The abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade 200 years ago was a turning point in the affairs of the world. It cut across all the economic interests of the age.
The bicentenary of the law which abolished the slave trade, passed in the British parliament on 25 March 1807, has been marked with a great deal of soul-searching, and repentance, not least for the racism as well as the cruelty that were at the heart of slavery. There have been multiracial marches in London and elsewhere, new books and a movie. And to keep the memory alive, it is mandatory for British school children to study the slave trade in history lessons.
William Wilberforce undertook the epic struggle in parliament to outlaw the slave trade. God's Politician by the late Garth Lean, just republished by Darton, Longman and Todd in London, is probably the best light introduction to Wilberforce’s life, covering the moving and gripping story of his 20-year campaign for abolition.
It followed one of the most shameful periods of British and European imperial history. African slaves were treated as 'goods and chattels'; the captain of the slave ship Zong threw 132 slaves overboard after 60 had died of disease on board; and in Jamaica slaves outnumbered whites by 16 to one. The profits from such exploitation were huge, the deaths were appalling and the numbers of slaves shipped across the Atlantic were vast: an estimated three million by Britain alone. The slave trade shaped our world to this day.
But the abolition law might never have been passed if Wilberforce had not undergone a profound religious conversion. He was the rising star in the political firmament and the close friend of the Prime Minister, William Pitt. He could have become Prime Minister himself. Instead, he felt that God had laid on him two great tasks: the abolition of slavery and the 'reformation of manners', or morals, in British public life, which was rife with corruption and sleaze. Indeed, the book is as much about this as it is about the campaign against the slave trade. Wilberforce knew that in undertaking such a calling he was sacrificing the top political job: those who conspired against him would see to that. Lean tells in detail how Wilberforce came to his new conviction and the people who influenced him, including the former slave ship captain and convert John Newton who wrote the hymn Amazing Grace.
Wilberforce would never had done it alone, and Lean's book – first published in 1980 and reissued in an attractive new edition – tells of the 'Clapham saints', in parliament and churches. They included former African slaves who had won their freedom, such as the campaigner and author Olaudah Equiano, whose first hand account of slavery sold in thousands.
In his foreword to Lean’s book, Jim Wallis, the author of God's Politics and President of Sojourners/Call to Renewal in Washington DC, writes that 'Wilberforce profoundly changed the political and social climate of his time. His life is a testament to the power of conversion and the persistence of faith.' Wallis hopes that Lean's book 'will inspire this generation of Christians to reunite faith and social justice in our time'.
The book is also launched to coincide with the new movie Amazing Grace about the life of William Wilberforce, starring Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Romala Garai, Rufus Sewell and Youssou N'Dour. A low-key film, it concentrates entirely on Wilberforce, skating over the suffering of the slaves themselves. Yet it is a surprisingly moving film. Schools will see it as a useful resource. A friend in Boston, Ma., said that on a Saturday matinee, the cinema was packed and the audience applauded at the end.
In a BBC TV programme on Wilberforce, Moira Stewart, Britain’s leading black female newsreader, warned that we should resist deifying Wilberforce. He had less influence than others on the abolition of slavery itself, especially in the West Indies, which took another 26 years till the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1833. (And not till 1865 in the whole of the United States.) Wilberforce was on his deathbed when he heard this historic news. Deify, no, but he can certainly be counted among the company of saints.
And what are the equivalent issues for today? Slavery persists, including the pernicious slavery of teenage girls caught up in sex trafficking, involving 700,000 girls according to a UN report. Wallis says that 'Today a new generation of evangelical students and pastors is coming of age. Their concerns are the slavery of poverty, sex trafficking, the environment, human rights, genocide in Dafur, and the ethics of war and peace.'
At the book's relaunch, Geoffrey Lean, the author's son, who is the Environment Editor of the Independent on Sunday, said that the Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaigners were the inheritors of the Wilberforce spirit. And that sleaze was not unknown in politics today.
Saving the planet from global warming, which challenges our lifestyles and in which everyone can play their part, is also in the Wilberforce tradition. Like the abolition of slavery, it also cuts across vested political and economic interests. The selfishness of Western consumerism and the gap between the world's rich and poor are certainly unsustainable. As Al Gore writes in An Inconvenient Truth, the climate crisis is 'a moral and spiritual challenge'.
There are, of course, also the personal slaveries: the addictions to which individuals can become enslaved, whether it’s alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, sex, anger, resentments or relationships. In this respect, anyone can claim the amazing grace that is personal liberation.
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