On Monday Scott and I went and saw the movie Amazing Grace about the life of William Wilberforce. It was an amazing movie, it had very strong Christian overtones, but it was more about the life of a man who desperately wanted to change one thing about the world. He wanted to end slavery, and it's about his struggle to get there. Slavery was banned in the British Empire in 1807, but it was over ten years of fight to get there. I almost can't put this movie into words it was so good.
But more than that, if you expand your thinking to the United States, in 1860 we went to war with ourselves. The war was a 'State Rights vs Federal Rights' argument gone awry; a large piece of this was slavery since the US was only admitting states two at a time, one free and one slave, so as not to disrupt the balance. Abraham Lincoln was a known abolitionist when he was elected, which upset the southern states, but I am not sure that he would have outlawed slavery had he not been able to sell it as 'politically expedient'. That part came over a year later, when Lincoln was able to release the Emancipation Proclamation to PREVENT the Britain and France becoming involved on the side of the South. Which would have allowed Britain and France much stronger holds in the New World and the British to regain some control over the US (which, let's be honest, they still probably wanted).
BUT if William Wilberforce hadn't succeeded in outlawing slavery in Britain over 50 years before the Civil War started, would our history have been different? Imagine how one man saved the world, perhaps by just fighting for what was right...
Posted by 10lees at March 15, 2007 08:13 PMHey 10,
Actually it was 20 years to even get to where slavery had less of a hold in British society. He toiled 20 years upstream all the way - he was in the House of Commons and he was fighting against the House of Lords. And you and I know WHO has the power. Oh yeah! Just like us and the congress - we know who has the power and it ain't us.
Wilberforce was amazing because he continued to fight for something. And his abolision of slavery came thru ... It's an awesome strategy. I guess it's like the parental notification that some Pro Lifers try to get passed and not taking kids over state lines to get abortions. We've been fighting the abortion fight for more than 30 (how long did the British people endure slavery) years - we definately need a Wilberforce right now - I think we have a few of them - Bush for one - won't let any abortion bill past his desk. That's a great victory - now if we can get the courts to come on board.
I'm glad you enjoyed the movie - I want to go see it again.
Love,
M
Here's the page on Wikipedia that talks about Wilberforce and his life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce
Posted by: bevy at March 16, 2007 11:07 AMYou're right that Lincoln would not have outlawed slavery if he didn't have to. Throughout his presidency he made it very clear that he was fighting to save the Union. He once wrote to Hoarace Greely. "If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing some slaves and leaving others alone I would do that."
Posted by: rhett at March 17, 2007 08:02 AMI agree with you Rhett, the fact is that Lincoln would do whatever was neccessary to save the Union, and it was definetly neccessary to keep the Europeans out of the war.
I wonder though, how the slaves in America would have obtained freedom if it hadn't been for the proclamation. Would we have ended up like Haiti one day? That's how Wilberforce saved the world, he allowed us to take one step past slavery. Of course there were many more steps to follow after that first step, but I think the first step is the hardest.
Posted by: 10lees at March 17, 2007 02:46 PM