It's the 18th Century. Slavery has been a fact of life for millennia, and a new, racialised form is now powering the wealth and expansion of the British Empire. Faced with that reality, the British abolition movement should have been doomed to fail. So where did it come from, why did it take hold, and how did it succeed? To answer those questions, Paul and Grace are joined by Professor John Coffey from the University of Leicester, who specialises in the religion, politics, and ideas of the Protestant Atlantic world from 1600 to 1850. In this episode, he explains how the Christian faith of key figures like William Wilberforce inspired them to act, and how abolitionism became a popular movement as well as a legislative campaign – based on the very Christian idea that all humans are equally valuable in God's eyes.

Released on 11 Mar 2024