WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
The life of the great anti-slave trade campaigner
By William Hague. Harper Press. 582 pages. £25.00
ISBN 978-0-00-722885-0
This is a well-researched and well-written political biography. It provides more information than previous biographies on both Wilberforce’s life and his political campaigns. It is chronological, showing that for much of his 45 years in Parliament, Wilberforce was engaged in seeking to bring to an end the slave trade, after as well as before 1807. Hague is ideal for explaining political processes, both then and now.
Hague is not politically partisan. He points out the Whig support of Fox, Grenville and Brougham, as well as Wilberforce’s close friend, William Pitt. Wilberforce was an Independent MP, assessing Tory and Whig policies according to his Christian moral convictions.
