Amazing Grace

The film Amazing Grace portrayed William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffurd) as the dashing hero, and told the story of his triumph over the slave trade. Although the film was very moving and engaging, it was also very biased whilst leaving out great chunks of information. For instance, Phyllis Weakly, a former black slave who, like Olaudah Eqiano, published a book about slavery and sold it, but Weakly wasn’t even mentioned.

Money was a great issue too, but no one seemed particularly bothered that the abolition of slavery would come at a price, quite literally. It appears that Wilberforce never even considered this.

William Pitt, a former prime minister and friend of Wilberforce was included but we are told that he turned away from the project, leaving William alone.

Some facts were solid truth though e.g. Wilberforce's’ wife Barbara was a friend of her husbands’ cousin but it also portrays John Newton writing the song ‘Amazing Grace’ and his significance to the abolition of slavery.

The film may have been wrong or inaccurate in the descriptions of the slaves themselves. It scarcely mentions the rebellions aboard slave ships or the fact that Captains and Plantation owners were terrified of an attack or revolt. Perhaps the film researchers had a lot more information on Wilberforce but his supposedly solo-attempt at completing an extremely long petition was in fact composed by Thomas Clarkson, with no mention of any help from William.

Despite this Amazing Grace is a brilliant film with a lot of events based on reality. But if the audience knew nothing about the abolition, they would’ve been led to believe that the slave trade ended there and then, all thanks to William Wilberforce.

This information would be wrong. The slave trade was only abolished in England and even the British could still own slaves and put  them to work. The complete abolition was around 1838, with thanks to Wilberforce and Clarkson, Pitt, the Quakers, Newton, Granville and William Sharp, plus so many other brilliant people, making the world that little bit better.