“Hello” William Wilberforce Born 24 August 1759

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was an English politician, philanthropist, and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. He was born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire and began his political career in 1780, eventually becoming the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1787, he came into contact with Thomas Clarkson and a group of anti-slave-trade activists, including Granville Sharp, Hannah More and Charles Middleton who persuaded Wilberforce to take on the cause of abolition.  He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.