Slavery wasn’t always wrong. There was a time when it was right.
While it’s culture today to shake our fists at the injustice of slavery, it was once justified. It remained that way until William Wilberforce saw the slave trade in its true form, mobilized others to act, and led a campaign to victory like a man. Wilberforce literally changed the world.
As boys, we dream of changing the world, but it remains a dream because we never hear of men who actually do. The young men find themselves in a crisis, in need of male mentors who inspire them and speak about masculinity.
If you’re like me, that is all you really want—someone to show you masculinity lived out. We need examples, and Wilberforce is a worthy mentor for all of us today.
Here are five lessons on manhood from Wilberforce’s historic campaign to end slavery:
1. Masculinity begins with responsibility.
Masculinity starts with shouldering responsibility, a mission that encourages a man to discipline himself cultivating something worthwhile. Responsibility is important for men to shoulder because it flips a switch in a man’s mind, helping him realize that his decisions have effects on his life and others. That weight of accountability and integrity gives men a firm foundation to grow from.
Wilberforce was on mission to ‘make goodness fashionable.’
At the age of 26, Wilberforce felt the conviction to pursue “…two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners” (Metaxas 85). Wilberforce was on mission to “make goodness fashionable.” When the mission is as worthwhile as ending slavery and reforming social problems, it forces the man to focus and grow in wisdom and maturity. No doubt, it’s a massive responsibility to shoulder, but that sober realization snapped Wilberforce into attention and renewed purpose for his life as a politician. It was at this moment Wilberforce began to live out the essence of masculinity.
2. Masculinity is expressed with humility not pride.
Men show they understand masculinity when they show a humble heart, although most men cringe at that idea. It’s because men incorrectly imagine humility as weakness or vulnerability.
To understand humility, we need to first define pride. Pride is constant self-absorption, or as CS Lewis defines it, “the ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration on the self”. Pride turns everything into a means to an end—to get approval, to get respect. When you’re getting the approval you want, you get arrogance (superiority form of pride), and when you’re not, you get low self-esteem (inferiority form of pride). There’s constant ego calculation in everything you do and with every relationship you have.
Understanding this, CS Lewis then defines humility as “…not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.” A humble man spends less time obsessed with how people view him and instead sees how others are doing. Since he doesn’t find his worth in other people’s opinions, he doesn’t clamor for attention that is often expressed in arrogance. Instead of being needy, he solves the needs of others. Wilberforce’s life shows this dynamic well.
‘Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less.’ –CS Lewis
As a wealthy young man in his early 20s, Wilberforce spent his money throwing lavish parties and maintaining his 3-acre estate in Wimbledon with servants, and as a politician, he had a wit and humor that embarrassed opponents in debates. He used it so often he developed a habit of targeting opponents merely to bring attention to himself and to advance personal ambitions (Metaxas 66-67). It was only when he walked with a lens of humility after his conversion that he noticed the needs of English society.
London wasn’t very pretty at this time. He finally noticed problems in society that weren’t issues before: public executions with burnings or dissections at the end, animal cruelty through bull-baiting (hence, the bulldog), and rampant prostitution (Metaxas 74-77). In the city, 25% of all unmarried women were prostitutes with an average age of 16. Because he learned to care about the plight of others, Wilberforce eventually discovered the horrors of the Atlantic Slave Trade. This genuine desire to help others became his life mission. Men cultivate a habit of looking outward, not just inward.
3. Masculinity leads and inspires with humble confidence.
Masculinity finds its driving engine in confidence, but it’s not the confidence we’re imagining. Men are told over and over again to be confident in self-help articles across the Internet, but they fail to mention the “right” confidence finds its heart in humility. Masculinity uses humble confidence to lead and inspire people. If utilized well, it has the power to inspire nations across multiple generations, as we see from Wilberforce’s life.
Why is humble confidence so inspirational to men and women? It’s because no one hates talking to a humble man. We walk away beaming because he’s not on mission to make his name better but to make us better. He has hope and vision for a better tomorrow and speaks about it with an attitude of responsibility instead of entitlement. This attitude is the aura of confidence we are drawn to.
Men are defined by the legacies they leave and the men they inspire to carry their name.
