William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce is now remembered mainly for his leadership of the two great crusades to abolish the Slave Trade and later to free the slaves. He took up their cause when he was in his twenties and received the news of their freedom on his deathbed at the age of seventy-three. Abolition was the most famous of his causes but there were many others. He sat in Parliament for nearly fifty years, where he voted and spoke entirely as his conscience dictated and had more influence than any oth...