---
title: "“William Wilberforce is the model incrementalist: he took ~20 years and accepted partial measures, so abolitionists should likewise accept step-by-step gains.”"
description: "William Wilberforce is the model incrementalist: he took ~20 years and accepted partial measures, so abolitionists should likewise accept step-by-step gains."
type: "argument"
id: "def-wilberforce-gradualist"
category: "Historical"
mode: "Defensive"
source_url: "https://www.abhortion.org/arguments/def-wilberforce-gradualist.html"
---

# “William Wilberforce is the model incrementalist: he took ~20 years and accepted partial measures, so abolitionists should likewise accept step-by-step gains.”

**Category:** Historical · **Mode:** Defensive · responds to an objection

## The objection

**The claim:**

> "William Wilberforce is the model incrementalist: he took ~20 years and accepted partial measures, so abolitionists should likewise accept step-by-step gains."

_A pro-life incrementalist argument._

### The strongest version of this argument

Wilberforce's campaign did span decades and did see partial measures (like the 1788 regulation act) pass along the way; he even co-founded a society in 1823 whose name included 'gradual abolition' of colonial slavery. Change historically comes in stages, and honoring that is realism, not compromise.

## The response

Abolitionists answer that taking time is not the same as incrementalism. Wilberforce filed bills for total abolition of the slave trade year after year; the length of the campaign reflects how long it took to win the votes for total abolition, not a strategy of legalizing a 'lesser' slave trade. Wilberforce himself feared the 1788 regulation act would entrench the trade as merely needing adjustment, and in his 1807 Letter he blamed 'gradual instead of immediate abolition' for prolonging the trade, calling gradualists in effect its 'most efficient supporters.' The honest complication (his 1823 'gradual abolition' society for colonial slavery) should be acknowledged — but on the slave trade, the specific parallel pro-lifers invoke, Wilberforce was an immediatist who condemned the gradualist substitute.

## Discussion questions

1. Did Wilberforce file bills to regulate the slave trade, or to abolish it — and what did he say about gradualism in 1807?
2. Is 'it took 20 years' evidence of incrementalism, or of how long total abolition took to win?
3. How should we honestly handle Wilberforce's 1823 'gradual abolition' society for colonial slavery?

## Source transcript

Drawn from William Wilberforce against the 'Gradual Abolitionists' — The entire Wilberforce talk answers this objection directly..

## References

- [Slave Trade Act 1788 (Dolben's Act): 'Wilberforce feared the act would establish the idea that the slave trade was not fundamentally unjust, but merely an activity that needed further regulation.'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave_Trade_Act_1788) _(history)_
  (encyclopedic) · Wikipedia
  **Supports:** Wilberforce feared the 1788 regulation act would entrench the trade
- [Wilberforce, 'A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade' (1807)](https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/study/module/wilberforce) _(history/primary intro)_
  Dan Graves, ed. · Christian History Institute
  **Supports:** the 1807 Letter's full abolition case
- [Wilberforce, A Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1807), full public-domain text](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63974) _(primary source)_
  William Wilberforce · Project Gutenberg
  **Supports:** primary text where Wilberforce condemns 'gradual instead of immediate abolition'
- [Slave Trade Act 1807 passed the Commons 283–16 after ~20 years of Wilberforce's abolition bills](https://libertascouncil.org/william-wilberforce-celebrating-the-incremental-wins/) _(history)_
  Libertas Council · Libertas Council
  **Supports:** the trade was abolished outright in 1807 (Commons 283–16)
- [William Wilberforce: Celebrating the Incremental Wins (opposing view: Wilberforce accepted incremental wins; co-founded a 'gradual abolition' society in 1823)](https://libertascouncil.org/william-wilberforce-celebrating-the-incremental-wins/) _(opposing view / steelman)_
  Libertas Council · Libertas Council
  **Supports:** steelman: the case that Wilberforce accepted incremental wins and later used 'gradual abolition' language

## Related

**Related scriptures:**

- [Deuteronomy 16:20](../scripture/deuteronomy-16-20.md)

**Related arguments:**

- [History's lesson: regulation entrenches an evil; abolition removes it (the Wilberforce case)](arg-wilberforce-regulation.md)
- [Reframe the debate: it is abolition vs. regulationism, not abolition vs. 'incrementalism'](arg-regulationism-not-incrementalism.md)
- [Immediatism — dealing with sin fully and now — is the biblical pattern; gradual toleration is not](arg-immediatism-biblical.md)