William Wilberforce

William Wilberforce (1759 – 1833) was an English MP and Christian social reformer who was very influential in achieving the abolition of the so-called ‘ slave-trade’ and then slavery itself in the British Empire.
He lobbied in the British parliament for 18 years for a ban on slave trading by regularly introducing anti-slavery motions.
The campaign against slavery in Britain had two connected phases. The first began in earnest in Britain in the 1770s. William Wilberforce made his first speech against slavery in 1789, and this speech resulted in the 1807 law against the transportation of slaves. The second phase, a campaign for abolition, began because despite this law slaves continued to work on the plantations.
Wilberforce died in July 1833 one month before the law was passed that emancipated slaves in all parts of the British Empire.

MP = Member of Parliament