In this series
World Events
1776 American colonies declare independence
1783 William Pitt becomes the British prime minister; war with colonies ends with British defeat at Yorktown
1789 French Revolution begins
1806 185 ships carry 43,755 slaves to America
1807 U.S. abolishes importation of slaves
1811 London becomes first city with more than 1 million; disease, overcrowding, and crime are rife
1815 Wellington defeats Napoleon at Waterloo; France agrees to abolish slave trade; Portugal follows suit
1819 Peterloo Massacre: 11 die in a violent breakup of a mass meeting about parliamentary reform
1820 Spain becomes last major European power to abolish its slave trade
1837 Victoria becomes queen of Great Britain (reigns until 1901)
1845-46 Potato blight leads to famine in Ireland; 1 million people die and thousands emigrate to America
1848 Marx's Communist Manifesto
1848-49 Revolutions sweep Europe; cholera epidemic kills 14,000 people (10,000 in London) and precipitates municipal sanitation.
1853-56 Britain, France, and Piedmont defeat Russia in the Crimean War
British Reform
1772 Slavery abolished in England
1780 Robert Raikes founds the first Sunday school
1788 Hannah More's Thoughts on the Manners of the Great
1821 Elizabeth Fry establishes the British Society for Promoting the Reformation of Female Prisoners
1828-29 Various parliamentary acts open political offices to non-Anglicans
1831 Lord's Day Observance Society founded
1833 Lord Althrop's Factory Act mitigates child labor
1842 The Mines Act abolishes all female labor in the mines
1844-47 Factory acts reduce daily work hours to 6 for children and 10 for adults
1860 Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing
1864 Shaftesbury introduces measures to forbid the employment of boys under 10 as chimney sweeps
1867 Thomas Barnardo (1845-1905) opens his first children's home in London slums
1869 Debtors' prisons abolished
1870 Foster's Education Act promotes a national system of elementary education
1871 Removal of religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge allows Nonconformists to attend
1872 Licensing Act controls the sale of alcohol
1875 Artisans Dwellings Act aims to provide better houses for the poor
1878 William Booth (1829-1912) founds the Salvation Army
William Wilberforce
1759 Born in Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire
1768 His father dies; sent to live in Wimbledon with an aunt and uncle
1776 Studies at St. John's College, Cambridge (until 1780)
1780 Elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Hull
1784-85 Experiences a deep conversion
1784 Becomes MP for Yorkshire
1787 Helps found Society for the Reformation of Manners
1789 Introduces his first bill to abolish the slave trade
1796 A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians … is published
1797 Marries Barbara Spooner
1804 Helps found the British and Foreign Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society
1807 British Parliament abolishes slave trade
1813 Helps convince Parliament to permit missionaries to India
1822 Helps form the Anti-Slavery Society
1823 Launches campaign for emancipation of slaves
1825 Retires from the House of Commons
1833 Emancipation Act is passed: all slaves in the British Dominions granted freedom; Wilberforce dies and is buried at Westminster Abbey
Sarah Williams is a research fellow in the department of theology at the University of Birmingham, England. She is author of the forthcoming, Religious Belief and Popular Culture: 1880-1939 (Oxford).
