Commemorating Wilberforce: Legacies in the City

By Rebecca Nelson, Assistant Curator of Projects

This series of blogs have been written to coincide with the Coming Home: William Wilberforce exhibition. On display the Ferens Art Gallery, the exhibition sees the return of the famously unfinished portrait of William Wilberforce by Sir Thomas Lawrence, loaned from the National Portrait Gallery. This is part of a nationwide project by the National Portrait Gallery to return works of famous Britons to the places that they are most closely associated with. The blog series will highlight some of the key stories in the exhibition, which also includes art work and objects from the collections of the Ferens Art Gallery and Wilberforce House Museum.

In our first blog in the ‘Coming Home’ series, we explored the life of Hull’s most famous son, William Wilberforce. In this blog we examine the continued impact Wilberforce has had on the City of Hull; its buildings, its events and its people.

When Wilberforce died in 1833 Hullensians (the noun for people born in Hull) across the city mourned the loss of their local hero. Despite an Act of Parliament being passed that provisioned Wilberforce’s burial in Westminster Abbey, the citizens of Hull were determined to erect a memorial to honour the great statesman. A public meeting was held in August 1833 for the city’s leaders had decided, ‘it would not be creditable to the character of the town, which justly glories in having been the birthplace of such a man [Wilberforce], and in having first sent him into Parliament, to suffer him to sink into his grave without raising some lasting monument of its veneration and affection for his memory’. By December 1833 over £500 had been raised via public donations, and in April 1834 the foundation stone was laid for a Nelson’s column-style memorial – the end result standing at 31 meters high.

For a century the Wilberforce monument stood on Monument Bridge, but in 1935 was deconstructed and moved to its present position on Wilberforce Drive, outside the college. It was moved to make way for a road through the city centre. In 2017 it was the subject of a successful public campaign which saw the monument lit and the scroll, held by the statue of Wilberforce to represent the abolition bill, gilded.

In addition to the monument, there have been many other instances of commemorating Wilberforce in the city. From the 1890s the city’s Corporation (governing body) noted the large number of visitors to the city seeking out ‘the Wilberforce House’. As an important local landmark, the corporation made efforts to secure the purchase of the building as a place where, ‘memorials of Wilberforce might gradually be gathered…’ The corporation purchased the building in 1903 and opened the house as a museum in 1906. Initially the intention was to open a museum that covered a range of local history topics, including whaling and related military histories. Having put out a call for Wilberforce-related items, however, the museum was so inundated with things it quickly became recognised as an institution that focussed on Wilberforce, his life and his work.

Wilberforce House Museum is now recognised as one of the world’s oldest slavery museums, and attracts visitors from around the world every year. The Wilberforce story therefore continues to be interpreted to present day audiences. The twentieth century has also seen a number of large-scale commemorative events across the city, centred around Wilberforce. Dates linked to significant Wilberforce anniversaries have been seen as opportunities to highlight the Wilberforce narrative, as well as to embrace the legacies of his ideas about freedom and equality. 1933 as the 100^th anniversary of his death, 1959 as the 200^th anniversary of his birth and 1983 the 150^th anniversary of his death all witnessed innovative programmes of events focussed on inspiring civic pride in Wilberforce’s memory. These ranged from Church services and processions, to carnivals and music performances.

The events of 1933 were by far the largest in the city. Crowds of around 20,000 people flocked to monument bridge to hear speeches from city leaders, and then processed to Hull Minster [then Holy Trinity Church] for a thanksgiving service. There was also a hugely popular exhibition of Wilberforce ‘relics’ at the City Hall, which formerly enslaved Salim Charles Wilson acted as a tour guide at. You will be able to read more about Wilson in the next blog in this series. Channelling Wilberforce’s arguments and Christian values, Wilson was also a highly popular speaker around the local region who acted as an advocate for antislavery.

In recent years there have been numerous organisations that have championed Wilberforce’s legacies and carried out work in his name; the University of Hull’s Wilberforce Institute conducts ground-breaking research about instances of slavery and exploitation in the modern world, influencing policy and practice nationally and internationally. The annual Freedom Festival, which attracts around 150,000 visitors each year, is built on ‘the foundations of Wilberforce’s legacy,’ with all work, ‘rooted in our commitment to building a stronger and fairer society.’ Thus it is clear that Wilberforce remains an instrumental figure in Hull, just as he has been for the past two centuries. 

To find out more about William Wilberforce and the continuing impact of Wilberforce’s legacy on the city of Hull, visit ‘Coming Home: William Wilberforce,’ on display at Ferens Art Gallery until 19 January 2020.