What are some historical inaccuracies of the movie The Amazing Grace?

Question

Hi, i put this in this section because the people over in the movie section probably dont know much about history anyways. I want to know what stuff portrayed in The Amazing Grace (any kind of detail) is not historical accurate, including dates and stuff.

Answer 1

First, whatever I list here, I LOVE this movie.... and its message. And I even understand the reason for many of the inaccuracies -- that is, i believe many were decided on in order to more clearly highlight a connection or to connect with the audience. And some are born of necessity (e.g., you really HAD to use the familiar tune of "Amazing Grace" even though it was not in use at that time.)

Also, the list is slightly haphazard -- things I noticed and knew or knew enough to check on, and remembered when I sat down to write this! or happened to run across in reviews. So it may miss significant ones.

The SONG
- not as popular as the movie suggests; its real popularity came in the U.S., then was transplanted back to England
- the TUNE was not even used with the song until about 1830, and then only in America till well into the 20th century (Its true popularity seems to have begun via early 20th century hymnbooks and revivalists. See the story in

John Newton
- I don't believe Newton and Wilberforce knew each other when he was a boy (though Wilberforce was, through extended family, brought into contact with evangelicals in his youth)
- may at the start overplay his opposition to the slave trade
- has him writing his 'confession' "Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade" in the late 1790s; in fact, he was recruited to write it a decade earlier (1787)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton#Abolitionist

Equiano
- it is not actually clear that he ever MET Wilberforce. (Some have complained that his role was minimized. I disagree -- it was not the focus, but you DID get some sense of how influential he was, how his autobiography swept the nation and changed hearts....)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaudah_Equiano

Thomas Clarkson
- his role seems quite reduced in fact, HE was more the mover and shaker; it was HE who did vast research, travelled all over England recruiting. Indeed it was HE who decided they needed a voice in Parliament and set out to recruit Wilberforce. He also spear-headed the 'protest movement' and its techniques, seen to this day -- in rallies, petitions..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Clarkson

It's not really necessary to debate who was the more significant figure in this -- it's probably fair, in the end, to think of them as equals.

Clarkson's own fascinating story is well-told in the recent book *Bury the Chains* by Adam Hochschild (Clarkson won a LATIN competition at Oxford on the subject of slavery -- and after his thorough research his conscience demanded that he devote his life to this cause.) There is also a fine eulogy to Clarkson, written at the time of his death in 1846. that lays out his (and so, to some extent Wilberforce's) work

Alexander Crummel's Eulogy of Thomas Clarkson (1846, New York):
http://dlxs.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=mayantislavery;idno=22876107;view=image;seq=1


OTHER anti-slavery people:
- hard to get everyone in I suppose -- and this was never meant to be a story of the campaign as a whole, but a window into it through one key man in the struggle. But it would help at least to see the foundational role of people like Granville Sharp in the 1760s to 80s E.g., It was Sharp who pushed a lawsuit that led to the OUTLAWING of slavery in England in 1772. (Don't know how you could really do all that in 2 hours though, and the force of the story/biography would likely be lost.)

he stories of various British abolitionists
http://www.brycchancarey.com/abolition/index.htm

In fact, check out that whole site! http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/index.htm

Sharp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granville_Sharp
See also the book on the court case, etc. - *Though the Heavens May Fall: The Landmark Trial That Led to the End of Human Slavery* by Steven M. Wise (2005)

Wilberforce
- movie does acknkowledge his evangelical, but downplays it a bit; it was in fact THE driving force in his effort... as it was for the others who fought the slave trade....
- his conversion - the movie seems to suggest it was rather mystical; in real life, the key seems to have been his 1784 tour of Europe during which he and a friend read Philip Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion and then to study the New Testament.
- has him moving to Clapham only after his marriage; in fact, he was part of the "Clapham Sect" years before this

- oddly, the postscript does not explain more about the campaing AFTER 1807, esp. the effort which came to fruition at about the time of Wilberforce's death, to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire (Thereafter, Clarkson began yet ANOTHER society, which exists to this day, to fight against slavery throughout the world, beginning by helping abolitionists in the U.S.. The movie's "AmazingChange(.com)" campaign is hooked up with them.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce


Unusual and Impossible events:
- Wilberforce's courtship with Barbara Spooner was indeed brief, though not quite as brief as the the movie suggests (he propsosed after two weeks; in the movie it looks more like two days)
- the future king (William IV) speaks in the House of COMMONS! (Perhaps not quite so odd - he did threaten to RUN for the House of Commons to pressure his father; he was, therupon, created Duke of Clarence.) Also, the Duke spoke AGAINST slavery in the House of Lords in the 1790s.
- Charles Fox makes a stirring speech, several months after he died!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom

Answer 2

i've seen it and i think all of it is historically acurate.