Slaves no more

It is a privilege to share something of what I have learned about the life and legacy of William Wilberforce. I am of British descent through my mother’s family, and I treasure my ancestral ties to Britain.

America and Britain have always shared a special relationship, one of which William Wilberforce was very well aware. They were, as he saw it, ‘two nations, who are children of the same family, and brothers in the same inheritance of common liberty’.

Ovation in Parliament

I would like to take you back to the unforgettable evening of February 23, 1807. In the House of Commons, parliamentary debate had commenced on the Second Reading of a bill calling for the abolition of the British slave trade. For 20 years, similar bills had been introduced again and again only to go down to defeat.

But this night would be different. As the debate began, one member of Parliament after another rose to praise the man who had refused to accept defeat in his efforts to secure the abolition of the trade — William Wilberforce.

Before one member had finished speaking, others jumped to their feet, wishing to add their voices to the overwhelming tide of support for Wilberforce’s bill. One of the last to speak was the Solicitor-General, Sir Samuel Romilly.

In the conclusion of his speech, Romilly contrasted the French Emperor Napoleon with Wilberforce. Romilly painted a vivid picture of the reception each man would receive when they returned home. Napoleon would arrive in pomp and power — having reached the summit of earthly ambition — yet as one whose dreams would be haunted by the oppressions of war. Wilberforce, meanwhile, would return to ‘the bosom of his happy and delighted family….lay his head upon his pillow, and remember that the slave trade was no more’.

At this, the Commons stood as one man, turned to Wilberforce, and cheered. Wilberforce sat in his place, head bowed, and wept. Thereupon the Commons voted by an overwhelming majority to abolish the British slave trade — 283 to 16.

Goodness and mercy

When Wilberforce looked back over his life in 1832, just one year before he died, he thought of ‘all my tossings during my long and stormy voyage in the sea of politics’. He had known grievous defeats, debilitating illnesses and had faced death threats. Yet despite all this, he could declare: ‘No one, perhaps, has such cause as myself to adopt the psalmist's declaration, “Surely goodness and mercy have followed me all the days of my life”.’

In no way can this truth be better seen than in the special relationship he shared with John Newton, the author of the timeless hymn ‘Amazing Grace’. In pivotal points throughout Wilberforce’s life Newton was there — as an agent of mercy — and as a never-failing source of wisdom and encouragement.

Newton entered Wilberforce’s life in the midst of an incredibly disruptive childhood. His father, Robert, died when he was eight. Soon after his mother, Elizabeth, was stricken with a life-threatening fever. Within a few years, two of his three sisters had died. Wilberforce went to live with his father’s elder brother, William, and his wife Hannah.

This childless couple lavished love upon their grieving nephew. They introduced him to many of their friends, most of whom were evangelical Christians. Wilberforce grew especially close to Newton, whom he revered ‘as a parent when I was a child’.

But it was not to last. Wilberforce’s mother Elizabeth, who had thankfully survived her dangerous fever, deeply distrusted evangelicals, whom she considered religious fanatics. When it became clear from letters that Wilberforce had adopted his aunt and uncle’s religious views, she took him back home.

Newton disappeared from Wilberforce’s life for nearly 15 years. During those years, Wilberforce became a religious sceptic. What is more, he settled upon a career in politics. Winning his first election within days of his 21st birthday, he was, by the age of 25, Member of Parliament for the entire county of Yorkshire. He had risen to power with astonishing swiftness, and he was also the best friend of the youngest Prime Minister in British history, William Pitt. Wilberforce had arrived.

A brilliant future lay ahead, but it was not the one many predicted.

The great change

Everything changed when Wilberforce set out on a continental tour of Europe in the autumn of 1784. During his travels, Wilberforce noticed a book his cousin Bessy Smith had left lying open on a table. He picked it up, and asked his travelling companion Isaac Milner if he had ever heard of Philip Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. Milner said he had, and that Doddridge’s book was ‘one of the best ever written. Let’s take it with us, and read it on the rest of our journey’. Wilberforce agreed, and over the next few months they carefully read Rise and Progress along with the Greek New Testament — to see if what Doddridge had written was true.

Now neither Wilberforce nor Milner knew that Bessy Smith had been given this book by the Rev. William Unwin, a close friend of John Newton. Newton had never ceased to pray that Wilber-force would come back to his boyhood faith. Newton did not know of Unwin’s gift of Doddridge’s book, but his prayers were being answered through it.

