Another key member of the Wilberforce team was a former African slave, Olaudah Equiano, who wrote a book of his life during, and after, his enslavement.
With Wilberforce's dogged legislative leadership, and the joint educational and activist efforts of the abolitionists, the British Parliament finally outlawed the slave trade, in 1807.
In the final year of Wilberforce's life, 1833, the Parliament outlawed slavery in all of its forms throughout the British empire.
Wilberforce's close political ally, Prime Minister William Pitt, known as "the younger," played a significant role in ending the slave trade. Pitt, the youngest man ever to become a British prime minister at age 24, died in 1806.
Pitt and Wilberforce are interred, side by side, in London's Westminster Abbey. They understood that each had a role to play in the game of politics. At one point in the film, Amazing Grace, Wilberforce asks for advice from his friend and now prime minister.
Pitt responds: "As your prime minuter, I urge caution." Wilberforce then asks, "what about as my friend?" Pitt's response, "O, to hell with caution."
Thus far, there is little evidence of a Wilberforce or a Pitt in the U.S. Congress who both understand the imperative of ending the Palestinian occupation, and who has the courage and the political sagacity to lead a Wilberforce-like struggle to make that happen.
That leadership is required, because, as Sir William Dolben said to Wilberforce, "There are plenty of others in the House of Commons who share your feelings, Wilberforce. They are just afraid to show it."
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