The Wilberforce Scandal

A couple of months ago I asked whether William Wilberforce, the eighteenth century abolitionist and hero to modern evanglecals, was complicit in the practice of slavery in Africa. Today, Ted Olsen at Christianity Today follows up on the story and provides more details:

Every successful reformer inevitably faces criticism that they aren’t reforming enough. And, as with Wilberforce, these complaints come from both the idealistic and the cynical who merely use idealism as a weapon. But that doesn’t completely stifle the question: Does Wilberforce’s support of de facto slavery in Sierra Leone tarnish his central legacy in abolishing the slave trade, and eventually slavery itself? Tens of thousands of slaves were being traded each year in the British Empire before the Slave Trade Act. How much should the annual enslavement of a few hundred in the abolitionists’ Sierra Leone subtract from that feat?

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