Museum handed rare letter

William Wilberforce was a leading voice against slavery

A rare letter from a leading Victorian anti-slavery campaigner is being handed over to a museum in his home city.

William Wilberforce, who was a Tory MP for Hull, campaigned vigorously against slavery for more than 40 years until his death in 1833.

His five-page letter, written in 1817, details the plight of a poor African boy looking for a safe passage home to Sierra Leone.

Now the historic document is destined for Wilberforce House Museum to celebrate the £5.1m development Hull's Heritage Quarter.

It will form part of the Wilberforce and Slavery collection and is set to be displayed in a black history exhibition in October.

William Wilberforce, born into a family of wealthy Kingston-upon-Hull merchants in 1759, was elected as a Tory MP at the age of 20.

He began speaking out against slavery in 1789 following his conversion to Evangelical Christianity - much to the chagrin of his Tory colleagues.

The MP died before seeing his hopes realised but knew that Parliament was about to pass the Slavery Abolition Act to free all slaves from the British Empire.