Amazing Grace

I enjoyed viewing the movie, Amazing Grace immensely. It was very well done and I felt provided incredible insight into both the time period and the reality of what William Wilberforce and his companions were working so hard to accomplish. One thing that especially struck me was how young Wilberforce and his friend, William Pitt the Younger, were. Pitt, at age twenty-four, became the youngest individual ever to have been elected as Britain’s Prime Minister. It is often said that the old are wise. While there is a lot of truth to this statement, it is also true that there is wisdom in youth. The problem is human nature likes to reside its comfort zone. Individuals grow up accustomed to certain socially acceptable beliefs, behaviors, and ideas. Although creativity and innovation should be encouraged, it is sometimes fought against as rebellious because it deters from the norm. It is therefore sometimes necessary for young, inexperienced minds to bring about necessary changes in a society as they are as of yet uncorrupted by the stubborn “wisdom” of conformist society.

Such seems to have especially been the case with the slave trade. The slave trade was a socioeconomic tradition that had been practiced for hundreds of years. Unlike slavery in biblical and medieval times, the system had become rooted in racism due to ethnicity. It had become socially acceptable in society, and was just the norm. To question or speak out against the institution was preposterous. Most significantly, England and America had come to completely rely on the slave trade as a large part of their economy. It financially benefitted their societies too much for them to even consider eliminating the slave trade. Furthermore, white supremacy had dehumanized Africans in the minds of society, to the point where the trade not even considered by many as a question of ethics.

Looking back on history, the question becomes, why did it take so long to abolish the slave trade? The slave trade was a fundamental component of both British and American society. At the time of the American Revolution, it was felt by many slave owners that to require them to give up slavery, which they considered to be property, would be severely leading their own freedom. Because Africans were considered ethically inferior, raising the slave trade issue as a moral question proved to be very ineffective. What, then could men like William Wilberforce, do to effect change in such a stubborn society? In such a society, top priority was given to promoting economic prosperity, and little else truly mattered.

William Wilberforce was elected to the House of Commons in Britain’s Parliament at the age of only twenty-one, and incredible feat. He was extremely bright, and held very strong political and ethical opinions which he stood for. Through his journey of a political career, he dedicated two decades of his life to work tirelessly on bringing about successful abolition of the slave trade. His task may seem to have been relatively straight forward: put an end to the slave trade by persuading those in power. Because of how driven they were by the importance of the slave trade to the economy, however, persuading him to see the inhumanity of the institution proved to be impossible.

For example, in the movie I was moved by Wilberforce’s desperate attempt to awake an awareness of the inhumanity of the slave trade by forcibly showing it first-hand to members of the elite in positions of power, and their wives. They were simply enjoying their afternoon tea on a fine vessel, when Wilberforce has it arranged for an actual slave ship to pull up right next to them. He and his companions show these individuals what the slave trade really is from a moral and not just economic standpoint. The stench was unbearable, and many of these elitists were shocked. Yet, no moral argument seemed to make any difference.

Thus, the fight to abolish the slave trade was a long, grueling process that seemed at times to make progress, but became more and more of an impossible dream for men like William Wilberforce. In the end, these inspired individuals had to accomplish their goal from a political back road. They decided the way to end the slave trade would be to create laws that made the slave trade economically unprofitable. They would accomplish this by dropping the issue of slavery all together. So as not to arouse the suspicion of their opponents, Wilberforce and his colleagues had an unsuspecting member of the House of Commons introduce a bill to Parliament that made it a law to fly the British flag on all slave ships. Because of the current national conflicts with the Americans and the French, Wilberforce knew that many of these ships would be captured by enemy ships because the flag would make them easily identifiable as British ships. The enormous financial loss caused by this action made the slave trade less and less economically beneficial. Acting on what was economically best for the economy, Parliament had little choice than to accept the need to abolish the slave trade.

After so many years and years of so much effort, planning, and work, the slave trade was at last abolished. Accomplishing this task took such a long time, primarily because of the economic dependence Britain had come to place upon the slave trade. It was a way of life the members of society had grown up with, and they resisted change like the plague. As clearly portrayed in the movie, Amazing Grace, society was very economically driven. As such, a successful end could not be put to the slave trade until it was made a financially unprofitable institution. I feel that men like William Wilberforce and William Pitt were truly inspired. We owe so much to them and their dedication to what they knew to be right. They stood for freedom and equality and dedicated their lives to the cause. It is men with such vision and drive that truly change the world.