History's Greatest Christians: William Wilberforce (1759-1833)

Born to wealthy parents in 1759, William Wilberforce was educated at Cambridge and went on to achieve reknown as a leader of the English abolition movement. Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons in 1780 and converted to Evangelical Christianity in 1785. Together with his friends Thomas Clarkson and William Pitt the Younger (who would one day become Prime Minister), Wilberforce formed the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787, and thus began the campaign to end slavery in Great Britain.

The fight would take more than 20 years, during which Wilberforce was plagued by ill health and poor eyesight. A physician prescribed opium for his illness. Opium was a recent advancement in medicine at the time, and Wilberforce became addicted. In spite of these obstacles, the slave trade was abolished in 1807, but it was not until 1833 that slavery became illegal in Great Britain, only three days before Wilberforce's death. Wilberforce is entombed in Westminster Abbey in London. In 2006, a movie, Amazing Grace, chronicled Wilberforce's heroic humanitarian efforts.

For further information about William Wilberforce and the abolition movement, see 131 Christians Everyone Should Know or Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas, copyright 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.