Timeline May 1789

Events in May 1789 2

• 1789 Estates-General convenes at Versailles First meeting of the French estates in 175 years Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General, representing the clergy, nobility, and commoners, to address France's fiscal crisis. It was the first time the body had met since 1614. Disputes over voting procedure between the estates quickly escalated into a constitutional crisis.
• 1789 Wilberforce delivers his first anti-slave-trade speech in Parliament Abolition campaign formally begins in the House of Commons William Wilberforce delivered a lengthy speech to the House of Commons detailing the cruelties of the transatlantic slave trade and calling for its abolition. Though his motion was deferred, the speech launched a parliamentary campaign that would continue for nearly two decades. It marked the beginning of organized abolitionist politics in Britain.