Clapham Sect

/ ˈklæpəm /

noun

1. a group of early 19th-century Church of England evangelicals advocating personal piety, the abolition of slavery, etc

Word History and Origins

Origin of Clapham Sect¹

C19: named after Clapham, a district of London

Example Sentences

William Wilberforce and his evangelical friends, eventually known as the “Clapham Sect,” worked tirelessly for 18 years to end the slave trade.

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Falling in with the Clapham Sect, Zachary became a devout evangelical and engaged abolitionist.

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She had herself been reared in the midst of the Clapham sect; had become rigid in all her ideas, narrow in all her sympathies, and a bundle of prejudices.

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My theory is that Wilberforce and the Clapham sect believed that the Abolition Act would not get through the House of Lords without the apprenticeship clause, and once it was passed felt duty bound to support the system against Thompson's maverick actions.

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William Wilberforce, the most celebrated campaigner against the slave trade, was also implicated in slavery and the trade, according to a forthcoming book about him and the Clapham sect, written, it so happens, by me.

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