Why is william wilberforce famous

It is estimated that almost 70 separate causes were significantly advanced by Wilberforce's involvement. Free learning resources from arts, cultural and heritage organisations. Political Achievements In , following his conversion to Methodism, Wilberforce took on two main political aims: The Suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners or morals.

Wilberforce left Hull in and moved to Clapham, London to be closer to his work in Westminster. Within the local community he found friends who shared his interests in religion and politics.

They became known as the Clapham Sect and they actively supported the anti-slavery abolitionists. Wilberforce married Barbara Spooner in and they had six children. Historical acounts show that he was a loving and devoted husband and father, and was proud that three of his sons became clergyman. It was finally passed on 25 March, In , Wilberforce published a book arguing for their emancipation and co-founded The Society for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery.

But failing health prompted him to step down as an MP and hand over the leadership of the emancipation campaign. Then, in July , three days before Wilberforce died, MPs voted through legislation which freed slaves throughout the British Empire.

The Slavery Abolition Act became law in As a result, nearly , African slaves were set free. Campaigning on other issues Wilberforce was driven into many other campaigns and causes by his Christian conscience. He supported better conditions for factory workers and chimney sweeps. He backed free schools, hospitals and medical dispensaries. Wilberforce was a social conservative and campaigned against what he saw as a rising tide of immorality.

This work was not always successful but supporters credit it with helping to shape public manners and stimulate a greater sense of social responsibility. Queen Elizabeth is known for her sense of duty. She is head of the Church of England and has a genuine Christian faith of her own. William Tyndale was the theologian and linguist who first translated the New Testament into English. Bernhard Langer is one of the most successful golfers of all time, but he values his relationship with God as more important.

Christianity cookies notice To give you the best possible experience, this site uses cookies. Close Search. Famous Christians. Famous Christians Christian Life Bible Denominations History William Wilberforce William Wilberforce was as significant politician, who spent much of his life campaigning for the freedom of slaves.

Read time: 5 minutes, 26 seconds Share this. His second great calling was for the "reformation of manners," that is, morals. In early , he conceived of a society that would work, as a royal proclamation put it, "for the encouragement of piety and virtue; and for the preventing of vice, profaneness, and immorality.

In fact, Wilberforce—dubbed "the prime minister of a cabinet of philanthropists"—was at one time active in support of 69 philanthropic causes. He gave away one-quarter of his annual income to the poor. He fought on behalf of chimney sweeps, single mothers, Sunday schools, orphans, and juvenile delinquents. In , he settled at Clapham, where he became a prominent member of the "Clapham Sect," a group of devout Christians of influence in government and business. That same year he wrote Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians—a scathing critique of comfortable Christianity that became a bestseller.

All this in spite of the fact that poor health plagued him his entire life, sometimes keeping him bedridden for weeks. During one such time in his late twenties, he wrote, "[I] am still a close prisoner, wholly unequal even to such a little business as I am now engaged in: add to which my eyes are so bad that I can scarce see how to direct my pen. He survived this and other bouts of debilitating illness with the help of opium, a new drug at the time, the affects of which were still unknown.

Wilberforce soon became addicted, though opium's hallucinatory powers terrified him, and the depressions it caused virtually crippled him at times. When healthy, however, he was a persistent and effective politician, partly due to his natural charm and partly to his eloquence.

His antislavery efforts finally bore fruit in Parliament abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. He then worked to ensure the slave trade laws were enforced and, finally, that slavery in the British Empire was abolished.

Wilberforce's health prevented him from leading the last charge, though he heard three days before he died that the final passage of the emancipation bill was ensured in committee. Though some historians argue that Thomas Clarkson and others were just as important in the antislavery fight, Wilberforce in any account played a key role in, as historian G. Trevelyan put it, "one of the turning events in the history of the world.