Why did William Wilberforce target the slave trade and not Slavery?
William Wilberforce recognised that the real problem lay with
the slave traders who were only out to make money.
Slavery itself was a cultuural institution, and he had no
problem with slaves who were well-treated. The slave trade,
however, reduced these people to mere animals, chaining them,
caging them in ships for months on end. The trade itself was where
the real cruelty lay.
Wilberforce could not abide cruelty in any way. In fact, he was
a driving force in the movement to establish the first anti-cruelty
laws for animals.