William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner - Hardcover

Hague, William

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151012679 ISBN 13: 9780151012671

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008

Synopsis

From William Hague comes a major biography of abolitionist William Wilberforce, the man who fought for twenty years to abolish the Atlantic slave trade.

Wilberforce, born to a prosperous family, chose a life of public service and adherence to Evangelical values over the comfortable merchant existence that was laid out for him. Of a conservative bent, Wilberforce was actively hostile to radicals and revolutionaries, but championed one of the great liberal causes of all time—the abolition of slavery—and was an invaluable contributor to its ultimate success. When Parliament finally outlawed the slave trade in 1807, Wilberforce did not rest on his laurels but took part in the campaign for the abolition of slavery itself. He never held or desired a cabinet post, but became an expert in any subject he addressed as a member of Parliament. And although his convictions were informed by deep religious fervor, he never hesitated to change his mind upon reflection. Hague captures all of these nuances and complexities in this clear-eyed, humane, and moving biography.

About this title

About the Author:

WILLIAM HAGUE has served in various capacities in the British government since 1989, including Leader of the Conservative Party. He is the shadow foreign secretary and senior member of the Shadow Cabinet, and the author of William Pitt the Younger. He lives in Yorkshire, England.

From Booklist:

The former leader of Britain’s Conservative Party, Hague has lately immersed himself in biography writing. As with William Pitt the Younger (2005), this depiction of William Wilberforce recurs regularly to the political arena of the House of Commons. Pitt and Wilberforce were friends and precocious members, both entering the Commons in their early twenties, but Wilberforce’s talents lay not, as Hague describes, in ministerial leadership. Sociable, eloquent, but indolent, Wilberforce experienced an evangelical conversion around 1786 that expelled the laziness from his character without compromising his geniality. Dedicating his political life to moral causes, Wilberforce decided on two: “the reformation of manners,” as he confided to his diary, and the abolition of African slavery. Wilberforce’s campaign against vice had scant historical effect, but that against slavery in British realms arguably prodded the Western world toward abolition. Why Wilberforce’s effort (trade in slaves was banned in 1807; abolition occurred in 1834) followed a tortuous path becomes understandable as Hague explains the parliamentary practicalities that Wilberforce faced. Incorporating Wilberforce’s domestic life, Hague’s effort is a well-rounded portrait of the pioneering British abolitionist. --Gilbert Taylor

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0151012679
• ISBN 13: 9780151012671
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 582