Freedom Festival Background
Freedom Festival is the lasting legacy of the Wilberforce 2007 campaign which celebrated the pioneering work of Hull-born MP William Wilberforce, and the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. During 2007, Hull was at the centre of the world’s bicentennial celebrations, remembering the life and work of Hull’s most famous son.
The city commemorated with 34 weeks of events and activities, highlighting issues of slavery and emancipation that are still current today. Following this successful year, it was agreed that Wilberforce’s legacy needed to be marked and celebrated annually, and Freedom Festival was born.
Freedom Festival grew out of commemorations in Hull in 2007 of the 200th anniversary of William Wilberforce’s Act of Parliament, which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire.
William Wilberforce was born on High Street in Hull on 24th August 1759. He began his political career in 1780, becoming the Independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire in 1784. A few years into his career, he became involved in the movement of abolitionism, campaigning to end slavery in the UK and its colonies, and he soon became one of the leading English abolitionists. For 26 years, Wilberforce headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.
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