The Young Parliamentarian Who Changed a Nation

In 1780, William Wilberforce won his seat in the British Parliament at just twenty-one years old. By his own admission, he was a lightweight — a witty socialite more interested in dinner parties than legislation. He had no grand ambitions for reform. He certainly never imagined himself standing against the most powerful economic institution in the British Empire. But after his conversion to Christian faith in 1785, Wilberforce felt an unmistakable calling pressing on his conscience.…