Tag Archives: England

Why is William Wilberforce often ignored in American history books?

William Wilberforce, the British MP who led the decades-long parliamentary campaign that resulted in the 1807 abolition of the British slave trade (and later full emancipation in 1833), is frequently overlooked in American history textbooks and education.  We remind the education industry in the United States that the spark for ending slavery everywhere in the world originated with the Holy Trinity Church on Clapham Common in South London.

This omission stems primarily from national focus: U.S. history curricula emphasize domestic events and figures in the fight against American slavery. The narrative centers on the U.S. Constitution’s compromises, the Missouri Compromise, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, and especially Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. British abolition, while influential and inspirational to American abolitionists, is seen as foreign history.

Additionally, the American story is framed as a uniquely national struggle involving internal conflict, sectionalism, and civil war—rather than parliamentary reform led by an evangelical Christian in another country. Some historians note a broader “forgetfulness” about the transatlantic abolition movement after the Civil War, as America focused on reconciliation and downplayed slavery’s moral dimensions.

Wilberforce’s heroic role is sidelined because American education prioritizes homegrown heroes and the violent path to emancipation in the United States over Britain’s earlier, legislative success.