when they had a grievance against me,
what will I do when God confronts me?
What will I answer when called to account?
Did not he who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one form us both within our mothers? "
Clifford, the man responsible for founding the ministry I work for, spoke to us about this passage this moring. He was talking in the context of the Spirit of Wilberforce project, which aims to, in part draw attention to the faith which motivated the abolitionists to fight to pass a law to make illegal the slave trade in the British Empire 200yrs ago this year. Its incredible to think that the abolitionists started the fight to end slavery when 2/3 of the British ecconomy relied on this inhumane trade.
Over 12 million men and women were kidnapped in West Africa and packed like cargo into ships to be sailed across the atlantic, and sold into slavery the other side to farm sugar in the Carribean. The conditions on board the ship were awful, Equiano, in his auto-biography describes how people were packed like cargo so that there was barely enough room to breathe, and not sufficient to roll over. When slaves became sick, due to mulnutritian, and diease, which spread so easily in these crampd conditions, they were thrown overboard to drown. The ship owners would then collect £30 insurance on those slaves, less than the insurance on a horse.
1 and a half million slaves died at sea. No prayers were ever said over them. No one ever mourned their deaths.
After an incredible conversion experience, William Wilberforce decided upon to main purposes for his life
1) To reform manners. (By this he meant, societal morals, values or social mores)
2) The abolition of Slavery
It is important to recognize what an incredible task the second was. With most of the British economy based on slavery, as well as most parliamentarians having business interests in slave ships, the task was humanly impossible. Wilberforce brought the Bill to abolish slavery before parliament on a number of occasions over twenty years and each time it was turned down.
Wilberforce and his fellow abolitionists, known now as the Clapham Group, decided to employ different tactics. They recognized the importance of public opinion and set about lobbying for public support in England. They did this by boycotting sugar that had been grown on the farms in the Caribbean which had slaves. He also took a petition around the country which was signed by over 1 million people, urging parliament to abolish the slave trade.
Finally, on the 25 March 1807, the act bringing about the abolition of the slave Trade was finally passed by parliament, making it illegal for British ships to trade slaves. It was only in 1833, just one week before Wilberforce died, that the abolition of Slavery was passed.
To find out more about the abolition of slavery as well as information about the types of slavery that exists today please visit Anti-Slavery Internartional and Set All Free
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