The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

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Wilberforce, Lincoln, and the Abolition of Slavery

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Letter from William Wilberforce to John Young, November 20, 1805. Private Collection, on deposit at the Gilder Lehrman Collection.

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In this 1805 letter, published here for the first time, Wilberforce advises a fellow abolitionist on the best way to emancipate an elderly slave and to prevent his re-enslavement by predatory slavetakers.

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