Wilberforce's Forty-Year Wait

In 1789, William Wilberforce stood before the British Parliament and delivered a three-and-a-half-hour speech calling for the abolition of the slave trade. The vote failed. He introduced the bill again the next year. It failed again. And the next year. And the next. For two decades, Wilberforce endured ridicule, death threats, and the slow grind of political defeat. Friends urged him to move on to winnable causes.…