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WILLIAM WILBERFORCE
David Price on Wilberforce and Altruism
The John Wesley letter to Wilberforce as quoted said in such a moral campaign, 'any man would be worn out by the opposition ... but if God be for you, who can be against you?' His type of selfless example, and Clarkson's and the others who were so motivated, was never brought up in the discussion on evolutionary Altruism. The contributors then merely referred to people 'being nice' to each other such as visiting a friend in hospital!
Caroline Welch: William Wilberforce
I'm sorry to have to join all the other devotees who were not impressed by the departure from the usual format in connection with the William Wilberforce 'special'. Let's hear from the academics every time: your programme proves what a wonderful group of communicators we have in our higher education field. If you are still open to suggestions for new ideas, let's please have a programme on the Cern project.
Wilberforce
Magnificent!
Alastair McLeod: Heart of Darkness and in General
Some of the best pieces of intellectual discussion available in any medium, and in this medium (podcast), of incomparable convenience and enjoyment. Please keep it up.
Isabel - re Wilberforce
Like others who've emailed, I was disappointed that in departing from your usual format, we ended up with a rather simplistic hagiography. I do hope that this is not the only programme you are planning which will consider the slave trade and its eventual abolition. Please can we have your usual studio discussion with experts in this field, who can present a more measured consideration of the many individuals and historical forces which led to abolition of the slave trade. Wilberforce has always received all the attention, to the exclusion of so many other important anti-slavery campaigners. It is the eloquent and persuasive black abolitionists such as Olaudah Equiano and Ignatius Sancho who have always been written out of history - it's time they had some attention.
In Our Time Wilberforce
I would love to read a transcript of the Wilberforce programme and others in Our time programmes because I am very deaf, do you do them, I can enjoy reading the transcripts of Any questions and Any Answers for example, I have been looking on the website and can't find the transcrpt(s)
Dave Nicoll - Format of the Wilberforce Edition
For me this was a good documentary but it was not "In our Time".The real appeal of the regular format is that it yields a programme that is much more than the sum of its parts. The documentary did not do this. It was well informed and well produced but it told me facts rather than stimulating thought. The sometimes edgy interplay of viewpoints in the live discussions gives me space to think and to question. It stimulates critical thought. It makes me want to listen again and to do some reading. Sadly the documentary did not achieve this for me. Please do documentaries on telly, but keep the vitality of the discussions alive. Sorry but the "special" wasn,t very special for me.(But it did make me realise how distictive and brilliant the series is normally). Dave Nicoll
Richard Pickvance - Wilberforce
The programme presented Wilberforce as a one-man campaign, which is a little unfair to other campaigners. Quakers had been discussing the injustices of slavery since mid-century, under the influence of the American Quaker John Woolman. They started a campaign in Britain in 1783. As dissenters, they were excluded from Parliament, so their petition was presented the same year by the MP for Retford. (A few years later, American Quakers did the equivalent in the US Congress.) Wilberforce only came on board later.
Wilberforce
This was truly an excellent show. This format brought history to life. You will have to leave the studio from time to time as you did this time. I have listened to all the shows in the archives (at least once) and I think this was the best show! Larry Onusko Surrey, BC CANADA
Francis Scott - William Wilberforce
Thank you Melvin and all the IOT team for a compelling and challenging programme. It never felt like the history lesson others might have preferred, the contributors were well-chosen and the overall impact considerable. Now, how about another programme on 'Wilberforces In Our Time'? - Geldof? Tatchell? Porritt? Roddick? (Michael) Moore?
Peter Bolt :Wilberforce
I notice a dig at William Hague could not be resisted by one of your correspondents (TA Gilbert). In fact the doyen of all Liberal politicans The great William Ewart Gladstone himself, whilst a young MP, voted to retain slavery on the West Indian Plantations. So TA Gilbert what do you make of that ?
George Jelliss - Wilberforce
There was no mention of the negative aspects of Wilberforce's evangelicalism. In particular "The Society for the Suppression of Vice" which he founded and which resulted in the imprisonment and fining of free-speech campaigners such as Richard Carlile, and the attempted suppression of Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man".
Hilary Saunders - programme on Wilberforce
I enjoy listening to In Our Time and have great respect for Melvyn Bragg - but I have to admit that I was disappointed by the special programme on William Wilberforce. While it contained lots of interesting details, I think it failed to answer several key questions: - how did Wilberforce sustain a 20 year campaign to abolish the slave trade? - how did he persuade not only MPs but the British people to abolish a form of trade that at the time was regarded as normal and essential to our economy? - how was the anti-slave trade campaign organised and conducted within parliament and within the country? - what were the crucial factors that made abolition of the slave trade not only possible but inevitable? I would suggest that by adopting the "great man" approach, Melvyn Bragg actually deprived us of a much more interesting programme, which would have been of greater relevance today given the alarming increase in trafficking and other forms of current slavery. I hope that the BBC will make that other programme. Perhaps it's already waiting to be transmitted?
