William Wilberforce | autograph letter signed, on the moral duty of Britain to make reparations to Africa, 1821

William Wilberforce

Two autograph letters signed, to Henry Petty-Maurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne

i) regretting that the recent address in the House of Lords about the Slave Trade moved by Lansdowne omitted a paragraph from Wilberforce's parallel address in the Commons asserting the moral obligation on Britain to provide financial support for Africa ("...At present we have thought it enough to discontinue the payment we made to the African Company for above a Century in supporting the sla[ve]-trade, instead of spending the same sum for the Benefit of the Natives..."), hoping the omission to have been accidental, 4 pages, 4to, Marden Park, Godstone, 7 July 1821

ii) soliciting his support for the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson's appointment as Professor of Modern History at Cambridge, 3 pages, 4to, [Old] Pal[ace] Y[ar]d, 19 February 1807

"...I have been wishing to explain a Circumstance which without some explanation might appear strange - I allude to the difference between the address moved by the Lords & that which I mov'd, the former did not contain the last paragraph of mine in which a statement was made of the obligations under which this country lay, to use the means with which Providence had endowed us, of promoting the Civilization & Happiness of the natives of Africa, in proportion to the dereee in which we had been among the Chief Instruments of prolonging their misery & Barbarism..."

A SIGNIFICANT LETTER BY WILLIAM WILBERFORCE ON THE CONTINUED OBLIGATIONS OF BRITAIN TO MAKE REPARATION FOR ITS INVOLVEMENT IN THE SLAVE TRADE. By the 1820s Wilberforce was in poor health - the clumsy writing in the current letter is a result of his failing eyesight - but he continued to campaign against slavery and the slave trade.

PROVENANCE:

Important Autograph letters from the Historical Archives at Bowood House, Christie's, London, 12 October 1994, lot 88