Jiheon+K.+Wilberforce+B

SECTION 1: PHOTO BOOTH INTERVIEW
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5163453534669261382&hl=en

__**SCRIPT**__ I: Hello everyone! Today we will be meeting a very important person, William Wilberforce. So, nice to meet you Mr. Wilberforce, can you introduce yourself?

W: Sure. Good evening everyone. I am William Wilberforce and I was born on August 24, 1759 in Hull, a city in the eastern part of Yorkshire, England. I was the only son of Robert Wilberforce and Elizabeth, two wealthy merchants, and I entered Cambridge University at the age of seventeen. In 1784, I joined a group called the Clapham Sect. which led me to get interest in social reform, which mainly was about improving factories in Britain. Despite all this, I am known for my hard work against slavery and my effort to ban slavery in Britain.

I: Oh I see. Well what influenced you to start fighting for the abolition of slavery?

W: Well there was an abolitionist named Thomas Clarkson who really influenced me greatly. He and some other people were campaigning to try to end slave trade with Africa and I decided to start campaigning with them. Slave trade was eventually abolished in 1807 but actual slavery still existed and they weren’t freed. I even organized the “Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery throughout the British Dominions” in 1823. The main purpose of this organization was to promote the emancipation of slavery. Finally, an act was passed in 1833 that freed all the slaves in Britain.

I: Ah Yes I see. So, what were the main problems who were trying to solve when campaigning and making these groups?

W: Well obviously I was trying to ban slavery in Britain and was trying to give complete freedom to the slaves. By campaigning and forming societies, I was trying to free all the slaves whether they were being sold or bought by the British people.

I: Right, I get you point. So you are trying to say that your goal was to get the slaves free. And finally, out last question, can you tell us a bit about your philosophy?

W: Well, the key point to my philosophy is that the society has some problems and it needs to change. I do not see slaves as any different us people, I do not understand why they should be treated poorly and harshly when others are treated with respect and admiration.

I: WOW! So we can say that the main point of your philosophy is that slaves are not property but people as well?

W: Exactly

I: Well thank you so much Mr. Wilberforce for giving us your precious time.

W: No problem! It was a pleasure talking about me and my thoughts.

I: Thank you once again to Mr. Wilberforce for making time for us in his busy schedule and I’ll see you next week! BYE.

SECTION 2: PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCES
__PRIMARY__ " ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login ." __ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login__. 7 Dec. 2008 . "If the native intelligence and buoyant independence of Britons cannot survive in the dank and baleful climate of personal slavery, could it be reasonably expected that the poor Africans, unsupported by any consciousness of personal dignity or civil rights, should not yield to the malignant influences to which they had so long been subjected, and be depressed even below the level of the human species?"

" ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login ." __ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login__. 7 Dec. 2008 .

