William Wilberforce
William Wilberforce (1759–1833) was the British politician and abolitionist largely responsible for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery itself in the British Empire. Wilberforce became a member of the British House of Commons in 1780. In 1789, Wilberforce introduced a number of resolutions against the slave trade, but it took almost twenty years for his efforts to come to fruition. In 1807, Wilberforce finally achieved enough support for a bill to end the slave trade. It took another twenty-five years to abolish slavery itself. Wilberforce spent many years advocating immediate emancipation. The Slavery Abolition Act ended slavery throughout the British Empire in 1833.
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