William Wilberforce entered the British House of Commons in 1780, at the age of twenty-one. A few years later, a profound change of conviction reshaped the purpose of his life — and he resolved to spend his considerable gifts not on personal ambition, but on causes larger than himself.
Foremost among them was the abolition of the slave trade. Wilberforce brought the question before Parliament in 1791, and it was defeated. He brought it again, and again, and again. For some twenty years he was voted down, opposed, and worn thin — and for twenty years he refused to stop. The Slave Trade Act finally passed in 1807.
He did not stop there. He pressed on toward the abolition of slavery itself throughout the British Empire — and the Slavery Abolition Act passed in 1833, three days before his death. Wilberforce remains the enduring model of conviction held across an entire lifetime: the patience to labor for decades toward an outcome one may not live to see.
“God Almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”
“Our motto must continue to be perseverance. And ultimately I trust the Almighty will crown our efforts with success.”
“If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”