This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. William Wilberforce was an abolitionist, a legislator, friend of the mighty and foe of powerful forces. He was also the life of the party, the ...

In March 2007, on the two-hundredth anniversary of the British parliament’s decision to abolish the slave trade, there was a flurry of contention in the letters pages of several newspapers and blogs.

After a crushing political defeat, William Wilberforce nearly gave up his fight to abolish the slave trade. But a life-changing letter from John Newton sent this Daniel back into the lion’s den. But ...