Editing William Wilberforce (section)

==Other concerns==

===Political and social reform===
Wilberforce was highly conservative on many political and social issues. He advocated change in society through Christianity and improvement in morals, education and religion, fearing and opposing radical causes and revolution.<ref name="Hague 2007 446"/> The radical writer [[William Cobbett]] was among those who attacked what they saw as Wilberforce's hypocrisy in campaigning for better working conditions for enslaved people while British workers lived in terrible conditions at home.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=440–441}}</ref> Critics noted Wilberforce's support of the suspension of ''[[habeas corpus]]'' in 1795 and his votes for Pitt's "Gagging Bills", which banned meetings of more than 50&nbsp;people, allowing speakers to be arrested and imposing harsh penalties on those who attacked the constitution.<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=250, 254–256}}</ref> Wilberforce was opposed to giving [[workers' rights]] to organise into unions, in 1799 speaking in favour of the [[Combination Act]], which suppressed trade union activity throughout Britain, and calling unions "a general disease in our society".<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=286}}</ref> He also opposed an [[public inquiry|enquiry]] into the 1819 [[Peterloo Massacre]] in which eleven protesters were killed at a political rally demanding reform.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=441–442}}</ref> Concerned about "bad men who wished to produce anarchy and confusion", he approved of the government's [[Six Acts]], which further limited public meetings and [[sedition|seditious writings]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=442}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=195–196}}</ref> Wilberforce's actions led the essayist [[William Hazlitt]] to condemn him as one "who preaches vital Christianity to untutored savages, and tolerates its worst abuses in civilised states."<ref>{{Cite book| last = Hazlitt | first = William | author-link = William Hazlitt | title = The spirit of the age| place = London|page=185 | publisher = C. Templeton | year = 1825|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=t0wBAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA185}}</ref>

[[File:Sir Thomas Lawrence02.jpg|thumb|right|Unfinished portrait by [[Sir Thomas Lawrence]], 1828|alt=An unfinished oil portrait of Wilberforce. The face and shoulders are painted, while the rest of the portrait contains a sketched outline.]]

Wilberforce's views of women and religion were also conservative. He disapproved of women anti-slavery activists such as [[Elizabeth Heyrick]], who organised women's abolitionist groups in the 1820s, protesting: "[F]or ladies to meet, to publish, to go from house to house stirring up petitions—these appear to me proceedings unsuited to the female character as delineated in Scripture."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|pp=324–327}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=487}}</ref> Wilberforce initially strongly opposed bills for [[Catholic emancipation]], which would have allowed Catholics to become MPs, hold public office and serve in the army,<ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=172–173}}</ref> although by 1813, he had changed his views and spoke in favour of a similar bill.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=406–407}}</ref>

Wilberforce advocated legislation to improve the working conditions for chimney-sweeps and textile workers, engaged in [[prison reform]], and supported campaigns to restrict [[capital punishment]] and the severe punishments meted out under the [[Game law]]s.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=447}}</ref><ref name="Devereaux2015" /> He recognised the importance of education in alleviating poverty, and when [[Hannah More]] and her sister established [[Sunday school]]s for the poor in [[Somerset]] and the [[Mendip Hills|Mendips]], he provided financial and moral support as they faced opposition from landowners and Anglican clergy.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|pp=92–93}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Stott|first=Anne|title=Hannah More: The First Victorian|year=2003|place=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-924532-1|oclc=186342431|url-access=registration|pages=103–105, 246–447|url=https://archive.org/details/hannahmorefirstv0000stot}}</ref> From the late 1780s onward, Wilberforce campaigned for limited parliamentary reform, such as the abolition of [[rotten boroughs]] and the redistribution of Commons seats to growing towns and cities, though by 1832, he feared that such measures went too far.<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=74, 498}}</ref> With others, Wilberforce founded the world's first [[animal welfare]] organisation, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later the [[Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals]]).<ref name="Tomkins 2007 207">{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|p=207}}</ref>  He was also opposed to [[duelling]], which he described as the "disgrace of a Christian society" and was appalled when his friend Pitt engaged in a duel with [[George Tierney]] in 1798, particularly as it occurred on a Sunday, the Christian day of rest.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=287–288}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|p=299}}</ref>

Wilberforce was generous with his time and money, believing that those with wealth had a duty to give a significant portion of their income to the needy. Yearly, he gave away thousands of pounds, much of it to clergymen to distribute in their parishes. He paid off the debts of others, supported education and [[Mission (Christian)|missions]], and in a year of food shortages, gave to charity more than his own yearly income. He was exceptionally hospitable, and could not bear to sack any of his servants. As a result, his home was full of old and incompetent servants kept on in charity. Although he was often months behind in his correspondence, Wilberforce responded to numerous requests for advice or for help in obtaining professorships, military promotions and livings for clergymen, or for the reprieve of death sentences.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|p=315}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=211–212, 295, 300}}</ref>