Having now disposed of the first part of this subject, I must speak of the transit of the slaves in the West Indies. This I confess, in my own opinion, is the most wretched part of the whole subject. So much misery condensed in so little room, is more than the human imagination had ever before conceived. I will not accuse the Liverpool merchants: I will allow them, nay, I will believe them to be men of humanity; and I will therefore believe, if it were not for the enormous magnitude and extent of the evil which distracts their attention from individual cases, and makes them think generally, and therefore less feelingly on the subject, they would never have persisted in the trade. I verily believe therefore, if the wretchedness of any one of the many hundred Negroes stowed in each ship could be brought before their view, and remain within the sight of the African Merchant, that there is no one among them whose heart would bear it. Let any one imagine to himself 6 or 700 of these wretches chained two and two, surrounded with every object that is nauseous and disgusting, diseased, and struggling under every kind of wretchedness! How can we bear to think of such a scene as this? One would think it had been determined to heap upon them all the varieties of bodily pain, for the purpose of blunting the feelings of the mind; and yet, in this very point (to show the power of human prejudice) the situation of the slaves has been described by Mr. Norris, one of the Liverpool delegates, in a manner which, I am sure will convince the House how interest can draw a film across the eyes, so thick, that total blindness could do no more; and how it is our duty therefore to trust not to the reasonings of interested men, or to their way of colouring a transaction. “Their apartments,” says Mr. Norris, “are fitted up as much for their advantage as circumstances will admit. The right ancle of one, indeed is connected with the left ancle of another by a small iron fetter, and if they are turbulent, by another on their wrists. They have several meals a day; some of their own country provisions, with the best sauces of African cookery; and by way of variety, another meal of pulse, &c. according to European taste. After breakfast they have water to wash themselves, while their apartments are perfumed with frankincense and lime-juice. Before dinner, they are amused after the manner of their country. The song and dance are promoted,” and, as if the whole was really a scene of pleasure and dissipation it is added, that games of chance are furnished. “The men play and sing, while the women and girls make fanciful ornaments with beads, which they are plentifully supplied with.” Such is the sort of strain in which the Liverpool delegates, and particularly Mr. Norris, gave evidence before the privy council. What will the House think when, by the concurring testimony of other witnesses, the true history is laid open. The slaves who are sometimes described as rejoicing at their captivity, are so wrung with misery at leaving their country, that it is the constant practice to set sail at night, lest they should be sensible of their departure. The pulse which Mr. Norris talks of are horse beans; and the scantiness, both of water and provision, was suggested by the very legislature of Jamaica in the report of their committee, to be a subject that called for the interference of parliament. Mr. Norris talks of frankincense and lime juice; when surgeons tell you the slaves are stowed so close, that there is not room to tread among them: and when you have it in evidence from sir George Yonge, that even in a ship which wanted 200 of her complement, the stench was intolerable. The song and the dance, says Mr. Norris, are promoted. It had been more fair, perhaps, if he had explained that word promoted. The truth is, that for the sake of exercise, these miserable wretches, loaded with chains, oppressed with disease and wretchedness, are forced to dance by the terror of the lash, and sometimes by the actual use of it. “I,” says one of the other evidences, “was employed to dance the men, while another person danced the women.” Such, then is the meaning of the word promoted; and it may be observed too, with respect to food, that an instrument is sometimes carried out, in order to force them to eat which is the same sort of proof how much they enjoy themselves in that instance also. As to their singing, what shall we say when we are told that their songs are songs of lamentation upon their departure which, while they sing, are always in tears, insomuch that one captain (more humane as I should conceive him, therefore, than the rest) threatened one of the women with a flogging, because the mournfulness of her song was too painful for his feelings. In order, however, not to trust too much to any sort of description, I will call the attention of the House to one species of evidence which is absolutely infallible. Death, at least, is a sure ground of evidence, and the proportion of deaths will not only confirm, but if possible will even aggravate our suspicion of their misery in the transit. It will be found, upon an average of all the ships of which evidence has been given at the privy council, that exclusive of those who perish before they sail, not less than 12½ per cent. perish in the passage. Besides these, the Jamaica report tells you, that not less than 4½ per cent. die on shore before the day of sale, which is only a week or two from the time of landing. One third more die in the seasoning, and this in a country exactly like their own, where they are healthy and happy as some of the evidences would pretend. The diseases, however, which they contract on shipboard, the astringent washes which are to hide their wounds, and the mischievous tricks used to make them up for sale, are, as the Jamaica report says, (a most precious and valuable report, which I shall often have to advert to) one principle cause of this mortality. Upon the whole, however, here is a mortality of about 50 per cent. and this among negroes who are not bought unless (as the phrase is with cattle) they are sound in wind and limb. How then can the House refuse its belief to the multiplied testimonies before the privy council, of the savage treatment of the negroes in the middle passage? Nay, indeed, what need is there of any evidence? The number of deaths speaks for itself, and makes all such enquiry superfluous. As soon as ever I had arrived thus far in my investigation of the slave trade, I confess to you sir, so enormous so dreadful, so irremediable did its wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for the abolition. A trade founded in iniquity, and carried on as this was, must be abolished, let the policy be what it might,—let the consequences be what they would, I from this time determined that I would never rest till I had effected its abolition. "William Wilberforce's 1789 Abolition Speech." __Brycchan Carey - Home Page__. 7 Dec. 2008 .

__SECONDARY__ " ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login ." __ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login__. 7 Dec. 2008 .

"BBC - History - William Wilberforce (1759 - 1833)." __BBC - Homepage__. 7 Dec. 2008 .

"William Wilberforce." __Spartacus Educational - Home Page__. 7 Dec. 2008 .

DBQs 1. What is William Wilberforce trying to say when he says, "If the native intelligence and buoyant independence of Britons cannot survive in the dank and baleful climate of personal slavery, could it be reasonably expected that the poor Africans, unsupported by any consciousness of personal dignity or civil rights, should not yield to the malignant influences to which they had so long been subjected, and be depressed even below the level of the human species?"

2. What is the main point to William Wilberforce's philosophy?

3. Why is William Wilberforce trying to abolish slavery?