Wilberforce family marks abolition of slavery

Two centuries after William Wilberforce's campaign to abolish the slave trade was won, two of his descendants yesterday began a journey from his hometown to ask for "forgiveness".

The abolitionist's great-great-great-grandson, also called William Wilberforce, was among a team of modern-day anti-slavery campaigners dressed in yokes and chains who embarked on the 250-mile walk, beginning in Hull and finishing in London, together with his great-great-great- granddaughter, Lady Kate Davson.

The journey was part of an effort to apologise for the trade - which thrived for three centuries in Britain - and to call for an end to all forms of modern-day slavery.

Lady Davson began the walk with a public apology to "all my black brothers and sisters".

"We are greatly humbled to be standing here in chains. I would like to say to all my black brothers and sisters anywhere in the world, I hope you will forgive us for what we did to you. I feel perfectly sure that William Wilberforce will be marching with us," she said.

They began the journey at the Holy Trinity Church and plan to join the Walk of Witness, led by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, in Westminster, on 24 March.

They are due to be joined by the Bishop of Lincoln, the Rt Rev Dr John Saxbee, on 7 March, as well as John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who is expected to walk part of the route to the capital.

Andrew Winter, a group member, said the team would be reflecting on "some of the issues that are from the legacy of the slave trade." He added: "Foremost we want to bring about an apology from Britain and Europe and the slave-trading nations, saying sorry for our involvement in that.

"It's a very powerful healing model for people who walk with, and encounter, us on the way to help them personally deal with their emotional response to the slave trade.

"It's a scar on our nation that we have not dealt with. It's an open wound."

The slave trade was abolished in 1807 after a concerted Parliamentary campaign by Wilberforce.

Investors and participants in the slave trade included politicians and aristocrats as well as the City of London and the Church of England, which used slaves on its Caribbean sugar plantations and opposed the abolitionists in Parliament.

Last year, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, expressed his "deep sorrow" at Britain's involvement in the "shameful" trade, but critics said the Government had yet to offer a full public apology.

Some historians have noted that the Slave Trade Abolition Act came into force many years before France, Spain, Portugal and Brazil outlawed the trade in slaves.

Others point out that Britain was the second most important participant after Portugal, and between the mid-16th and early 19th centuries, British ships carried more than 2.5 million slaves - over a quarter of the total.

Mr Winter said an apology was still essential.

"We'll be working with a lot of schools along the way, to bring about some of the real facts associated with the slave trade. Once we do that, there's only one response and that's to say sorry," he said.

"We've painted ourselves as the saviours. It's just nonsense, we just renamed it and we were the worst perpetrators. What we've done since doesn't absolve us from that."

David Pott, the project leader, said those making the journey would reflect on immense physical hardships that the African slaves endured.

"I have been reminded that it is normal that expeditions involve risks - slave-trading expeditions were risky ventures, so as we seek to undo the damage initiated by the slave trade, it should be no surprise that we face challenges," he said.

"However, on our journey, we will not suffer a fraction of what the slaves went through."

The walk is part of a series of events organised to mark the 200th anniversary of the parliamentary act to abolish the slave trade.

But the bicentenary has been overshadowed by some criticism over the Government's alleged failure to rein in human trafficking, which has been described by the United Nations as the modern equivalent of slavery.

How the slave trade was ended

* Born in Hull in 1728 into a wealthy merchant family

* Introduced to the anti-slavery campaigner Thomas Clarkson in 1787 and persuaded to lead the parliamentary campaign

* Made his first Commons speech on abolishing the slave trade in May 1789

* In 1790, he won approval for a select committee to look into the slave trade

* A year later, he introduced aBill to abolish the trade, which was defeated

* Moved bills for abolition in 1792 and 1793

* Introduced a bill to ban Britons from participating in the slave trade to the French colonies in 1806

* An Abolition Bill was introduced in the Lords. The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent on 25 March 1807.