Portal:Saints/Selected biography/14

William Wilberforce (August 24, 1759 – July 29, 1833) was a British politician and philanthropist. A native of Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780 and became the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812). A close friend of Prime Minister William Pitt, in 1785 he underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Christian. In 1787 he came into contact with Thomas Clarkson and a group of anti-slave trade activists, including Granville Sharp, Beilby Porteus, Hannah More and Lord Middleton.

At their suggestion, Wilberforce was persuaded to take on the cause; he became one of the leading English abolitionists, heading the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade, which he saw through to the eventual passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807. In later years Wilberforce supported the campaign for complete abolition, which eventually led to the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833; this Act paved the way for the complete abolition of slavery in the British Empire. A tireless campaigner for the abolition of slavery, Wilberforce died just three days after hearing that the passage of the Act through Parliament was secure. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to his friend William Pitt. Various churches within the Anglican Communion commemorate Wilberforce in their liturgical calendars.