On Wilberforce and the Clapham Group

TTF Staff

Here are some books and links for further reading on Wilberforce and his circle. We're pleased to see that the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade is leading to much new publishing activity. Our Entrepreneurs of Life curriculum also has a section on Wilberforce.

Let us know if we missed anything!

Trinity Forum Readings

A Practical View of Real Christianity, by William Wilberforce, foreword by Chuck Stetson

William Wilberforce: A Man Who Changed His Times, by John Pollock, foreword by J. Douglas Holladay

Amazing Grace: The Great Sea Change in the Life of John Newton, by John Pollock, Foreword by Os Guinness (online only)

Primary Sources

William Wilberforce’s most important book, first published in 1797, has the full title, A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians, in the Higher and Middle Classes in this Country, Contrasted with Real Christianity. As the title implies, it's quite wordy, but well worth reading. The Project Gutenberg edition is still in process, but there are several editions online at the Internet Archive at present (of them, this scan of the 23rd edition of 1865 seems most readable). Google Book Search has a good 1829 American edition with a useful introduction, which is apparently the source of the “replica” edition available for purchase in hardcover or paperback from Elibron Classics.

If you would like a more readable copy of the book, two editions are worth considering.

• William Wilberforce, revised and Updated by Bob Beltz, Real Christianity (Regal 2007). If you've got to have a movie tie-in book, this is the way to do it. A reasonable paraphrase into modern English with a biographical introduction and reading list, but no index. Much more approachable than other editions.
• William Wilberforce, A Practical View of Christianity (Hendrickson Christian Classics, 1996, 2006). Edited by Kevin Belmonte, Foreword by Charles Colson. This edition has an index and is closer to the original language.

William Wilberforce, An Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies (an 1823 pamphlet) (Page image and PDF from Google Book Search)

Google Book Search also has editions of The Correspondence of William Wilberforce (1840) and The Life of William Wilberforce (1839) both by Robert and Samuel Wilberforce, as well as Wilberforce’s Family Prayers (1834), edited by Robert Wilberforce.

John Newton, An Autobiography and Narrative: Compiled Chiefly From His Diary and Other Unpublished Documents, edited by Josiah Bull (1868; online edition)

John Newton, Out of the Depths, Newton’s autobiography, edited by Dennis R. Hillman (Kregel Publications, 2003)

Books about Wilberforce and the Clapham Group

Jonathan Aitken, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (Crossway, 2007)

John Piper, Amazing Grace in the Life of William Wilberforce (Crossway 2007). Foreword by Jonathan Aitken

Garth Lean, God's Politician: William Wilberforce's Struggle to abolish the slave trade and reform the morals of a nation (Helmers & Howard, 1980, 2005)

Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery (HarperSanFrancisco 2007)

Kevin Belmonte, William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity (Zondervan 2002, 2007)

David J. Vaughan, Statesman and Saint: The Principled Politics of William Wilberforce (Highland Books 2001). A thematic treatment.

Anne Stott, Hannah More: The First Victorian (Oxford 2003). Hannah More was an abolitionist and pamphleteer, a friend of Wilberforce, member of the Clapham group—and also a friend of Dr. Johnson.

Focus on the Family, Radio Theatre’s Amazing Grace: The Inspirational Stories of William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and John Newton (Tyndale House, 2007)

On Modern-Day Slavery

David Batstone, Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade—and How We Can Fight It (HarperSanFrancisco 2007)

Clifford Hill, The Wilberforce Connection (Monarch, 2004)

Lists, Leadership, Fri 23 Feb 2007