Melvin Bragg, Wilberforce
What a wonderful programme. You really brought Wilberforce to life for us. I did enjoy William Haig's contribution Caroline McCaffrey
Frank Bowles Wilberforce
I was somewhat disappointed with the programme on William Wilberforce broadcast last night. Though other people, and other factors, involved with the abolition of the slave trade were mentioned, the overarching tenet of the programme was that Wilberforce virtually single-handedly pushed through the legislation to end the slave trade. I am surprised Melvyn came to this conclusion as he claimed at the end of the programme he had carried out detailed research on the subject. Having worked with the papers of Thomas Clarkson held at St John’s College, Cambridge, it is obvious to me that Clarkson was just as important to the cause as Wilberforce. It was Clarkson who carried out extensive research into the subject of slavery, and it was he, with the assistance of the members of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, who persuaded Wilberforce to take up the abolitionist cause. Wilberforce not only provided representation in Parliament, but also respectability and political contacts. However, the campaign was very much a partnership. Without the unflagging enthusiasm and immense hard work of Clarkson, who literally nearly killed himself through his efforts, Wilberforce would never have had the facts concerning slavery and the slave trade at hand to put forward a legitimate case in Parliament. Furthermore, Clarkson was instrumental in drumming up support for the cause throughout the country which, though not having a direct effect on Parliament made many MPs sit up and take notice. If Melvyn had carried out proper research he would have easily discovered that Wilberforce himself always believed that he was just one part of the campaign. Clarkson’s contribution was also noted by other contemporary commentators, with Coleridge describing Clarkson as ‘a moral steam engine’. It was only following a dispute concerning a history of the abolition movement written by Clarkson that Wilberforce’s sons managed to write Clarkson out of history. It was they who enforced the ‘great man’ theory which attributed virtual sole responsibility for abolition to Wilberforce. Not wanting in anyway to denigrate the achievements of Wilberforce, I think a much more representative programme could have been produced. By doing away with their usual format In Our Time missed a trick. By having academics with a thorough knowledge of the subject discuss the abolition of the slave trade, the real history of the campaign could have been brought to a wider audience.
Ian Francis Wilberforce
Even before I read the newsletter it seemed to me that this subject could not have been more topically significant. The essence of IOT is the effect of ideas on our lives. Wilberforce had the moral strength to challenge an immense entrenched interest-defended by our county's hero Nelson among others!-and the determination to reverse a huge economic flow. I have recently been reading Lord Lawson's writing about climate change: and there are many other examples of the need for my generation, which has largely left politics to other people, to think and engage. Once again, congratulatuions and thanks, and yes, I agree, good though this was, the established format is the one to use.
Jill Shepherd - William Wilberforce
Thank you for this programme. It is very important that we remember this terrible part of our history. But we must not sit back and think it does not happen now. According to the UN there are at least 5 times as may slaves today as there were in William Wilberforce's day. For instances in Asia 10s of thousands of girls are abuducted or are tricked with false promises of their finding legitimate work, into leaving their families with false promises of legitimate work and are forced to work in brothels and subjected to the most appalling abuse and living conditions. In Northern Uganda many children as young as 10 are taken by the Lord's Resistance Army and are forced to become child soldiers or sex slaves. It happens in this country too young women from Eastern Europe and elsewhere being brought in and forced to work in the sex trade or even as unpaid scivvies. Best wishes Jill Shepherd
William Wilberforce
Terrific programme this morning on Wilberforce. Interesting, informative and moving.The departure from the usual format worked for this special broadcast.
David McDonagh WILBERFORCE
I liked the change in the programme but it seemed a great exaggeration to hold that Wilberforce was the greatest man to be a topic of the programme so far. It would be nearer the truth to say that he was the least great man to feature so far. This is not to say that i disagree with all those who said well of him. Rather, it is to put him into a realistic perspective. What he did was good but not on par with, say, Isaac Newton or William Shakespeare.
Melvyn Bragg - Wilberforce.
