30 June
1758 A.D. Birth of James
Stephen--Wilberforce Ally & Abolitionist
Graves,
Dan. “James Stephen and Battle to Abolish Slavery.” Christianity.com. May 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1701-1800/james-stephen-and-battle-to-abolish-slavery-11630266.html. Accessed 5 May 2014.
James Stephen had a law practice in the West
Indies. One day, he witnessed two black slaves accused of rape and condemned on
the flimsiest evidence. They were burned alive. This so horrified Stephen that
he began a correspondence with the famed slavery abolitionist William
Wilberforce. Secretly he provided Wilberforce with information about slavery in
the islands. In time, Stephen would become a leader in the Clapham sect, a
group of mostly evangelical Christians working with Wilberforce. He
wrote several influential books against the slave trade.
Born on this day June 30, 1758, Stephen struggled through financial difficulties to
get an education. As a young man he did not seem a likely candidate for
leadership in any evangelical group; engaged to be married to one woman, he
betrayed both her and his closest friend, fathering an illegitimate child with
his friend's fiancé. His manners were coarse, his language rough, and he flew
into sudden rages.
However, after meeting with Wilberforce, he became
a true follower of Christ. When his his first wife died, he married
Wilberforce's sister, Sally. Wilberforce wrote, "Stephen is an improved
and improving character, one of those whom religion has transformed and in whom it
has triumphed by conquering some natural infirmities." Meanwhile, Stephen
had been elected to Parliament and was a close ally of Wilberforce in the fight
against slavery. (At a crucial moment in the abolition battle, his beloved wife
Sally slipped on ice and broke her leg; it grieved James Stephen that he had to
leave her ill-attended rather than let the cause down in Parliament.)
It was Stephen's fertile mind which came up with
two ideas that helped break the deadlock over ending the slave trade. The first
of these was during the struggle with Napoleon. He suggested extending
anti-slavery language to a bill which was certain of support because it was
viewed as a war measure, designed to stop neutral ships from delivering cargoes
to France. (This bill so infuriated the United States that it led to the War of
1812.) His second proposal was a bill to require registration of all slaves in
British possessions. This never passed, but it brought to light so many abuses
that it swung public opinion against slavery.
Stephen became Master-in-Chancery, a lawyer for the
government. Enemies sneered that this was a pay-off for his support of
abolition. In 1815 Stephen resigned his Parliamentary position when the
government would not support the registry bill. He died in 1832, and is now
assessed as the most important member of the Clapham Sect second only to
Wilberforce himself.
Bibliography:
1. Brown, Ford K. Fathers of the
Victorians; the age of Wilberforce. Cambridge University Press, 1961;
especially p. 370.
2. Larsen, Timothy, editor.
Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals. Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity
Press, 2003.
3. Lean, Garth. God's Politician;
William Wilberforce's struggle to abolish the slave trade and reform the morals
of a nation. Colorado Springs: Helmer and Howard, 1987; especially pp. 66, 103,
105 - 106, and 169 - 70.
4. Page, Jesse. Samuel Crowther; the
slave boy who became bishop of the Niger. London: S.W. Partridge & Co.,
1888. Source of the image.
5. Pollock, John. Wilberforce. New
York: St. Martins, 1977, especially pp. 189, 200 - 203, 249 - 50, 252, 284, 304
- 5.
Last updated May, 2007.
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