen members voted against it. Wilberforce couldn't believe his ears when the vote was announced. He went home early that morning with inexpressible joy that he had been able to see the first major victory in the greatest of his life callings. He gave all the glory to God that night. "Praise His name for putting it into the hearts of our politicians to finally do the right thing," Wilberforce said.

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Excerpted from WILLIAM WILBERFORCE by Lon Fendall. Copyright © 2002 by Barbour Publishing, Inc.. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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