![]() ![]() In 1787 he had helped to secure a Proclamation for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue and worked hard to disseminate and implement it. Meanwhile, Wilberforce was also pursuing his agenda for moral and spiritual reform. Wilberforce's efforts had to be maintained for a further sixteen years, until eventual victory was secured in 1807. An extensive campaign of popular agitation and petitioning ensued, causing the House of Commons to vote in 1792 for gradual abolition, but this measure was blocked by the House of Lords. Insecurity arising from the context of the French Revolution made Parliament fear such a measure could have subversive consequences, and Wilberforce was initially decisively defeated. In January 1790 he secured a Select Committee to examine the evidence, and in April 1791 moved for leave to bring in an abolition bill. ![]() Wilberforce commenced his parliamentary campaign against the slave trade in May 1789. In 1785–1786, Wilberforce experienced a period of spiritual crisis, which resulted in his conversion to evangelical Christianity and his subsequent conviction that "God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners" (Wilberforce and Wilberforce, vol. He was also very well connected at Westminster, being a close friend of the prime minister, William Pitt the Younger (1759–1806), and of other leading figures. In 1780 Wilberforce became member of Parliament (MP) for Hull, and in 1784 was elected for Yorkshire, the largest constituency in England, which gave him an important political power base. In 1797 he married Barbara Spooner and had two daughters and four sons, including Samuel Wilberforce (1805–1873), later Bishop of Oxford. Due to the early deaths of his father and uncle, he inherited considerable wealth while still a teenager. Wilberforce was educated at Hull Grammar School, Pocklington School, and St John's College, Cambridge. He was born in Hull, Yorkshire, the son and grandson of merchants who had grown rich through the town's trade with the Baltic. William Wilberforce led the campaign in the British Parliament against slavery and was an influential philanthropist and religious leader. WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM (1759–1833), British statesman, philanthropist, and religious leader. ![]()
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