William Wilberforce and the Promise That Outlasted Despair

In 1787, a frail young member of Parliament named William Wilberforce stood before the British House of Commons and introduced his first bill to abolish the slave trade. It was defeated. He introduced it again the next year. Defeated. And the next. Defeated. For eighteen consecutive years, Wilberforce brought the same moral conviction before a legislature that mocked him, threatened him, and voted him down with comfortable majorities.…