Wilberforce exemplified this when he stood before Parliament to motion for abolition May 12, 1789. With evidence after evidence of the horrors of the slave trade, Wilberforce had every right to attack any member who wished to keep the trade running. But in surprising fashion, Wilberforce took a gracious tone arguing for abolition:
I mean not to accuse anyone, but to take the shame upon myself, in common indeed with the whole Parliament of Great Britain, for having suffered this horrid trade to be carried on under their authority. We are all guilty—we ought all to plead guilty, and not to exculpate ourselves by throwing the blame on others. (Metaxas 133)
This became one of his finest speeches ever given, and this attitude of humble confidence helped slowly win over politicians who were anti-abolition. Wilberforce’s humble confidence also extended to inspire men like President Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela to fight for freedom in later generations.
Men are defined by the legacies they leave and the men they inspire to carry their name. Masculinity that leads with humble confidence is the key.
4. Masculinity cultivates toughness.
Masculinity builds up a mental, physical, and emotional toughness that helps a man complete his life mission even when the journey gets difficult. This grit and tenacity is completely contrary to “acting tough” as seen typically in media.
Men, we often focus our efforts increasing our strength, but are we building up toughness? This article breaks down the definitions of mental and physical toughness really well:
Mental toughness boils down to how you respond to stress. Do you start to panic and lose control, or do you zero in on how you are going to overcome the difficulty?…Physical toughness includes the ability to take abuse and keep functioning, to recover quickly, to adapt to difficult terrain and contexts, and to tolerate adverse conditions without flagging.
Emotional toughness is also just as important to cultivate. This has to do with how well a man sustains hope and a sense of identity in the midst of prolonged trial. This doesn’t mean a man is emotionless, though. While a man doesn’t lose heart easily, he still uses his heart to express endearment to his wife and kids.
Any older gentleman will tell you that life and work is hard. Every man will experience stress, illnesses, and failure, but it’s mental, physical, and emotional toughness that helps men find the courage and creative solutions to complete their life mission.
While a man doesn’t lose heart easily, he still uses his heart to express endearment to his wife and kids.
William Wilberforce’s historic campaign to abolish the Atlantic Slave Trade is a great example. The wealthy and influential 26-year-old politician knew it would be a difficult journey to reach abolition, but he had no idea it would take 20 years before the Slave Trade Act passed on March 25, 1807. Twenty years! In between, he experienced multiple heartbreaking defeats in legislation, death threats, criticism, slander, and illnesses (Metaxas 155-158).
Wilberforce had thousands of reasons to quit his mission out of frustration with delays or out of fear for his life, but he cultivated a mental, physical, and emotional toughness that saw his mission through to completion.
5. Masculinity seeks community.
Lastly, masculinity understands a great man surrounds himself in community. Rambo is a myth because a man cannot be on mission by himself and change the world. Behind every great man is a community of friends and supporters, and men who understand this will talk about all the help he’s received to be where he is.
Though Wilberforce was the face of Abolition, he had a team of navy captains, writers, artists, freed slaves, preachers, lawyers, and academics who believed in him and abolition. Wilberforce would not have been able to succeed without these fellow supporters to give strength in his areas of weakness. For example, Wilberforce was entirely capable of gathering support from politicians, but he needed help gathering the support of the public. This is when potter Josiah Wedgwood and artist Thomas Clarkson used their creativity to push forward one of the first and exceedingly successful PR campaigns for a human rights cause.
Rambo is a myth because a man cannot be on mission by himself and change the world.
Wedgwood used his creativity and artistry to create the first iconic image used in a human rights campaign. It was a picture of a kneeling African, chained and asking, “Am I not a man and a brother?” The public reproduced the image on everyday items such as jewelry that women wore on their dresses and signet rings so that wax seals on letters supported abolition (Metaxas 130). Clarkson visited a slave ship and created an image capturing just how cramped slave ships were. Clarkson’s image of the slave ship, Brookes, horrified the nation and was widely reproduced (Metaxas 132). The resulting public outcry helped Wilberforce make a motion for abolition May 12, 1789. Without the public’s support, Wilberforce would have had a more difficult time making the motion in Parliament.
In addition to these artists, there were other courageous men and women who risked death collecting data and stories visiting slave ships, interviewing its captains, and writing about their findings. Wilberforce had so many friends in the background supporting him. Even in his most discouraged moments, these friends and supporters picked him up and gave him the confidence to press forward again and again until victory.
Wilberforce wasn’t masculine because he was Rambo. He was a man because he surrounded himself with a talented and passionate team who believed in him and his mission.
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Learning how to be a man is a lifelong journey, and the reality is that we all have room for growth. Let’s build each other up with the example Wilberforce gave us.
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