Charles Darwin (1809 1882)

Charles Darwin (Feb. 12, 1809 - April 19, 1882) was an English naturalist renowned for his documentation of evolution and for his theory of its operation, known as Darwinism. His evolutionary theories, propounded chiefly in two works--On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859) and The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871)-have had a profound influence on subsequent scientific thought.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

 Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and influential thinker of the early twentieth century. Working initially in close collaboration with Joseph Breuer, Freud elaborated the theory that the mind is a complex energy-system, the structural investigation of which is the proper province of psychology. He articulated and refined the concepts of the unconscious, infantile sexuality and repression, and he proposed a tripartite account of the minds structureall as part of a radically new conceptual and therapeutic frame of reference for the understanding of human psychological development and the treatment of abnormal mental conditions. Notwithstanding the multiple manifestations of psychoanalysis as it exists today, it can in almost all fundamental respects be traced directly back to Freuds original work.

William Wilberforce (1728-68), author of The Abolition of Slavery

Wilberforce was a politician was the foremost advocate of the abolition of slavery and whose mission was completed shortly after his death. Wilberforce was born in Hull, Yorkshire, the son of a prosperous merchant. He was educated at Pocklington School and St Johns College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he became acquainted with William Pitt the Younger, the future Prime Minister, and became interested in Pitts views on radical reform. Wilberforce and Pitt entered Parliament simultaneously in 1780, Wilberforce spending 9,000, to obtain the seat of Hull. In 1784, Wilberforce declared that he had been converted to Evangelical Christianity. He helped to found the Society for the Reformation of Manners, known as the Proclamation Society, whose aim was the suppression of obscene publications. Here he drew the attention of Lady Middleton, sister of Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, who asked Wilberforce to join the newly formed Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, known as the Anti-Slavery Society. Slavery was, at that time, illegal in Britain but rife in the colonies. Slaves were purchased in West Africa and shipped in British vessels to the West Indies where they were sold to plantation owners.