Press & Media
Baptist Press
Wilberforce
documentary airing on PBS
By Michael Foust
Feb 27, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--One year after
the movie "Amazing Grace" reintroduced
America to William Wilberforce, a new
documentary about the famous Christian
abolitionist seeks to shed more light on
the British man whose fight against
slavery inspired Abraham Lincoln and
countless other people of faith
throughout the world.
"The Better Hour: The Legacy of William
Wilberforce" is airing on PBS stations
nationally beginning this month and also
is available on DVD. (A list of
broadcast times is available at
www.thebetterhour.org. Click on "TV
Info.") Funded by the John Templeton
Foundation, the one-hour program details
how Wilberforce, a member of Parliament,
was driven by his faith to fight great
odds for 20 years to end the slave trade
in the British empire, finally
succeeding in 1807.
Although Americans are prone to remember
Lincoln when the subject of slavery
arises, the former president himself
mentioned Wilberforce's name in
speeches.
Last year's Amazing Grace film -- so
named because of Wilberforce's
friendship with John Newton, writer of
the famous hymn -- surprised some movie
observers by grossing $21 million
domestically. It was released during the
200th anniversary of the abolition of
the slave trade in Britain.
"It's been a nice one-two punch," The
Better Hour spokeswoman Sheila Weber
said of the film and documentary,
"because they came out with the feature
film that highlighted the larger story,
but it's very satisfying for people when
they see the documentary because it
fills in a lot of the gaps and it gives
more content and more commentary. We
have interviews with leading historians
and scholars. And it's very inspiring --
it's not a dry and dull documentary."
The documentary gets its name from a
tribute to Wilberforce written by the
poet William Cowper, who said
Wilberforce's effort led to "the better
hour" for Britain.
Wilberforce already was a member of
Parliament when he became a Christian,
and he struggled in deciding whether he
should stay in the legislature or become
a clergyman within the Church of
England. But Newton, himself a former
captain of a slave ship who later became
an abolitionist, urged Wilberforce to
remain a legislator. Wilberforce's
oratorical skills were well-respected
and even feared by other legislators.
"God may have a purpose for you in
politics," Newton is said to have told
Wilberforce, according to Wilberforce
expert Kevin Belmonte, who appears in
the documentary.
In 1787 Wilberforce wrote in his diary,
"God Almighty has placed before me two
great objects, the suppression of the
slave trade and the reformation of
manners [morals]."
The slave trade was an evil almost
beyond description. Slaves were taken
from the west coast of Africa on a two-
to three-month voyage to the West
Indies, where they were sold. Conditions
for the slaves aboard the ships were
atrocious: They were kept under the
deck, chained side by side. According to
the Wilberforce 2007 campaign, each man
had a space roughly six feet long, 16
inches wide; each woman had a space two
inches shorter and the same width. They
often had to lie in feces and urine, and
many died of disease during the journey.
It is estimated more than 10 million
Africans were put aboard the ships, with
perhaps more than 2 million dying during
the journey.
At the beginning of Wilberforce's effort
around 1787, many members of Parliament
argued that abolishing the slave trade
would collapse the economy, and MPs used
all sorts of tactics to kill the bill,
including giving opera tickets to
Wilberforce's MP supporters the day of a
scheduled vote (a tactic that worked).
But 20 years later, some of those same
members of Parliament supported
Wilberforce when his bill overwhelming
passed, 283-16.
Christian leaders say Wilberforce should
serve as an example of how faith should
drive believers to change society for
the better by, for instance, ridding the
world both of abortion, and, once and
for all, slavery, which still exists in
some parts of the world. Wilberforce's
faith plays a significant role in the
documentary.
"I've known about him for 40 years, and
he has been something of an inspiration
to me," Richard Land, president of the
Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious
Commission, told Baptist Press.
Representatives with The Better Hour are
encouraging churches and community
groups to watch the documentary in small
settings and discuss it afterward. A
book, "Creating the Better Hour," is
being released to coincide with the
documentary. It has a foreword by Rick
Warren and chapters written by such
notables as Charles Colson.
Additionally, The Better Hour is
sponsoring a $10,000 contest for high
school students. (Deadline is March 1.)
Information is available at
www.thebetterhour.org.
"While [the documentary] will be
satisfying to the faith community, it's
also presented in a tone that will be
really appropriate to show outside of
the church," Weber said. "That's a good
thing... William Wilberforce is a
wonderful icon of what it means to be a
Christian."
Michael Foust is
assistant editor of Baptist Press. "The
Better Hour" documentary contains no
offensive language but does contain
drawings depicting nude slaves.
(c)Copyright 2008
Baptist Press
Original copy of this story can be found
at
http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=27505
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