225 years ago today, Newton urges Wilberforce to stay in politics

On this day in history, 7 December 1785, John Newton (writer of Amazing Grace) told William Wilberforce (slavery abolitionist) to remain an MP. Others had been urging the newly converted Wilberforce to leave public life. He didn’t. Instead he went on to abolish slavery in Britain and end the slave trade throughout the British Empire, plus much more.