Breaking the chains
Breaking the chains
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An amazing disgrace
Amazing Grace is being screened in cinemas nationally from 23 March
The slave trade and the struggle against it were magnificent dramas superior even to the Greek tragedies which involved millions of human beings, on three continents, in a protracted and mighty struggle against greed and cruelty and in defence of liberty and dignity. Thus was the analysis of Black scholar and historian, W.E.B DuBois. By contrast, the movie, Amazing Grace reduces this epic struggle to little more than an English fairy story.
The two main historical faults of this film are first, it does not show us that the English abolitionist movement owed its beginning, its momentum, and its eventual success to the activities of the slaves themselves. The second is that the abolition of the trade could only succeed at the moment in economic development when other sources of exploitation became available to English capital, namely, the working classes in England. But there is not a word,or a whisper, about them in Amazing Grace.
As a Magistrate in Yorkshire, Wilberforce, was an agent for prudery and political repression. As the head of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, he opposed stage dancers, ballad singers, gingerbread fairs, nude swimming, and favoured imprisonment for adultery. As an MP, Wilberforce helped to draft the Sedition Act in 1795 making it treason to write or speak against the King or government. He supported William Pitt's Combination Act of 1799 which forbade the workers of England from combining to reduce the hours of their toil or to increase the remuneration for their labour.
The movie shows us the young William Wilberforce gambling against the Duke of Clarence, who runs out of cash and decides to wager with the only other possession he has with him. "Bring me my nig***," he commands. The illusion of the entire social system shatters,as his Afro-British coachman enters to be traded at the gaming table. Wilberforce in shock concedes his hand and withdraws in a huff. Where did he think money came from? The trees?
As a hero, Wilberforce is handsome, romantic and rides a white horse whenever possible. In the first scene we see him stopping his coach in the rain, in order to relieve the suffering of a wounded horse being beaten by two teamsters. The film depicts sympathy towards animals and antagonism towards workers.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film centres on the unrolling on the floor of the Commons of a petition against the trade with hundreds of thousands of signatures. Another historic scene focuses on the insertion into the bill of the word 'gradually'. 'Gradually, gradually,' murmured the authorities.
This movie is part of the selfcongratulation of the English ruling class excusing itself for some of the most odious and reprehensible crimes in history. The name of William Wilberforce became a byword for liberation in the Caribbean islands thousands of miles away, but at home in industrial Yorkshire his name was a synonym for prudery and political repression. Say his name with a West Indian intonation - William Wilberfarce.
Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains is the best current study of the British abolitionists. In it you can learn about some of the flilm's real heroes - Hannah More, Thomas Clarkson, Charles James Fox, Olaudah Equiano, and John Newton. This movie, far from expressing the truth about their lives and the slave trade, is a whitewash and a disgrace.
Amazing Grace is being screened in cinemas nationally from 23 March. Peter Linebaugh teaches history at the University of Toledo. He can be reached at: plineba@yahoo.com
Penguin Books
The 'Transatlantic Slave Trade' describes the sale and exploitation of African slaves by Europeans, that occurred in and around the Atlantic Ocean during the period from the 15th century to the 19th century. Most slaves were transported from West and Central Africa, to the new world. It is estimated that 12 million Africans arrived in the new world, making it one of the largest forced migrations in human history. The transatlantic slave trade formed part of the notorious 'Triangular Trade' between Europe, Africa and the Americas. The profits from which, partly funded Britain's industrial revolution, which was to make Britain one of the richest countries in the world.
The Middle Passage refers to the sailing voyage of slave ships from Africa to the Americas. The passage could take anywhere from six weeks to three months, during which the African captives were considered as 'cargo' and inhumanely packed together, below the deck of a ship for the majority of the journey.
The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed in Parliament on 25 March 1807. It prohibited the capture, transport, buying and selling of slaves within the British Empire from 1 May 1807. Although it did not end slavery, the act signalled the end of the slave trade in Britain and the colonies. There was a mass movement behind the act that brought together many different members of society from enslaved Africans to British abolitionists.
• UNISON's national race equalities officer is Pav Akhtar.
UNISON Black History Month
1 Mabledon Place
London WC1H 9AJ
Email: p.akhtar@unison.co.uk
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