Here are some excerpts from my study book A Chequered Legacy: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the Church (Book 1). Exploring Britain’s shameful legacy of slavery, and in no way seeking to minimise this, it celebrates also the work of William Wilberforce and various colleagues in tirelessly working to bring this hideous trade to an end. Be under no illusions: the history of the Church on this issue is by no means a uniformly proud one, but give thanks for those in its ranks who stood up for justice, for the dignity and rights of all, and commit yourself to being among their number.
Opening prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
you came into our world
and lived and died among us
in order to set us free from everything that holds us captive.
Thank you for that glorious freedom,
and thank you for those who, in turn,
work – or laboured in times past –
to bring freedom for others from whatever denies, destroys or negates life.
Especially we thank you for those who, in your name,
strove to overcome and outlaw the evil of slavery,
determined that all should enjoy the liberty and dignity they deserve.
Help us to learn from the mistakes of the past
and to build on the achievements,
so that we, in some small way,
may contribute to building a better world
and to bringing nearer the dawn of your kingdom.
Amen.
Study
Sometime during the middle of the fifteenth century, the crew of a Portuguese sailing ship moored alongside the west coast of Africa set about capturing native inhabitants, carrying them off and selling them back in Europe as slaves. It was the start of a vile commercial system that was to blight the world for nearly three hundred years, and that was to see traders from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Britain and, eventually, America involved in the enslavement of anything up to 11 million West Africans, barbarically plucked from their home country and set to work in conditions that led to the premature death of many and appalling suffering for most. Films and TV series like Roots and Twelve Years a Slave have graphically brought home, should any reminder be needed, just how evil the trade was, and how awful its impact.
Not, though, that slavery was anything new. It had been around already for thousands of years, dating back to the days of the early Greek empire and beyond. Nor has the record of the Church been anything like exemplary over the years. Many passages in the Bible can be seen as condoning, or at least accepting, slavery, Colossians 3:22 and Ephesians 6:5, for example, calling for slaves to obey their masters, and 1 Peter 2:18 urging, ‘Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.’ Christians captured Muslims throughout the Crusades and sold them into slavery, just as Muslims had done to them. The Catholic Church supported the Portuguese slave trade and in 1710 the plantation owner, Christopher Codrington, left his 800-acre Barbados estate – the working and wealth of which was entirely dependent on slaves – to the Anglican Church’s newly established Society for the Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts (SPG). Much of the Church of England’s subsequent wealth, and indeed that of other denominations, sprang directly from the slave trade. Certain bishops in Britain even owned slaves, and generally the attitude among Christians was that Africans were unenlightened heathens and less than fully human, for whom slavery was thus perfectly acceptable.
Yet if the Church can by no means be exempt from criticism, it nonetheless deserves praise for the role of many in its ranks in eventually bringing slavery to an end. Among the first of those to oppose it were nonconformists – Quakers, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists and Baptists – perhaps because these had first-hand experience of what it meant to be abused and persecuted. Quakers, in particular, emphasised that everyone is equal in the sight of God, and in 1696 it officially declared its opposition to the slave trade. A book written in 1772 by the Quaker writer Anthony Benezet, titled Some Historical Account of Guinea, was followed in 1774 by John Wesley’s Thoughts upon Slavery, both of which helped to fuel growing calls for abolition. The latter, though, would not be easily achieved. Vested interests – including among Christians of all persuasions – would not relinquish their source of wealth lightly. It would take one man in particular, and a long, challenging campaign in the face of bitter opposition, to help finally to end this terrible wrong.
William Wilberforce – a voice for freedom
‘So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the Trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for Abolition. Let the consequences be what they would, I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.’ So declared the great English politician, philanthropist and reformer, William Wilberforce, in his celebrated abolition speech to the House of Commons on 12 May 1789. It was the start of a 44-year-long campaign that would finally see not just the slave trade abolished in the British colonies, but, just three days before his death, the official abolition of slavery itself.
