Amazing Grace

William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) took up a very challenging cause in the second half of the eighteenth-century: Convince the British Parliament to end the slave-trade. He worked closely with his friend William Pitt the Younger (Benedict Cumberbatch), and the old slave-trader John Newton (Albert Finney), to learn everything he needed to know.

Reviewing evidence which Thomas Clarkson (Rufus Sewell) had gathered, Wilberforce was stunned by the slave trade’s cruel realities. How, he wondered, could a civilized society condone such utterly deplorable treatment of one’s fellow human beings?

In this story behind the movie, examine some of the evidence which Wilberforce saw. See drawings of slave-trade devices which Thomas Clarkson obtained in his travels. Read testimony from witnesses who told members of Parliament what really took place onboard slave ships. Hear the "Story of Africa" (as told by Africans) and learn how John Newton composed his most famous song, Amazing Grace.

Then ... look at William’s speech (wherein he urged his colleagues to do the right thing) and wonder why it took Parliament another eighteen years before it disallowed slave-trading.