William Wilberforce and Singapore: an amazing connection

A few years ago, I stumbled upon the DVD "Amazing Grace", going for the cheap in the stores. With a title like that, it felt like it would be a wholesome watch; but having picked it up from the bargain bin, I also didn't have much expectations for it. How wrong was I!! It would prove to be one of my most life changing movies.

The movie is based on the story of William Wilberforce. Who?

I asked myself the same question. As I would find out watching the movie, he was instrumental in the abolition of the global slave trade… something so abhorrent and vile, we can scarcely imagine how it could have been accepted as a normal part of world commerce in the 1700s.

But such was the world that Wilberforce was born into.

Eric Mataxas, a Wilberforce biographer, puts it thus: "Slavery was as accepted as birth and marriage and death, was so woven into the tapestry of human history that you could barely see its threads, much less pull them out. Everywhere on the globe, for five thousand years, the idea of human civilization without slavery was unimaginable.  The idea of ending slavery was so completely out of the question at that time that Wilberforce and the abolitionists couldn't even mention it publicly. They focused on the lesser idea of abolishing the slave trade - on the buying and selling of human beings - but never dared speak of emancipation, of ending slavery itself. Their secret and cherished hope was that once the slave trade had been abolished, it would then become possible to begin to move toward emancipation. But first they must fight for the abolition of the slave trade; and that battle - brutal and heartbreaking - would take 20 years."

Born in Hull in August 1759, Wilberforce's gift was that of oratory. He was a gifted statesman and Parliamentarian, and God gave him eloquence. His Cambridge education caused him to cross paths with William Pitt, who at 24, became the youngest-ever Prime Minister of the UK. That friendship and Pitt's encouragement were key to Wilberforce taking on the scourge of slavery and fighting for it in Parliament to be made illegal. At a time when the British economy thrived on slave labour in many of its colonial outposts (a fact little known to many Brits, until the spotlight was cast on it), the fight was unrelenting.

At one particular point in history, Wilberforce found God, and teetered between staying on as a politician and going into ministry. Struggling with the decision, he decided to visit John Newton, former slave trade and now pastor - the same person who wrote the wonderful words to that beloved hymn: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me."

Newton would say to Wilberforce to stay put, to remain in politics, for God would use him there.

"God has raised you up for the good of the church and the good of the nation, maintain your friendship with Pitt, continue in Parliament, who knows that but for such a time as this God has brought you into public life and has a purpose for you." 

Had Newton's advice been different, history might have turned out another way.

Another great man of God, John Wesley, also cheered Wilberforce on. In 1791, after seeing Wilberforce suffer many bruising battles in Parliament, Wesley, now 87, and only a few days before his death, wrote a letter to him, saying:

"Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God is for you, who can be against you? Are all of them stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it."

After many failed attempts to pass the bill to abolish slavery, victory would come in 1807, when the House voted 283-16 in favor of it. That year, John Newton was 82 and in the last year of his life. Wilberforce himself would break down and weep in Parliament at this historic moment, which capped his life's labours!

For years after watching this movie, I'd been greatly inspired by the life of Wilberforce, and also awed by how his life intersected with giants of the faith - men like John Newton and John Wesley, who lent their strength to his.

And then I found out by accident that Sir Stamford Raffles (Singapore's founder!) was a friend of Wilberforce. In fact, towards his life's end (and years after he returned home to London from Singapore), Raffles and Wilberforce would be neighbours at Highwood Hill in London.

What is even more remarkable is that when Raffles wanted to set up a local school in Singapore, and this would be the Singapore Institution established in 1823 (the precursor of today's Raffles Institution), on the Board of Trustees would be one William Wilberforce!

This little known fact is also captured in the Raffles Institution Museum, housed in the grounds of RI in Bishan. We visited it last December and the curator of the museum, a wonderful lady, even showed us a video she took in Highwood Hill, as she traced Raffles' life, and his final burial place.

For a year now, my mind has been totally blown by the connection between Wilberforce and Singapore (specifically, Singapore's first educational institution).

Here we have a giant of history - a man who goes down in the history books for having abolished slavery - on the board of trustees of the Singapore Institution. He was a global figure, a man who shaped world history, and God gave our little red dot, Singapore, a link with him.  And not just any tenuous link but God had in mind that Wilberforce should be in the starting pages of the book tracing the evolution of Singapore's education system.

How amazing is this!!!

I believe this doesn't just have historical significance but spiritual significance, and as we carry Singapore in prayer into 2018, may the Lord teach us how to pray (To read about the significance of 2018 for Singapore, click here.)

P/S: Here are some videos on the William Wilberforce Museum in Hull which I visited in 2016.  This was the very house he grew up in.