When Wilberforce’s tour of Europe concluded in October 1785, he was no longer a religious sceptic. He now possessed ‘a settled conviction in my mind, not only of the truth of Christianity, but also of the Scriptural basis of [its] leading doctrines…’

But he still had to wrestle with the implications of what it meant to embrace Christianity. His was the restlessness of a heart that had yet to find its rest in God. For a while he seriously considered forsaking politics. ‘I must awake to my dangerous state’, he wrote, ‘and never be at rest till I have made my peace with God’.

Wilberforce decided to seek out Newton — a decision not easily made. He remembered his youth, how he had been separated from his aunt and uncle, and told that the faith he had embraced was scandalous and hated. He feared that a renewal of his friendship with Newton would make him an outcast in his political and social circles.

Christian in politics

Wilberforce’s re-connection with Newton at this time, and its wider significance, was a most remarkable providence for it was Newton who was instrumental in setting Wilberforce on the path to abolition. That he should have played this role was an act of amazing grace — one that had transformed a wretch like Newton into the wise parson who counselled a young Wilberforce to consider what God might have him do in British politics.

When Wilberforce and Newton met, they had a lengthy conversation. Wilberforce was greatly moved when Newton confided to him his enduring belief that Wilberforce would someday turn back to God. ‘When I came away’, Wilberforce wrote, ‘my mind was in a calm, tranquil state — more humbled — looking more devoutly up to God.’

Wilberforce had found peace, and something else of equal value — wise, practical advice. Newton had urged Wilberforce ‘to avoid…widely separating from old friends…to keep up [your] connection with Pitt, and to continue in Parliament’. Over time, Wilberforce realized how right Newton had been, and gained a profound sense that God could use him in political life. Given Wilberforce’s leadership of the 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, Newton’s advice can be seen at its true worth.

At Easter 1786, John Newton wrote to his friend William Cowper, the poet with whom he had collaborated on The Olney Hymns. ‘I judge [Wilberforce] is now decidedly on the right track….I hope the Lord will make him a blessing both as a Christian and a statesman. How seldom do these characters coincide!! But they are not incompatible.’

Henceforth, the course of Wilberforce’s call to service in political life was profoundly re-directed. He realised that he was called to serve something larger than self. ‘It is my constant prayer’, he wrote, ‘that God will enable me to serve him more steadily, and my fellow-creatures more assiduously.’

Wilberforce discovered the great work of his life on Sunday, October 28 1787. On that day, he had met with John Newton. They spoke of the great needs that existed in Britain and the evils of the slave trade. After Newton left, he took up his quill pen, and wrote in his diary: ‘God has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners [i.e. morals].’

Range of endeavours

During the next 47 years. the range of Wilberforce’s reforming endeavours and achievements was amazing. Instrumental in the abolition of the slave trade — and later slavery itself throughout the British Empire, he was active on many other fronts. He led, or was a member, of at least 70 different benevolent societies. He promoted educational reform, prison reform, and the promotion of public health initiatives. He championed shorter working hours, improved conditions in factories, and charities for Native Americans. He helped found the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, as well as Britain’s National Gallery (of Art).

Here I would like to fast forward a bit, and discuss John Newton’s relationship with Wilberforce near the end of Newton’s life. For Newton, the former slave ship captain whose life had so wonderfully changed, was to the end a testimony to amazing grace. Newton and Wilberforce, these two unlikely friends, were able to rejoice together in March 1807, when at long last, the British slave trade was finally abolished.

Newton, who marvelled that he had lived long enough to see this day, died a short time later. ‘At last’, as Wilberforce had written to Newton near the end, ‘[I] can join with you in the shout of victory.’

The same scenario repeated itself once more in Wilberforce’s own life, for three days before he died in 1833, he learned that Parliament had voted to abolish slavery throughout Britain’s colonies. Wilberforce’s friends in the House of Commons knew he was gravely ill, and rejoiced that he had lived to see this day. ‘Wilberforce’, Lord Stanley said, ‘can now depart in peace.’

Kevin Belmonte is the author of Travel with Wilberforce, published by Day One (£10.00, ISBN 1 842625 027 9).

© Evangelicals Now - March 2007
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