C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
William Wilberforce (1759–1833)
Wilberforce, William. An English statesman and reformer; born at Hull, Aug. 24, 1759; died in London, July 29, 1833, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, as he had wished, “side by side with Canning, at the feet of Pitt, and within two steps of Fox and Grattan.” His great work, achieved by almost twenty years of effort, was abolishing the slave trade throughout the British Empire. He published a volume, ‘A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity’ (1797). His sons wrote the ‘Life of William Wilberforce’ (5 vols., 1838); and edited his ‘Correspondence’ (2 vols., 1840).