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			Abolition

This etching of William Wilberforce is by James Heath after a painting by John Russell. It was made in 1807, the year Parliament abolished the slave trade. The print shows Wilberforce at work. He is holding a copy of the abolition bill and nearby there are volumes of parliamentary papers. Despite constant defeats in Parliament, Wilberforce continued to present his Bill until it was finally passed in the changing political climate of the early nineteenth century. The British slave trade was abolished on 25 March 1807 but that did not end slavery itself. Wilberforce did not openly campaign against slavery until about 1815 and poor health prevented him from being as vigorous as before. Leadership of the abolitionist movement passed to Thomas Fowell Buxton and in 1825 Wilberforce retired from Parliament. He died on 29 July 1833, just three days after a bill to free enslaved people in British colonies was passed by Parliament.

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