Who will stand up for Me against evildoers? Who will take his stand for Me against those who do wickedness? Psalm 94:16 NASB
Supposing you had been born in Africa sometime in the 1700s. You had parents. You had sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and friends.
Then one day some dangerous looking people arrived from a faraway land. You tried to flee but were captured. You were taken to a ship and chained, ankles to wrists, below decks with maybe 300 others. The ship sailed away and you never saw your family or friends again.
In the hold it was hot, humid, and smelly. Sometimes the ship pitched violently in storms. You got sick. Some around you, who got too sick were thrown overboard, with weights fastened to their ankles. You were fed twice a day with something you didn’t much like, but ate anyway because you were hungry. If you protested in any way, you were whipped.
After a month of such confinement the ship landed in a strange new world. If you survived the voyage, you were herded with other slaves to an auction stage, where you were sold to the highest bidder, and became another’s property. You were given no choice of the work you had to do. You had to immediately do exactly what you were told, or you would be whipped. You were not paid for your work. You lived in a shabby shack with other slaves. You got up at dawn and worked the entire day. You were fed enough to keep you healthy only because you wouldn’t be worth anything to your master otherwise. You might be allowed to marry and have children, but your master could at any time sell your spouse, or your children. You were not considered fully human, but somewhere between apes and humans.
Such was the case in the eighteenth century, when English traders raided the African coast and captured between 35,000 and 50,000 Africans every year. They were shipped across the Atlantic and sold into slavery. Why? Because it was a lucrative business.
During that time the economics of slavery were so entrenched that only a handful of people thought that anything could be done about it. Among that handful was a young man named William Wilberforce, who became a member of the House of Commons in the British Parliament in 1780.
For a while he did nothing. But on Easter Sunday in 1786 he became a believer in Jesus Christ. And then in late February, 1791 he received a letter from an elderly evangelist named John Wesley, the Billy Graham of his day in England.
Balam, February 24, 1791
Dear Sir:
Unless the divine power has raised you to be as Athanasius contra mundum, I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that execrable villainy which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of His might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.
Reading this morning a tract wrote by a poor African, I was particularly struck by that circumstance that a man who has a black skin, being wronged or outraged by a white man, can have no redress; it being a “law” in our colonies that the oath of a black against a white goes for nothing. What villainy is this?
That He who has guided you from youth up may continue to strengthen you in this and all things, is the prayer of, dear sir,
Your affectionate servant, John Wesley
Six days after he wrote his letter to William Wilberforce, on March 2, 1791, John Wesley passed from this world at the age of eighty-eight. He had journeyed throughout England and Ireland all his adult life, preaching the message of salvation through Jesus Christ. Many had come to faith in Christ. British culture had been much reformed as a result. But though he heartily preached against the slave trade, little headway had been made in that area. Now he knew that a younger man would have to carry that torch.
“So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the slave trade’s wickedness appear,” Wilberforce wrote, “that my mind was completely made up. Let the consequences be what they would. I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.” On April 18, 1791 he introduced a bill in the British Parliament that called for the abolition of the slave trade.
“Let us not despair. It is a blessed cause, and success, no matter how long it takes, will crown our exertions. Already we have gained one victory. We have obtained for these poor creatures the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts. Let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt under which we at present labor, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic, of which our posterity, looking back to the history of these enlightened times, will scarce believe that it has been permitted to exist, so long a disgrace and dishonor to this country.”
His bill was defeated. Undaunted, he re-introduced the bill in 1792, 1793, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1804, and 1805. Every time the bill was defeated—outmaneuvered on fine legal points, blocked by vested interests, parliamentary filibustering, bigotry, politics, slave unrest, personal sickness, and political fear.
When it became clear that Wilberforce was not going to let the issue die, pro-slavery forces targeted him. The opposition became so fierce, one friend feared that one day he would read about Wilberforce being “broiled by Indian planters, barbecued by African merchants, and eaten by Guinea captains.”
Poor health plagued William Wilberforce his entire life, sometimes keeping him bedridden for weeks. During one long bout with illness he wrote, “I am still a close prisoner, wholly unequal even to such a little business as I am now engaged in. Add to that the fact that my eyes are so bad that I can scarce see how to direct my pen.”
But in 1807 his antislavery efforts finally bore fruit. Parliament abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. He then worked to ensure that the slave trade laws were enforced—that British ships would never again kidnap Africans and sell them into slavery.
But though the slave trade was stopped, it did nothing to free the slaves still held in bondage. Though Wilberforce’s health was failing, he persevered to see to it that every slave held in bondage was set free.
It took another twenty-six years. On July 26, 1833 he was informed that the British government would make concessions that would guarantee the passage of a bill in Parliament that would free all the slaves in British territory. Nearly 800,000 slaves were subsequently set free.
He had fought for that day for forty-seven years. Three days after hearing the news, he passed from this world on July 29, 1833.
And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. Galatians 6:9 NASB
