ABSTRACT
By 1785 the Quaker members of the informal association of six were becoming acquainted with two young Anglicans who were showing an interest in the issue of the slave trade. William Wilberforce was one. Not yet 30, Wilberforce had recently become an Evangelical. According to his two sons, Wilberforce had been urged to take up the cause of abolition as early as 1785 and had promised to consider it. 1
