The book casts a fresh light on William Wilberforce and his friends in the Clapham sect by looking at their private lives as revealed primarily in their voluminous family correspondence, much of it created by women. It focuses on three families: the Wilberforces, the Thorntons, and the Macaulays. The families were united by a commitment to Evangelical religion and a range of philanthropic causes, most famously the abolition of the slave trade. While the men occupied important public roles they were also deeply committed to their families and to the ideal of domesticity. The ideology of the per ... More

The book casts a fresh light on William Wilberforce and his friends in the Clapham sect by looking at their private lives as revealed primarily in their voluminous family correspondence, much of it created by women. It focuses on three families: the Wilberforces, the Thorntons, and the Macaulays. The families were united by a commitment to Evangelical religion and a range of philanthropic causes, most famously the abolition of the slave trade. While the men occupied important public roles they were also deeply committed to their families and to the ideal of domesticity. The ideology of the period depicted the middle-class home as a place of tranquil retreat from the cares and temptations of public life. The family crises depicted in this study show that the reality was often more complex. With varying degrees of success, the men and women of the Clapham sect brought their distinctive Evangelical piety into their patterns of courtship and marriage, their philosophy of child-rearing, and their strategies in coping with death and bereavement. For the first time, much of the story is told from the perspective of the wives. They were not shut out from their husbands’ concerns, though their participation varied, dictated by their own temperaments and interests, and by their husbands’ views about how far it was appropriate for women to involve themselves in public life. But the book’s primary focus is on the family, women and gender, childhood and education, sexuality and intimacy, themes with far‐reaching implications for the wider community.