'Amazing Grace' film on Wilberforce Called inspirational

February 12, 2007
By Michael Foust

William Wilberforce isn't a household name in America, but an upcoming motion picture is trying to change that.

"Amazing Grace" is the story of Wilberforce, a devout Christian and a member of the British Parliament who, beginning around 1787, sought to do what then seemed impossible — lead the British Empire to abolish the slave trade, what supporters called the lifeblood of the economy. He failed year after year before, finally, in 1807 — 200 years ago — his bill became law, abolishing an evil that had resulted in the enslavement and death of millions of Africans. Shortly before his death in 1833, he learned that another bill — to abolish the practice of slavery itself in the empire — would soon become law.

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