Invisible, not to be found . . . the most famous 19th century white British abolitionist . . .
I could not remember the name. But surely, I thought, it would be easy to find.
According to a British friend, he was the most famous 19th century British abolitionist.
I searched:
British abolitionist
white British abolitionist
white man British abolitionist
famous 19th century white man British abolitionist
I got a lot of links to Frederich Douglas, black man - and to Harriet Tubman, black woman.
I got lots of links to the horrors of slavery.
I even got a link to: Why did Britain become pro-abolition in the 19th century? The answer, according to the article: This was good PR to present Britain as a good country.
By the way, I searched with duckduckgo (which is now bringing the same results as google) and with swisscows (which is supposed to be better, but not much, at least not in this case).
I could not find the person.
Then, the name came to mind. WIlberforce.
And with that, I was finally able to get a bit of information on William Wilberforce.
In other words, his existence is basically hidden from anyone who does not already know his name!!
Very powerful censorship!! History not quite erased, but hidden from view.
And how, you may ask, did I ever hear about Wilberforce in the first place? A British friend in her 80’s mentioned him, when I happened to come across an article on another famous 19th century British abolitionist, David Livingstone. (Yes, another white man.) “Oh,” she went, “there’s someone else who was at the very forefront of the abolition movement. William Wilberforce. That was his life mission.” She said it as if of course everyone must know about him. She clearly grew up in another time.
Amazing! The person at the forefront of the British abolition movement. And I never even heard his name. Actually, I never heard much about the British anti-slavery movement. It clearly does not fit with the story of the evil British empire.
So here, one of a million efforts to bring hidden history (not in line with “the narrative”) back into the open.
And with that, I imagine you might want to learn a bit about Wilberforce. This is from the encyclopedia Brittanica:
William Wilberforce, (born August 24, 1759, Hull, Yorkshire, England—died July 29, 1833, London), British politician and philanthropist who from 1787 was prominent in the struggle to abolish the slave trade and then to abolish slavery itself in British overseas possessions. . . . [bolding added]
In the House of Commons, Wilberforce was an eloquent and indefatigable sponsor of antislavery legislation. In 1789 he introduced 12 resolutions against the slave trade and gave what many newspapers at the time considered among the most eloquent speeches ever delivered in the Commons. The resolutions were supported by Pitt (who was by then prime minister), Charles Fox (often an opponent of Pitt’s), and Edmund Burke, but they failed to be enacted into law . . .
On July 26, 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by the Commons (it became law the following month). Three days later Wilberforce died. He was interred at Westminster Abbey.
Posted: Oct 27, 2022
He is quite well known in the UK and they even made a film about him, Amazing grace. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454776/
I have a friend who named his Yorkshire Terrier "Wilberforce". Amazingly he taught music at U of W in Seattle.