Amazing Grace Page #3

My friend William Pitt has declared an interest in me.

William who?

He's offering me a place in the world.

Just make sure you're in the world, not of the world.

There'd be no escape from power once I have it.

- I would have to see things through.

- Why wouldn't you?

Are you contemplating a life of solitude?

Wilber, you have work to do.

Besides, people like you too much

to let you live a life of solitude.

Haven't you chosen solitude?

You, of all people, should know I can never be alone.

There now.

- There now what?

- You're the reason I came.

You told me that you live in the company of 20,000 ghosts.

The ghosts of slaves.

I was explaining to a child

why a grown man cowers in a dark corner.

I need you to tell me about them.

I'm not strong enough to hear my own confession.

- I thought time might have changed you.

- It has. I'm older.

Pitt has asked me to take them on, the slavers.

I'm the last person you should come to for advice.

I can't even say the name of any of my ships

without being back onboard them in my head.

All I know is 20,000 slaves

live with me in this little church.

- There's still blood on my hands.

- Will you help me, John?

I can't help you.

But do it, Wilber. Do it.

Take them on. Blow their dirty,

filthy ships out of the water.

The planters, sugar barons,

Alderman "Sugar Cane",

the Lord Mayor of London.

Liverpool, Boston, Bristol, New York.

All their streets running

with blood, dysentery, puke!

You won't come away from those streets clean, Wilber.

You'll get filthy with it, you'll dream it,

see it in broad daylight.

But do it. For God's sake.

Sir, I have Mr Thomas Clarkson.

Forgive me.

Mr Wilberforce was here a moment ago.

I'd better go and find him.

- Good afternoon.

- Sorry if I alarmed you.

I had this box made up in the

exact dimensions of a slave berth.

I thought you could use it

in your practical demonstrations.

Why did you wait until your butler

had left before you got out of the box?

They all think I'm mad already.

As will most people in the House of Commons

when I present my bill.

Wilberforce, conditions in Jamaica

are far more brutal than I could have imagined.

Many children are scalded to

death by the molten lava.

Others die of exhaustion or roll

into the fires in their sleep.

The result in the morning is a

few pounds of pure, refined sugar.

Wilberforce, are you all right?

Sit up for me.

Here, drink this.

- What happened?

- I read James's letter from Jamaica.

When I fell asleep, it was as if I were living inside it.

Perhaps the laudanum the doctor gave you is badly mixed.

I know the effects of opium, Henry.

- This isn't the medication.

- What, then?

I was chosen for this task and I failed.

Some part of me does not accept the idea that I've given up.

- I'll dilute this.

- Can you dilute what I feel?

You've given your youth and your health for this cause.

It's time to let someone else try.

So, Mr Wilberforce...

...I understand you have an interest in botany.

Botany, Miss Spooner? Whatever gives

you the idea that I might be interested

in something as tedious as botany?

Sorry. It's a private joke.

Now, Wilber, I know you're not interested in botany,

but there's a fascinating creeping

ivy up the far end of the garden.

Barbara, you really must go and see it too.

Go on.

To irritate them, let's pretend to argue.

- What about?

- Something we disagree on.

Think of something.

The war in France.

I think we should settle with Napoleon right now.

So do I. Schools.

I'm a member of your movement for free education.

I agreed with every word you

said on the Dales factory debate.

You read every word?

- No.

- Neither did I.

- Gin.

- Replace it in the cities with beer.

Absolutely.

I'm definitely alone in my opinions about animals.

No. I joined your society for the prevention of cruelty.

Well, I'm extreme. I have a pet fox,

a pet rat and a crow that can't fly.

I used to have a pet hare, but it died of kindness.

America.

We must reassess the power of

the collective political process.

Agreed.

Oh, and, of course, we are agreed on slavery.

I'm against flowers in church.

What do you say to that?

I am for them.

As am I.

I shouldn't talk about the slave trade?

I've spent so many years talking about it.

So, what are a few more minutes?

When Mr Pitt first became prime minister,

the two of you were like meteorites

shooting through our imagination.

- Whose imaginations?

- Girls my age.

You stopped taking sugar in your tea?

I wore an abolition badge made by Josiah Wedgwood.

He was a good friend to us.

And I travelled 30 miles in the rain

to hear Thomas Clarkson speak.

- Did he deafen you?

- He opened my eyes.

- I met the African.

- Equiano.

He came to town with a hundred

copies of his book. They sold in an hour.

- You signed our petitions.

- A hundred times.

A hundred times. Three million names,

a million candles to read them by.

- Must have been so exciting.

- Exciting?

It seemed that every spring the daffodils came out,

every summer the cherries ripened

and every autumn William Wilberforce

would present his bill to the House.

- And still...

- And still...?

And still, after all the badges, the petitions,

all the speeches and the bills,

ships full of human souls in

chains sail around the world as cargo!

I'm sorry.

- This is why I shouldn't talk about it.

- I think you should.

There. We've found something we disagree on.

"Am I not a man whose soul is drawn to heaven

like water from the dark well of Africa?"

From Equiano's book.

He was a man like no other.

Please, tell me about him.

It seems to me

that if there is a bad taste in your mouth,

you spit it out.

You don't constantly swallow it back.

Not long after I first met him,

he asked me to come to the East India Dock.

He said there was a ship I should see.

A ship he knew well.

Mr Equiano.

This way.

Thank you, sir.

- Hello.

- Sweetheart.

They make you lie in this space.

The shackles dislocate your hip or your shoulder.

You are in pain all the way around the world.

How long is the journey?

Three weeks, if the weather is good.

For amusement, they sometimes hang the women from these,

by the ankles, to rape them.

In stormy weather, they take the very sickest

and throw them into the sea to lighten the ship's load.

How did you survive?

Your life is a thread.

It breaks or it doesn't break.

Before I travelled in a ship like this,

I was a prince, in many ways not unlike you.

It was a beautiful day like no other,

the last day I saw my home in Africa.

It is with a heavy heart

that I bring to the attention of this House

a trade which degrades men to the level of brutes

and insults the highest qualities

of our common nature.

I am speaking of... the slave trade.

I know that many of my honourable friends in this House

have interests in the Indies.

Others have investments in plantations.

Others are ship owners.

And I believe them to be men of humanity.

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