William Wilberforce (24 August 1759–29 July 1833) was a British politician and philanthropist. A native of Hull, Yorkshire, he began his political career in 1780 and became Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812), and independent supporter of the Tory party. 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 and Hannah More and Lord Middleton.
At their suggestion he was persuaded to take on the cause, and 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.
Wilberforce also championed many other causes and campaigns, including the Reformation of manners and the Society for the Suppression of Vice, Charity schools, the introduction of Christianity to India, the foundation of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
In later years he supported the campaign for complete abolition, which eventually led to the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, paving the way for the gradual abolition of internal/indigenous slavery in all British colonies. A tireless campaigner for the abolition of slavery, Wilberforce died just three days after hearing of the passage of the Act through Parliament. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to his friend William Pitt.
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