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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Happy Belated Birthday!


August 24 was the 250th Anniversary of William Wilberforce's birthday. He was born in Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire to Robert and Elizabeth Wilberforce. William Wilberforce was greatly influenced by the preaching of John Newton, the author of "Amazing Grace." On April 15, 1797, he met his future wife Barbara Spooner. They were married a month-and-a-half later on the 30 of May 1797. They had six children who all lived to adulthood.
William was led by God and his friends (one of them was William Pitt who was the Prime Minister of England at that time) to fight the British Parliament for the freedom of slaves. This was no easy task because all of England depended on the backs of slaves for their livelihood . After several attempts, in March of 1807, his Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed, 283 votes to 16.
He died on July 29, 1833, fighting for the rights of slaves. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
His sons Robert and Samuel later wrote a book about him.

~Mac
P.S. In 2007 a movie came out about his life called "Amazing Grace." It is one of my favorites! Here is the Trailer for Amazing Grace. If you are interested in more about William Wilberforce check out books from your local library or Wikipedia has a good resourse.

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