The father of Emancipation

Aug 02, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

William Wilberforce was the father of Emancipation. Yet, surprisingly, not a single of Guyanese newspaper, local politician or local Emancipationist thought it fit to give honorary mention to this giant whose efforts helped to end the slave trade and eventually led to Emancipation.
Fortunately, Wilberforce is not entirely forgotten in the West Indies. Unlike Guyana’s dailies, the Jamaica Observer carried a column, “The Road to True Freedom”, which paid a fleeting tribute to Wilberforce. It noted that the moral force brought against slavery by men of conscience, such as Wilberforce, drove the final nail in the coffin of slavery.
Wilberforce was unrelenting in his efforts to end the slave trade. He and other abolitionists doggedly fought this issue in the British parliament. Wilberforce had many setbacks. And at times it seemed as if he would not have succeeded. He lost favour with friends who accused him of going against his own class interests.
A converted Christian, Wilberforce saw his task as a moral mission and despite the vilification and ostracism which he suffered, he never quit. When finally he and his colleagues succeeded in having the slave trade abolished, it was only a matter of time before the institution of slavery in the British Empire folded. And it did.
The passage of the Emancipation Act in the House of Commons on July 26, 1833, ended slavery in the British colonies. When the legislation was passed, Wilberforce was said to exclaim, “Thank God, I have lived to see this day!” His life’s work complete, he died soon after.
Wilberforce was not without his faults. He was no angel. After the ending of the slave trade, he was not entirely convinced that those still living under slavery were quite ready for freedom. He felt that they needed time to adjust to the challenges of freedom. He may have been afraid that if he pushed too hard and too fast, that he would have failed again. But even that view cannot taint his efforts to end the slave trade. A morally weaker man would have long quit. But not Wilberforce.
Wilberforce was also no democrat. Some of his actions and decisions would be considered appalling by modern day standards. He was a humanitarian, but he was not ideologically opposed to a system which repressed the working classes within his own country. He was a liberal with limitations. He is better seen as a Christian man who believed that the slave trade and slavery were wrong.
He and his abolitionists did not singlehandedly demolish slavery. Uprisings in slave colonies were instrumental also in bringing an end to both the slave trade and slavery. And Wilberforce never failed to capitalize on reports of repression in the colonies to aid his moral crusade.
In 2007 there was an event hosted in Westminster Abbey to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the end of the slave trade. Tributes were paid to Wilberforce and other abolitionists. This led to a negative reaction from those who felt that the whole event minimized the struggles waged by those who were enslaved.
In Guyana, the opposite is happening. A narrative of the great struggles of Africans to liberate themselves from slavery has been created. And written completely out of this narrative is the decisive work done by the abolitionists.
It is unfortunate that persons like Wilberforce are being cut out from the credits which are being showered on those who contributed to the end of slavery. If the British want to invert history, it does not mean we should do the same and refuse to acknowledge the role played by Wilberforce towards Emancipation.

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The father of Emancipation

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