William Wilberforce And British Abolition Movement(1787-1833)

In the history of British trade in the 17 th and 18 th centuries,slaves created huge wealth for its economic development.These wealth continued to flow into Britain,accumulating a large amount of original capital for the British Industrial Revolution.Of all the colonies involved in the slave trade,the West Indies and American were the most valuable of the British colonies.However,they gradually began to lose their most valuable status after decades of prosperity.At the same time,there was a trend of thought criticizing the British slave trade and slavery in the religious and literary circles of the United Kingdom.Under the influence of this trend of thought,the British people gradually understood the British slave trade and slavery,and launched a series of activities to boycott the slave trade among the people.In this context,William Wilberforce,a member of the British House of Commons,keenly captured the development trend of the British abolition movement.Through frequent contact with abolitionists such as Granville Sharp,Wilberforce recognized the facts of the slave trade and the brutal conditions of slavery in the British Atlantic.The ideological change finally led Wilberforce to take the oath in 1787 to abolish the British slave trade and institution.After formally establishing the goal of abolition,Wilberforce actively advocated the establishment of abolition organizations.Under his advocacy,on May 22,1787,Britain’s first abolition commission,The Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was established.When the French Revolution broke out,Wilberforce sent Clarkson to lobby France,hoping that France would follow the British pace in the abolition of the slave trade,but it failed.Between 1791 and 1805,Wilberforce failed to introduce bills to the House of Commons to abolish the slave trade.In 1806,William Peter died.The newly formed Granville government and its cabinet members expressed their support for the abolition of the slave trade,and the abolition cause ushered in a turning point.In 1807,Wilberforce changed the abolition strategy,changed the order of submission of bills and the sponsors,and submitted the Slave Trade Abolition Act to the upper house first,and then handed it over to Granville to propose the bill in the lower house.After several setbacks,on March25,1807,the Slave Trade Abolition Act was passed in the House of Commons.The act subsequently declared an absolute ban on the African slave trade,making it illegal to conduct slave trade.The passage of the Slave Trade Abolition Act did not completely eliminate the activities of slave trade,and the smuggling and trade of slaves was even more rampant,and the miserable conditions of slaves in the vast British colonies were not improved by the passage of the Act.In order to prevent the situation,Wilberforce decided to introduce the Abolition of Slavery Bill in Parliament.In order to pass this bill in Parliament,Wilberforce adopted a "gradual abolition strategy",advocating that slaves should be given freedom under the existing conditions,and slavery also should be gradually abolish.To achieve this goal,Wilberforce rebuilt abolitionist organizations,and the Anti-Slavery Society was born.With the efforts of Wilberforce and others,on August 27,1833,the Parliament passed the Abolition of Slavery Bill.The slavery was completely abolished,and the British abolition movement achieved a great victory.Throughout the whole process of Wilberforce’s abolition activities,we can see that Wilberforce’s goals,strategies and ideas about the abolition of slave trade and slavery in two stages are not static.He judged the situation,adjusted the struggle strategy at any time,and united the available organizations.Not only that,but in the process of promoting the British abolition movement,Wilberforce showed a characteristic that other abolitionists did not have,that is,he combined abolition practice with religious beliefs.In addition,through Wilberforce’s abolition practice,we can also see the conservative side of his abolition thought.The "gradual abolition strategy" proposed by Wilberforce is obviously conservative,which indirectly reflects conservative features of the British abolition movement.