WILBERFORCE, WILLIAM (1759-1833). An English statesman and philanthropist, born at Hull, in Yorkshire, August 24, 1759. While at school he addressed a letter to a York paper "in condemnation of the odious traffic in human flesh," a subject he seems never afterwards to have lost sight of. At seventeen he entered Saint John's College, Cambridge, and in due time he passed his examinations with credit. On attain ing his majority he eame into possession of a large fortune, and determined to enter Parlia ment. In 17S0 he was returned for Hull. He had known Pitt when at Cambridge, and in Lon don they became inseparable friends. In Parlia ment, however, Wilberforce remained of party, and when the elevation of Pitt to the Premiership gave hint an opportunity of taking (Alice he declined to do so, but rendered efficient service to his friend. In 1784, in spite of oppo sition from the great Whig families, lie was re turned to Parliament without a contest as a representative from Yorkshire. In 1786 he carried through the Commons a bill for mitigating the criminal law, hut the Lords rejected it. Next year he founded a society for the discouragement of vice, and about the same time he entered on his great struggle for the abolition of the slave trade, to which he thenceforward dedicated his whole energy. He did not originate the move ment, but was in every way qualified to take the lead of it. lie was powerfully supported by the Quakers, and by Thomas Clarkson (q.v.), who collected evidence and kept the general public interested while Wilberforee represented the cause in Parliament. In 1739, after a critical illness, he brought before the House of Commons a series of resolutions condemning the slave trade. Supported by Pitt, Burke, and Fox, he carried them, but the planters caused their post ponement. In 1792 a motion for the gradual abolition of the slave trade passed the Douse of Commons by a great majority. Again in 1SO4 his bill was carried through the Commons, to lie rejected by the Lords, and in the following year it was lost in the Commons. In.1806, however,
a resolution was moved by Fox, pledging the Commons to a total abolition of the slave trade in the following session. Aleantime a work pub lished by Wilberforce against the traffic had a remarkable influence on publie opinion and on the subsequent debates. True to its pledge, the House of Commons accepted the bill, the Lords finally approved it, and it received the royal sanction in 1807. In the Commons Sir Samuel Romilly, who supported the measure, compared the feelings of Napoleon, then at the height of his glory, with those of the English philantbro pist, "who would that day lay his head upon his pillow, and remember that the slave trade was no more," and the whole House burst into ap plause, and greeted Wilberforce with enthusias tic cheers. Wilberforce now sought to secure the abolition of the slave trade abroad. and at the same time entered on an agitation for the total abolition of slavery itself. Declining health, however, compelled him, in 1825, to retire from Parliament, in which since 1S12 he had sat for the borough of Bramber. The movement against slavery was then intrusted to Sir T. Fowell Bux ton. Three days before Wilberforee's death news was brought him that the abolition bill had passed a second reading. He died July 29. 1833, and was buried as a national benefactor in West minster Abbey. Ile was a man of great versa tility of mind and character: sociable, witty, vivacious, and so kind and sincere that even his opponents loved him. He wrote Praetieal View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in. the Higher and Aliddle Classes, Contrasted with Heal Christianity (1st Ameri can ed., Philadelphia, 1798). See his Corre spondence, ed. by his sons (2 vole., London, 1S40) ; ['pirate Papers, ed. by A. W. 'Wilberforee (ib., 1897) ; Wilberforce (sons), Life of William Wilberforce (ib., 1838), chief authority; Clark son. History of the Rise, Progress, and ACCOM plishim at of the Abolition of the African Stare Trade by the British Parliament (New York, 1536).