WILLIAM WILBERFORCE – STRUGGLE TO STOP SLAVERY

Today, 29 July in 1833, William Wilberforce, a Member of British Parliament, died as a peaceful man. Though coming from an aristocratic family, yet Wilberforce strived passionately and tirelessly, despite his serious sickness from a very young age, to end slavery in Britain and its colonies. He died with peace in his heart, because, he was a good Christian man, who at one time, wanted to leave politics, and become a minister. John Newton, the slave trader turned Slave of Christ, who wrote the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace” convinced the young Wilberforce to continue in politics, as God’s agent, to fulfill God’s special purposes for his life. Wilberforce was at peace before his death, also because the bill for the abolition of the Slave Trade, was passed by the British Parliament on July 26, 1833 on its third reading in the House of Commons. William Wilberforce died on 29 July 1833 – just three days after its passing. A month after his death, the Bill became law.
– “Thank God that I should have lived to witness a day in which England is willing to give twenty millions sterling for the Abolition of Slavery.” – William Wilberforce

One of the darkest spots on human history is the infamous, trans-Atlantic slave trade. What was evidently, one of the oldest and cruellest evils of human history, slavery was raised by Europe, to an industrial scale, unseen since the beginning of this evil. Not just that, it was turned into an unparalleled money spinning industry, that fuelled the European progress. It put on full display, the “desperate wickedness” of human heart, that had commodified and industrialised, the sale of “fellow human beings” to fund the lives, and its luxuries, of a tiny percentage of humans in the world, who counted themselves as “exceptional” and “superior” group of humans. 
– “…a brutal trade network transported kidnapped Africans to European colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean to work as slaves, mostly on plantations.” – Official website of UK Parliament
– “transatlantic slave trade…transported between 10 million and 12 million [One crore to one crore twenty lakh people] enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th century. It was the second of three stages of the so-called triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and wine were shipped from Europe to Africa, enslaved people from Africa to the Americas, and sugar and coffee from the Americas to Europe.” – Encyclopaedia Britannica

When, the whole of Europe was at its finest hour in human history, with great progress in arts, literature, science, medicine, inventions, discoveries, enlightenment, reformation and industrialisation, yet to see, Europe was seeped in such dark deeds of the worst kind, is unimaginable – a true reflection of the fallenness of human hearts. Those wanting slavery to continue did their utmost best to scuttle it and continue this profitable venture – so what if the ’sub-humans’ and ’animals’ be slaves. They are anyhow worth nothing, in comparison with the superior race, that they considered themselves as – sadly many, even today.

– “I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place.” – Winston Churchill – told the Palestine Royal Commission – 1937

Great revivals were breaking out in Europe and America. Mighty men of God were walking the streets of Europe and America. Yet, the greed of man, and his lustful desire for power, control and domination, was at its peak too.
– “Between 1640 and 1807, Great Britain was the largest supplier of slaves in the New World…to its colonies in the Caribbean and the Americas.”* – Takim Williams
– “Violence permeated every aspect of the slave trade…The slave trade seemed to presage the worst features of a developing merchant capitalism. It was out of step with rising Enlightenment ideas of sentimental attachment to others. It came to be seen as an almost uniquely horrible industry, one that, however valuable it was to European commerce…if the slave trade was a scene of horrors, it also aroused a different emotion – terror. The careful application of violence was central to every part of the slave trade experience. The anticipation of such violence was carefully used as a tool by participants in the trade to keep captive Africans in check, and helps to explain the transformation of African captives into enslaved persons.” – Cambridge University article – “Terror, Horror and the British Atlantic Slave Trade in the Eighteenth Century, from Part I – Empire, Race and Ethnicity”

William Wilberforce and countless others have poured their heart, soul, time, effort, energy and money in fighting this evil, created by human greed, where fellow humans, could be bought and sold as an inanimate commodity, for their lust for profit and power. Oh, the coldness, the cruelty, and the pure evil of such hearts, indicate to the sin, and the evil of the human fall. Praise be to the LORD for the commitment of a faithful few, to such causes. Their desire to fight this evil, had its roots in their faith in the God of the Bible, which they held deeply in their hearts, as holy and sacred.
– “God Almighty has set before me two Great Objects: the suppression of the Slave Trade and the Reformation of Manners.” – William Wilberforce
– “Slavery is theft—the theft of a life, the theft of a future, the theft of the possibility of freedom.” – William Wilberforce

May we be ever so grateful to God Almighty for raising up such faithful people as William Wilberforce. May we always remember that, the human heart, however sophisticated, refined and cultured it might appear, is the very core of the snake pit from hell, totally capable of committing unparalleled evil, if given a chance. May we never ever forget that, the LORD God our Creator, out of His compassion and love for us, had shown unmerited grace, and undeserving mercy, towards us. Let us always seek God, to grant us His grace, to be His true followers, disciples and ambassadors. Even so, the LORD help us.