===Evangelical Christianity===
A supporter of the evangelical wing of the Church of England, Wilberforce believed that the revitalisation of the church and individual Christian observance would lead to a harmonious, moral society.<ref name="Hind1987" /> He sought to elevate the status of religion in public and private life, making piety fashionable in both the upper- and middle-classes of society.<ref>{{Harvnb|Brown|2006|pp=385–386}}</ref> To this end, in April 1797, Wilberforce published ''A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of This Country Contrasted With Real Christianity'', on which he had been working since 1793. This was an exposition of [[New Testament]] doctrine and teachings and a call for a revival of Christianity, as a response to the moral decline of the nation, illustrating his own testimony and the views which inspired him. The book was influential and a best-seller; 7,500&nbsp;copies were sold within six months, and it was translated into several languages.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=271–272, 276}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|pp=146–153}}</ref>

Wilberforce fostered and supported missionary activity in Britain and abroad, and was involved with other members of the Clapham Sect in various evangelical and charitable organisations. He was a founding member of the [[Church Mission Society|Church Missionary Society]] (since renamed the Church Mission Society)<ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|p=176}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=220–221}}</ref> and an early vice-president of the [[Church's Ministry Among Jewish People|London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews]] (later the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Curtis |first=Rodney |date=16 April 2019 |title=Evangelical Anglican missionaries and the London Jews Society: Palestine Place at Bethnal Green and related developments, 1813–1895 |journal=Jewish Historical Studies |language=en |volume=50 |issue=1 |doi=10.14324/111.444.jhs.2018v50.004 |issn=2397-1290|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Scult|first=Mel|date=1973|title=English Missions to the Jews: Conversion in the Age of Emancipation|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=35|issue=1|pages=3–17|jstor=4466746|issn=0021-6704}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Smith|first=Robert Michael|date=1981|title=The London Jews' Society and Patterns of Jewish Conversion in England, 1801–1859|journal=Jewish Social Studies|volume=43|issue=3/4|pages=275–290|jstor=4467142|issn=0021-6704}}</ref> Horrified by the lack of Christian evangelism in India, Wilberforce used the 1793 renewal of the [[British East India Company]]'s charter to propose the addition of clauses requiring the company to provide teachers and chaplains and to commit to the "religious improvement" of Indians. The plan was unsuccessful due to lobbying by the directors of the company, who feared that their commercial interests would be damaged.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=115–116}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=221, 408}}</ref> Wilberforce tried again in 1813 when the charter next came up for renewal. Using petitions, meetings, lobbying and letter writing, he successfully campaigned for changes to the charter.<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref name="Tomkins 2007 187–188">{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=187–188}}</ref> Speaking in favour of the [[British East India Company#Charter Act 1813|Charter Act 1813]], he criticised the East India Company and their rule in India for its hypocrisy and racial prejudice, while also condemning aspects of [[Hinduism]] including the [[caste system]], [[infanticide]], [[polygamy]] and [[Sati (practise)|sati]].<ref name="Tomkins 2007 187–188"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Keay|first= John |title=India: A History |publisher=Grove Press |location=New York  |isbn=0-8021-3797-0 |year=2000|page=428}}</ref>

===Moral reform===
Greatly concerned by what he perceived to be the degeneracy of British society, Wilberforce was active in matters of moral reform, lobbying against "the torrent of profaneness that every day makes more rapid advances", and considered this issue and the abolition of the slave trade as equally important goals.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=54–55}}</ref>  At the suggestion of Wilberforce and [[Beilby Porteus|Bishop Porteus]], [[George III of the United Kingdom|King George III]] was requested by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] to issue in 1787 ''[[Proclamation For the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue|A Proclamation for the Encouragement of Piety and Virtue]]'', as a remedy for the rising tide of immorality.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|p=61}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Brown|2006|p=346}}</ref><ref name="Devereaux2015"/> The proclamation commanded the prosecution of those guilty of "excessive drinking, blasphemy, profane swearing and cursing, lewdness, [[Sabbath breaking|profanation of the Lord's Day]], and other dissolute, immoral, or disorderly practices".<ref>{{Harvnb|Hochschild|2005|p=126}}</ref><ref name="Devereaux2015" /> Greeted largely with public indifference, Wilberforce sought to increase its impact by mobilising public figures to the cause,<ref name="Hague 2007 108">{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=108}}</ref><ref name="Devereaux2015">{{Cite journal |last=Devereaux |first=Simon |date=2015 |title=Inexperienced Humanitarians? William Wilberforce, William Pitt, and the Execution Crisis of the 1780s |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DA5821170E59D63DF61D543291A285DA/S0738248015000449a.pdf/div-class-title-inexperienced-humanitarians-william-wilberforce-william-pitt-and-the-execution-crisis-of-the-1780s-div.pdf |journal=Law and History Review |volume=33 |issue=4 |pages=839–885 |doi=10.1017/S0738248015000449 |s2cid=151411243 |issn=0738-2480 |access-date=7 July 2023 |archive-date=3 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503060753/https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/DA5821170E59D63DF61D543291A285DA/S0738248015000449a.pdf/div-class-title-inexperienced-humanitarians-william-wilberforce-william-pitt-and-the-execution-crisis-of-the-1780s-div.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> and by founding the [[Society for the Suppression of Vice]].<ref name="Hague 2007 108"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Brown|2006|p=385}}</ref> This and other societies in which Wilberforce was a prime mover, mustered support for the prosecution of those who had been charged with violating relevant laws, including brothel keepers, distributors of pornographic material, and those who did not respect the Sabbath.<ref name="Hind1987" />

