GREAT EMANCIPATOR

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 25, 29 July 1933, Page 10

GREAT EMANCIPATOR

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE

CENTENARY OF HIS DEATH

One of the greatest of •English philanthropists, William Wilberf orce, vriiose name is chiefly associated with the abolition of the slave trade, was .descended irom,a,York6liire f.atlul^; which possessed, .the manor '6f i!Wii^ridS3 in the East Hiding from the time>bf-Henry II until the middle of the eighteenth century. Vilberf orce, whose death, occurred .just one hundred years, ago today, was' the. son of the niemtier qf a commercial h'buse at Hull, wherei be wasi'born on August 24, 1759. At the age of nine he lost his fatlier: and was .transferred to the care of an uuclc at but three years later lie returned to Hull under the'charge of a.master at the endowed school1 of Pocklington. Studies were not Vftttractivo to young Wilberf orce, but he was able: to enter St. John's College, bridge, in 1766, where he spent an idle time, secure in the possession' of .the fortunes left' him by his grundfathoi and uncle. He acquitted himself with credit at examinations, but in aftci years" ho looked back at his missed op portunities "with unfeigned lcmoisc" In 17S0. he entered Pailument and a>> member for Hull soon iound his \ia> into a fast political set in London. A< tho club.at Goosetrees ho renewed an acquaintance with Pitt i\hich had begun at Cambridge, an acquaintance which soon . ripened into a eloso 'irienclslnp Jn tho.autumn of 1783 In sit out -with Pitt to tour i^ranuc, <.md iltu then1 return Wilberforco's eloquiiiLC n^ ot great assistance in maintaining Pitt ■> majority in. the Commons. , HIS CONVERSION. It was in 1784, when \he changed his seat from Hull to Yprkshire, that Wilbei'force took a journey to Nice with Dr. Isaac Milner, who was later to become Dean of Carlisle. This journey had important consequences; it led to Wilberforce's conversion to evan- j gelical Christianity. The change, naturally, had a marked upon his> public conduct. 11l the beginning of 1787 ho was busy with the foundation of a society for the reformation of I manncis. About this', time he met Thomas Clarkson and began the task | which was to gain him his widest fame, agitation against the slave trade. While Clarkson travelled, the country, WUberforce took every opportunity in-the House of of .exposing tho evils and horrors of the, trade. .But it .was not until 1807, tho ye;;r after Pitt's death, that the "first great step towards the abolition of slavery was taken. When the Anti-slavery Society was foimed-dn 1823 Wilborfor.cc and Clarkson were vice-presidents, but bofoio the task was completed Wilberforcc had retired from public life and the Emancipation Bill, tho culmination of his life's ,work, was not passed until August, 1833, a month after his death. To the eighteenth-century 'Christian tho owning of slaves seemed in no way incompatible with r Christian ethics. The Society for Propagation ,of the Gospel actually supplied chaplains anJ negro Christian catechists to the Africa Company for their slave depots on the West Coast, when invited by' them to do so. These negro catiichists were tho product of the famous.Codrington College. General Codrington, Governor of the Leeward Islands, deeply impressed by the work of Spanish missionaries "living undct the thrccftfld vows, had' leit his, large estate in Barbados to be conducted as a model estate. The profits from it were to be used to establish a college monastic lines for the training in theology and medicine of men who would care for. ,the negroes. , . ■ ■ THE CLOSE. The rest is soon told. Other societies- joined vigorously, in the work, which continued to be of good repute throughout the eighteenth century. The right to i manhood had been established in the face of an opposition which'heid that the slaves were beasts, and the way was prepared for- the coming of Wilberf orce with the message that the highest privilege of humanity is freedom. When emancipation was near, the society exercised -the privileges of its Royal Charter and besought .Royal Letters. The request was granted, and tho King's letter,' together with Parliamentary grants, produced in fifteen years £171,000 for the Negro Education Fund. . ' Then came emancipation. Ox tho day iisclf Bishop Coleridge, writing from Barbados, says:— "In one day—in one moment —was this great measure carried into execution. Eight hundred thousand human beings lay down at night as slaves, and rose in the morning ns free" as Ourselves. It might havo been expected that on such an occasion, there would havo been some outburst of'public feel-, ing I was-present, but there was no gathering that affected the public peace. There was a gathering; but it was a gathering of young and old together, in tho house of the common leather of all. It was .my peculiar happiness on that ever .memorable day, to address a congregation of ..nearly 4000 persons, of whom more than 3000 were negroes, just emancipated."