Thank you for this programme that departed a little form the pattern we are used to. It was still a master piece. Your comments from your email are as interesting. I would follow your own suggestion that "Wilberforce, to my mind, deserves the proper recognition which he has been denied for so many decades, deserves, in effect, a resurrection in the history of this country, deserves, if I may push it further, to be someone who leads a movement of the reassessment of what this country, in various ways and individuals in particular ways, have added to the world, as distinct from the constant cry of what we have taken from it." it would be interesting indeed to see why modern salvery is practiced still in the world, and although we abhor it, the movement to combat it is not very visisble (even though it exosts!). That the place of Britian's in the world of inventions and intellect should be explored is something that you achieve in some way in your "In our time" programme, yet, as you say, perhpas a series could be devoted to this uplifting topic. Thank you so much for the educating programmes.
William Wilberforce
A truly wonderful programme. WW was clearly a man of great moral courage, moreover a man who was also someone who lived his morality. We as English people owe him so much, and cna feel rightly proud of him.
Marcus Tristan Heathcock - Future Topic
I think it would be very interesting if you would do a programme about the controversial German philosopher Martin Heidegger. His work is very complex and it would be good if your excellent programme could shed some light on his work, away from the controversy that his life provokes. Marcus Tristan Heathcock
William Wilberforce
Excellent Programme on Wilberforce. I have been doing schools presentations on his life and work this term and it has been great to pass on to many primary school children lessons from this great man's life. As an evangelical Christian myself I am also very much inspired by his commitment and the impact he made for the common good. Jonathan Harris
Norman Marsh - William Wilberforce
I was astonished that the programme concentrated so much on the life and efforts of Wilberforce and said so little about the non-parliamentary movement against the slave trade - particularly the immense personal contribution of Thomas Clarkson. Unlike Wilberforce, Clarkson, a person of great intelligence and immense personal vigour, made the campaign against the slave trade (and later against slavery) his whole adult life effort and travelled tens of thousands of miles up and down the roads of Britain in the 18th/19th Century in pursuit of the campaign. He in turn relied heavily upon Quaker colleagues for neighbourhood support and for printing of his many leaflets and other writings. A gripping account of the campaign is provided, with Clarkson as the most prominent character but with much on many other participants, is provided in Adam Hochschild's wonderful book 'Bury the Chains' published in paperback about 2 years ago. Norman Marsh
Wilberforce
Thank you for breaking with IOT tradition and getting out and about for this subject. I have been lucky enough to see the Hull house (but not see inside) and enjoyed the locational nature of the whole thing. Especially liked the unrolling of the scroll by the archivist - I could "see" it complete with the Royal seal!
Beverley Charles Rowe: Wilberforce
I enjoyed today's programme but I hope you won't do it again like that! I missed the debate, which is what I value IOT for. But one *very* strong moan: the music. Why oh why do we have to the intrusion of little tunes? Every time it happened, the momentum of the programme was broken. Moreover, the music was almost all entirely anachronistic. Why baroque music as background to events when Mozart and Beethoven were already at work? But keep going, please. IOT is invaluable.
Stuart Bell - Wilberforce
An excellent programme, but why the singing of the tune, "Abbot's Leigh" in the background, about 10 min utes in? It was written in 1941 by Cyril Taylor.
In Our Time
Melvin Bragg is excellent. Today, for the first time, his programme has background music: I have turned it off.
TA Gilbert - Slavery abolition and political parti
Though Wilberforce was an independent Tory MP, we should in my view challenge any attempt to capitalise on this anniversary by modern Tory politicians - I note that William Hague, a biographer of Pitt, will be a guest on In Our Time, and featured in the trailer for the program. In fact, Wilberforce introduced many bills for the abolition of the slave trade under Tory Governments during the 1790s, but it was not until the Whig Party - the aristocratic forerunner of the Liberal and Liberal Democrat parties - came briefly to power in 1806-7 that the Slave Trade was abolished. An autocratic Tory Government was then in power from 1807-30, and it was not until Lord Grey's Whig/Liberal government of 1830-34 that Slavery itself (as opposed to the trade in slaves) was abolished. Wilbeforce, by then well into his eighties, died the day after the Bill was passed in the Commons. It may have been a Christian Tory who is most famous for campaigning against the trade, but the fact is, he received little support from his own party. It was Whigs and Liberals who actually passed the measures whilst in Government, after years of Tory neglect of the issue.
William Wilberforce
Melvyn Bragg's oft-repeated trailer about Wilberforce gives us a saint. I remember reading long ago in EP Thompson's Making of the Working Class how Wilberforce didn't merely support Hannah More's anti-working-class- activist Christian tracts ; he also strongly supported the transportations to Australia. There's something very iffy in this picture of Wilberforce as the virtuous founding father of New Labour orthodoxy about the history of slavery. J Hogben
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