What are the greatest contributions of William Wilberforce?

William Wilberforce was one of the leaders of the
abolitionist movement in Great Britain in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.  He was born
into a wealthy family in 1759.  On a holiday on the European continent in 1784,
Wilberforce underwent a spiritual rebirth that changed his life and led him to become an
evangelical Christian.  This spiritual conversion led him to change his lifestyle and
began his lifelong concern for reform, particularly his desire to see the end of the
slave trade and of slavery. He became one of the leaders of a group of evangelical
social reformers known as the “Clapham Sect”.  In the House of Commons, he became the
chief spokesman for the abolition of slavery and worked tirelessly to see the end of
slavery.  The chief result of his efforts was the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807
which ended the slave trade in the British Empire, but not slavery itself.  He continued
his struggle to end slavery and sponsored the establishment of the Anti-Slavery Society
in 1823.  William Wilberforce died July 29, 1833, one month before the passage of the
act of Parliament that abolished slavery throughout the British
Empire.