Born into a wealthy merchant family in Hull in 1759, William enjoyed the extravagant distractions of fashionable society during his formative years, graduated from St John’s, Cambridge, in 1781, and was elected an MP in 1780, aged just 21. Between 1884 and 1886
he was converted to evangelical Christianity and for a time he toyed with leaving parliament, but friends – including the celebrated hymn writer John Newton, a one-time slave trader turned pastor – urged him that he could serve God more effectively from a position of influence within public life. Putting an end to the slave trade soon became William’s passion, after he talked first with Sir Charles Middleton, who urged him to take up the cause in parliament, and then with Thomas Clarkson, campaigner and writer of An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, who was to become
a friend and ally for the next half-century and more.
If Wilberforce had hoped for a warm response to his campaign he was to be swiftly disillusioned, for he was to meet instead with fierce and bitter hostility. His opponents used every means at their disposal to frustrate his attempts at introducing legislation, on one occasion, for example, handing out free opera tickets to various abolition supporters on the evening of a crucial vote. Two attempts were even made on his life by slave-ship captains, who feared an end to their lucrative trade. Yet despite threats to his safety and a growing toll on his health – it is thought that he suffered from ulcerative colitis for many years of his life – William stayed firm, encouraged by friends such as John Wesley, who told him, ‘If God is with you, who can be against you? . . . Be not weary in well-doing. Go on . . . till even American slavery, the vilest that ever saw the sun, shall vanish away.’ His speeches and writings blazed with passion, such as in the following: ‘. . . if the slave trade be a national crime, declared by every wise and respectable man of all parties, without exception, to be a compound of the grossest wickedness and cruelty, a crime to which we cling in defiance of the clearest light, not only in opposition to our own acknowledgements of its guilt but even of our own declared resolutions to abandon it; is not this then a time in which all who are not perfectly sure that the Providence of God is but a fable, should be strenuous in their endeavours to lighten the vessel of the state, of such a load of guilt and infamy?’
Eventually, in the year those words were published (1807), Wilberforce met with success, parliament resounding to the sound of cheering as the slave trade abolition bill was passed. Not that this meant the end of the battle. Slavery was to continue in many parts of the British Empire for a further sixteen years, and William was to continue to campaign and fight tirelessly against it, despite his health declining so badly that, in 1926, he felt constrained to resign his seat in parliament. Finally, in 1833, the practice of slavery was abolished throughout the empire – just a month after Wilberforce delivered his final abolitionist speech (at a rally in Maidstone, Kent) and a mere few days before his death. His achievements are well summed up by the inscription on the statue of him erected in his honour in Westminster Abbey: ‘To the memory of William Wilberforce . . . who . . . by the blessing of God, removed from England the guilt of the African slave trade, and prepared the way for the abolition of slavery in every colony of the Empire. In the prosecution of these objects he relied, not in vain, on God; but in the progress he was called to endure great obloquy and great opposition.’
Quotes
Reflect individually on the following quotations for a moment, then discuss together which, if any, people found most helpful, and why. What point is each making? What lessons can be learned from them? What challenge do they make to us, personally, and to the Church in general.
• You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know. (William Wilberforce)
• If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large. (William Wilberforce)
• Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God, cannot retain it. (Abraham Lincoln)
• Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally. (Abraham Lincoln)
• As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. (Abraham Lincoln)
• Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. (Frederick Douglass)
Final thoughts
In 2006, the General Synod of the Church of England passed a motion acknowledging and apologising for the ‘dehumanising and shameful’ consequences of slavery. Its representatives, like Christians the world over, were – and remain – all too aware of the chequered legacy of the Church. At least Christians can claim to have been at the forefront of the campaign against one of the greatest evils that blighted out world. We should celebrate that, not with any sense of smugness and self-righteousness, but through committing ourselves in turn to working for a better world – a world in which, tragically, slavery is not only still a reality but a growing problem, up to 30 million people estimated to be enduring a form of slavery today. Take time to learn more about the issue, and reflect on what response you can make to it.
Closing prayer
Hear our prayer, Lord, for those denied their freedom –
those who are forced to work without pay,
subjected to threats and violence,
sold for sex,
trafficked as objects,
tortured, abused, exploited, oppressed:
a host of people for whom slavery is not some abstract memory
but a horrific daily reality.
Support and strengthen all organisations, protest groups and campaigners
who work to bring this evil to the attention of nations and governments,
and stir the hearts of people everywhere to do all in their power to bring it to an end.
Grant release to the captives,
this and every day.
Amen.