Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade

It is a pleasure to take part in this debate, and to follow many good speeches, particularly the opening speeches by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister and the right hon. Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague). I am not nearly as much of an expert on the life of William Wilberforce as the right hon. Gentleman, but I want to pay my own small tribute. Although William Wilberforce was born in Hull, and was Member of Parliament for the city, he campaigned in Clapham and he spent most of his life in Battersea in my constituency. He had a large house—Broomwood house—on land that now occupies a whole ward of my constituency in the area known as ““Between the commons””, which accommodates 800 houses. In those days, however, there was a single house, the site of which is commemorated by a plaque at 111, Broomwood road. The gardens, however, were far larger. On Friday, I shall visit a local school that is located where those gardens used to be, to talk to year 5 children about the history of slavery. I will be able to speak in local terms, because one can almost imagine William Wilberforce in the oval library in Broomwood house—sadly, it no longer exists—persuading many of the people with whom he campaigned and talking about tactics. That is where he plotted most of the campaign. William Wilberforce is remembered in Battersea in the Wilberforce estate, which includes Wilberforce house, Clarkson house, which commemorates the great extra-parliamentary leader of the abolitionist movement, and Buxton house, which commemorates the later leader who achieved the abolition of slavery. Pitt and Burke houses commemorate Tories involved in the campaign, and Sheridan house commemorates a Whig involved in the campaign. It is a paradox that Wilberforce was a Tory. He was the son of merchants in Hull, but most of the Tories opposed his campaign to abolish the slave trade, and he had to rely on the Whigs for support. Having enlisted their support, he drew inspiration from Christians in the Clapham sect, which was centred on Holy Trinity church. He himself provided inspiration for Battersea’s early socialists, who were proud of the fact that he lived in the area. Battersea produced the first black mayor in this country—John Archer, who was the grandson of a Barbadian slave and became mayor of Battersea in 1912. The area also produced the first black Labour MP, Shapurji Saklatvala, some 10 years later. It is an area that is proud of its association with William Wilberforce and it has done its best to take forward the tradition that he established. The Clapham sect was involved in far more than the anti-slavery campaign, although that dwarfs all the other issues on which it campaigned. It is interesting to know that members of the sect won their campaign to abolish bear baiting and bull baiting. They campaigned for village schools, with some success. They were the first prison visitors. They campaigned against pornographic books. Their campaign for smallpox vaccination had almost as much effect as their most famous campaign. Later they founded the colony of Sierra Leone, which became a home for freed slaves. William Wilberforce was their parliamentary leader and the towering figure in the anti-slavery campaign, but many other well known figures such as Thornton were members of the Clapham sect, who deserve to be remembered for their part in the great campaign. As we have heard many times, the slave trade was abolished in 1807, but it took until 1833 before slavery itself was abolished. William Wilberforce died only three days after the abolition of slavery, but he had time to record his disgust at the fact that £20 million, which must have been a huge amount in those days, was paid in compensation to slave owners. That was the price that Parliament paid to get rid of slavery. From what I know of Wilberforce’s life—I have much more to read, I am sure—we could do with more politicians like him. As the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) said, he was a Back Bencher. It would be good to think that Back Benchers could achieve even a small part of what Wilberforce did, with no ministerial career behind him and no great weight of authority in the House, only his own passion and conviction. Rather than a politician, he was a campaigner of pure heart. He never demonised the slave traders themselves. Most of us, and certainly I, if I were involved in a campaign against the slave trade, would demonise the slave traders, but William Wilberforce said:"““I mean not to accuse any one, but to take the shame upon myself, in common, indeed, with the whole Parliament of Great Britain, for having suffered this horrid trade to be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty—we ought all to plead guilty, and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others; and I therefore deprecate every kind of reflection against the various descriptions of people who are more immediately involved in this wretched business.””" I cannot think of anything said in a greater spirit of selflessness. I very much hope that we can emulate Wilberforce’s contrition. The hon. Member for Bournemouth, East (Mr. Ellwood) spoke about all the things that the Prime Minister made apologies for, suggesting that that was becoming too politically correct, but he cannot have thought for a moment that it was some kind of political correctness to make an apology for the slave trade. We need only look back at the words of William Wilberforce to see that we should conduct the debate in the spirit of contrition for what is past and of determination to make sure that we in Parliament play our part in ending slavery for good.