User:Slp1/draft4

Five years after his death, sons Robert and Samuel Wilberforce published a five-volume biography about their father, and subsequently a collection of his letters in 1840. The biography was controversial in that the authors emphasised Wilberforce's role in the abolition movement and played down the important work of Thomas Clarkson. Incensed, Clarkson came out of retirement to write a book refuting their version of events, and the sons eventually made a half-hearted private apology to him and removed the offending passages in a revision of their biography. However, for more than a century, Wilberforce's role in the campaign dominated the history books. Later historians have noted the warm and highly productive relationship between Clarkson and Wilberforce, and have termed it one of history's great xxpartnershipsxxx: without the parliamentary leadership supplied by Wilberforce, the research and public mobilisation organised by Clarkson, the participation of black xxxxx, abolition could not have been achieved.

As his sons had desired and planned, Wilberforce has long been viewed as a Christian hero, a statesman-saint held up as a role model for putting his faith into action. Contemporary Evangelical and conservative movements in the North America appropriate his ''name and example in Christian reform activism. In particular, Wilberforce's name and strategies are invoked by abortion abolitionists''

. His More broadly, he has also been described as a humanitarian reformer who contributed significantly to reshaping the political and social attitudes of the time by promoting concepts of social responsibility and action. In the 1940s, the role of Wilberforce and the Clapham Sect in abolition was downplayed by historian Eric Williams, who argued that abolition was motivated not by humanitarianism but by economics, as the West Indian sugar industry was in decline. Williams' approach strongly influenced historians for much of the latter part of the 20th century. However, more recent historians have noted that the sugar industry was still making large profits at the time of the abolition of the slave trade, and this has led to a renewed interest in Wilberforce and the Evangelicals, as well as a recognition of the anti-slavery movement as a prototype for subsequent humanitarian campaigns.

vox

But this idea — that fighting against abortion rights is similar to the abolitionist cause — is an incredibly common one in the pro-life movement.

The pro-life movement sees itself as championing the cause of social justice — as fighting for the rights of a voiceless, marginalized group of people. So they often appropriate the rhetoric of civil rights and related causes. Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, has compared the 40-year struggle of the pro-life movement to that of William Wilberforce, who spoke out against slavery in Britain for 40 years before the practice was finally banned. In a 2010 op-ed, Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, invoked both the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement.

cited as inspiration by

carries significant cachet among American Evangelicals and conservative circles

elevated status

when his name is invoved it is almost always in cservice of conservative interests

Senator Brownback, Chuck Colson, David Kuo hero... model of Christian reform activism

Link to abortion. Operative Rescue Senator Brownback

wilberforce as evangelical hero or evangelicals there is perhaps no better

''example of this phenomena than William Wilberforce. In contemporary evangelical''

discourse Wilberforce functions as a moral exemplar par excellence, whose

anti-slavery achievements provide a paradigm for cultural change (Hunter 2010,

p. 38; Nicoll 2016; White 2008). But the modern appropriation of the Wilberforce story raises questions concerning the role history should play in ‘fostering moral

''intelligence’ (Miller 2010, p. 15). Is there a danger that historical knowledge will be''

subjugated as a means to an end, where historical facts are merely recruited for

inspirational goals?

sierra leone

other involvement.

Not due just due to Wilberforce.