William Wilberforce
August 24, 1759 – July 29, 1833
The OG social justice warrior, William Wilberforce was a British politician and social reformer whose religious conversion directed him toward causes to right injustice. He was most notably a staunch advocate and very public face for the campaign to abolish slavery in Britain.
Wilberforce was raised and educated in Yorkshire. He attended St. John’s College at Cambridge where he devoted more time to the typical extracurricular activities of the average college boy than to his studies. Despite his general lack of desire to be in school (he had inherited money from his family and didn’t necessarily need to go to university), he received a degree and embarked on a career in politics.
Encouraged by his friend from school, William Pitt the Younger, he became a MP in the House of Commons at the age of just 21. Independently wealthy and treating Parliament as another reason to live a decadent life, William Wilberforce underwent an improbable conversion to Anglicanism. This not only altered his own life, but the lives of countless others his work would go on to affect.
Over the next decades, Wilberforce, championed the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. He also took up social and political reform causes in Britain like prison reform, capital punishment reform and animal welfare.
His health waned in his later years. He resigned his seat in Parliament in 1825 to concentrate on time with his family. He remained a public figurehead for the abolition movement making speeches and writing for the cause as he was able. In July of 1833, the government passed the Bill for Abolition of Slavery. Wilberforce died 3 days later.
Burial
Westminster Abbey – London, UK
Specific Location
North Transept – Immediately on the left as you enter the main visitors entrance in the North Transept.
Celebrity Graveland 
Leave a comment