“Im not quite ready to see a civil war with over six hundred thousand deaths happening over porn, are you?”
Which is why Britain had a civil war over this. Oh wait, no they didn’t. Land of Lincoln, who did use force to try to convince people who didn’t want abolition.
Wilberforce acheived his goal through legislation over the course of his entire career, eventually managing to pass the bill. How is that coercion? Coercion would be passing the bill without the support of the people, and the people of Britain eventually came around to his way of thinking. This is the ideal way a democracy ought to work.
Or you can do what Lincoln did. Your choice.
Legislation, by definition, involves coercion, as in the use of government force to compel compliance. Non-coercion would mean the use of persuasion to get people to voluntarily stop.
Also, England had no significant number of slaves IN ENGLAND where the voters were. The legislation also paid off the slave owners in Jamaica and elsewhere for the price of their slaves.
“Wilberforce acheived his goal through legislation over the course of his entire career, eventually managing to pass the bill. How is that coercion?”
With respect, all government is force. As Washington said (paraphrasing), it is a fearful master and a dangerous servant.
A bill is coercion of at least some people. Otherwise, the bill wouldn’t do anything.