The writer and clergyman [[Sydney Smith]] criticised Wilberforce for being more interested in the sins of the poor than those of the rich, and suggested that a better name would be the "Society for suppressing the vices of persons whose income does not exceed £500 per annum".<ref name="Tomkins 2007 55"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=109}}</ref> Wilberforce's attempts to legislate against adultery and Sunday newspapers were also in vain; his involvement and leadership in other, less punitive, approaches were more successful in the long-term, however. By the end of his life, British morals, manners, and sense of social responsibility had increased, paving the way for future changes in societal conventions and attitudes during the Victorian era.<ref name="Wolffe2009" /><ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=514}}</ref>

===Emancipation of enslaved Africans===
Wilberforce worked with the members of the [[African Institution]] to ensure the enforcement of the abolition of the slave trade and to promote abolitionist negotiations with other countries.<ref name="Hind1987" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|pp=182–183}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Ackerson|2005|pp=142, 168, 209}}</ref> In particular, the [[United States]] had abolished the slave trade after 1808 and Wilberforce lobbied the American government to enforce its own mandated prohibition more strongly.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=393–394, 343}}</ref> The same year, Wilberforce moved his family from Clapham to a sizeable mansion with a large garden in [[Kensington Gore]], closer to the Houses of Parliament. In worsening health by 1812, Wilberforce [[Resignation from the British House of Commons|resigned his Yorkshire seat]], and became MP for the [[rotten borough]] of [[Bramber (UK Parliament constituency)|Bramber]] in [[Sussex]], a seat with little or no constituency obligations, thus allowing him more time for his family and the causes that interested him.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=377–379, 401–406}}</ref> From 1816, Wilberforce introduced a series of bills which would require the compulsory registration of enslaved people, together with details of their country of origin, permitting the illegal importation of foreign slaves to be detected. Later in the same year he began to publicly denounce slavery itself, though he did not demand immediate emancipation, believing incremental change to be more effective in achieving abolition.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=415, 343}}</ref>

In 1820, after a period of poor health and with his eyesight failing, Wilberforce further limited public activities,<ref name="Pollock 1977 279">{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|p=279}}</ref> although he became embroiled in unsuccessful mediation attempts between [[George IV of the United Kingdom|King George IV]], and his estranged wife [[Caroline of Brunswick]], who had sought her rights as queen of the realm.<ref name="Wolffe2009" /> Wilberforce still hoped "to lay a foundation for some future measures for the emancipation of the poor slaves".<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=474}}</ref> Aware that the cause would need younger men to continue the work, in 1821 he asked MP [[Thomas Fowell Buxton]] to take over leadership of the campaign in the Commons.<ref name="Pollock 1977 279"/> As the 1820s continued, Wilberforce increasingly became more of a figurehead for the abolitionist movement, although he continued to appear at anti-slavery meetings, welcoming visitors, and maintaining a busy correspondence on the subject.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ackerson|2005|p=181}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Oldfield|2007|p=48}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=492–493, 498}}</ref>

In 1823 Wilberforce's 56-page "Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies" was published.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|p=285}}</ref> The treatise stated that total emancipation was morally and ethically required and that slavery was a national crime which must be ended by parliamentary legislation to gradually abolish slavery.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|pp=477–479}}</ref> Members of Parliament did not agree, and government opposition in March 1823 stymied Wilberforce's call for abolition.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=481}}</ref> On 15 May 1823, Buxton moved another resolution in Parliament for gradual emancipation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tomkins|2007|p=203}}</ref> Subsequent debates followed on 16 March and 11 June 1824 in which Wilberforce made his last speeches in the House of Commons, and which again saw the emancipationists outmanoeuvred by the government.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pollock|1977|p=289}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hague|2007|p=480}}</ref>