1. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
William Wilberforce
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

2. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
William Wilberforce was born in Hull in He was a deeply religious man who dedicated his whole life to fighting a number of causes. He became a Member of Parliament for Hull, and later for Yorkshire.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

3. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Amazing Grace
The film is about him, and the song, which was written by a former slave ship captain, John Newton in 1779.
He had a religious and moral awakening and became a preacher.
He was a role model for William Wilberforce.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

4. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am found T'was blind but now I see
T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear And Grace, my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear The hour I first believed
Through many dangers, toils and snares We have already come. T'was grace that brought us safe thus far And grace will lead us home, And grace will lead us home
Amazing grace, Howe Sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost but now am found T'was blind but now I see
Was blind, but now I see.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

5. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
William Wilberforce was born in Hull in His father and grandfather were wealthy merchants.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

6. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
He is most remembered as the leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish the Slave Trade.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

7. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
William Wilberforce was born in Wilberforce House on 24th August ‘His frame from infancy was feeble, his stature small, his eyes weak’ Robert and Samuel Wilberforce He was afflicted with colitis his whole life which was treated with Opium.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

8. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
William went to school in Hull and in London. When he was seventeen, in 1776 he went to Cambridge University.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

9. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
At University Wilberforce met his lifelong friend, William Pitt, the future Prime Minister. Their friendship grew when they started to attend the gallery of the House of Commons to watch the politicians debating. When Wilberforce graduated he was keen to develop a career in politics.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

10. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
When Wilberforce graduated he was keen to develop a career in politics. He also became very interested in Religion, becoming a very committed Christian.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

11. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Wilberforce became interested in the abolition of the slave trade and slavery in the 1780s. Slavery was deeply entrenched in British life and the British Economy.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

12. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
He worked with the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with abolitionists like Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More, Josiah Wedgewood, Charles Middleton and Olaudah Equiano. They were committed to ended slavery and the slave trade in Britain and all of its colonies.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

13. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
At the time Wilberforce lived, Britain was heavily involved in the slave trade. British ships sailed to Africa full of goods to trade for Africans.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

14. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Enslaved Africans were shackled, loaded onto ships and transported to the Americas. The conditions were terrible. Many slaves died on the journey.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

15. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Slaves usually arrived in the Caribbean. They were then forced to work on Plantations. Lots of wealthy people in England owned plantations. Plantations grew crops such as sugar and tobacco.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

16. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Wilberforce was concerned over raising the abolition issue in Parliament due to the wealth invested in the slave trade by MPs. He made many enemies. He concentrated first on the abolition of the slave trade and then the complete abolition of slavery.
“The promoters of abolition are either fanatics or hypocrites and in one of these class I rank Mr Wilberforce”
King William IV
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

17. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
William IV was one of George III’s sons, and was opposed to ending the slave trade. He believed the life of slaves in the colonies was better than the life of poor Scots and Irish and that slaves were happy to be in their condition.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

18. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Wilberforce made his first abolition speech in For many years, he presented the abolition bill to Parliament and it kept being defeated.
“I must speak of the transit of the slaves in the West Indies. This I confess, in my own opinion, is the most wretched part of the whole subject. So much misery condensed in so little room, is more than the human imagination had ever before conceived”
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

19. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
The campaign involved many people, not just Wilberforce. People in Britain boycotted sugar as it was made by slaves on plantations. The anti-slavery campaign had what we would call a slogan: ‘Am I not a man and a brother?’
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

20. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
In 1807, the Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill was finally passed. It became illegal in Britain to buy and sell people. Parliament gave a round of applause to Wilberforce who had tears running down his face.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

21. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Wilberforce retired from Parliament in 1825, but carried on campaigning. It was illegal to buy and sell people, but it was still allowed to keep slaves and force them to work.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

22. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
It wasn’t until 1833, that the Abolition of Slavery Act was passed. Wilberforce died three days later.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum

23. Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum
Wilberforce is remembered not only in Hull, but throughout the world for his part in the campaign against slavery. There is a statue in Queens Gardens in Hull commemorating his work, and a monument in Westminster Abbey where he is buried.
Hull Museum Education: Wilberforce House Museum