Free Republic

Forty-six years.That’s how long William Wilberforce labored to see the end of slavery in the British Empire. His work began in earnest in 1787 when he first came into contact with abolitionists such as Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More and Charles Middleton. These activists found a kindred spirit in Wilberforce, whose conversion to the Christian faith had given birth to an abiding concern for social reform—so much so, in fact, that he wrote in his diary, “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”The dark and dehumanizing practice of slavery weighed heavy on him. He first...

How The West Abolished Slavery by: Lance Nation, September 25, 2008 In the opening remarks of a recent Cato Institute event, David Boaz, the executive vice-president of the Cato Institute, asked an important question, “How is it that slavery went unchallenged for thousands of years, but disappeared in a single century?” Answering this question was James “Jim” Powell, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. Taking from his new book, Greatest Emancipation: How the West Abolished Slavery, Jim Powell explained the importance Thomas Clarkson played in ending the slave trade. “[A British citizen in the 18th Century], Clarkson originally believed...