Appeal to the Religion, Justice, and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire, in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies

Wilberforce's final major antislavery treatise emerged from his recognition that the gradual amelioration approach had failed utterly in the decades following Britain's abolition of the slave trade in 1807. Written when he was sixty-four and in declining health, this Appeal represented his most comprehensive case for immediate emancipation, addressed directly to the British public whose Christian conscience he sought to awaken to the continuing horror of colonial slavery.

The work operates on three distinct but interwoven levels of argument. Wilberforce marshals extensive evidence of slavery's brutal realities in the Caribbean colonies, drawing on parliamentary reports, missionary accounts, and colonial records to demonstrate that conditions had actually worsened rather than improved since 1807. He then constructs a systematic theological argument that slavery violates fundamental Christian principles, particularly the doctrine of human dignity and the commandment to love one's neighbor. Finally, he appeals to British national character and justice, arguing that a Christian nation cannot indefinitely postpone acting on moral knowledge it already possesses. Throughout, Wilberforce anticipates and methodically refutes the standard defenses of gradual reform, economic necessity, and supposed racial hierarchy.

The Appeal proved instrumental in galvanizing the final phase of the British abolition movement, helping transform public opinion in the crucial years before the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833. It stands as perhaps the most complete fusion of evangelical spirituality with social reform in the English language, demonstrating how rigorous Christian thinking could be brought to bear on systemic injustice. The work remains essential reading for anyone studying the relationship between Christian faith and social activism, particularly those grappling with how religious conviction translates into sustained political engagement. Readers seeking purely historical analysis or those uncomfortable with explicitly Christian argumentation for social reform should look elsewhere.