Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace is an excellent film that tells the story of William Wilberforce and his fight to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. Based on a true story, the film goes through the life of William Wilberforce which is relevant to understanding his involvement in Parliament and personal development in his fight for freedom for enslaved Africans. Amazing grace is an underlying theme, and the movie says (I’d be interested to discover if this was actually true) that a priest who was formerly the captain of a slave ship wrote the hymn.
Amazing Grace can be compared to social stratification, although on a much more extreme level than we discussed/read about in e-reserves. Our discussions of stratification dealt with lower, middle, and upper classes-complete and involuntary servitude was not even an option. Now, people of the lower class are still considered human-they are wrongly considered by some as having lesser value (hence their rights are abused) but they are still considered human; this basic privilege is not granted to the Africans. To those who supported the trade, slavery is not even considered stratification because how can stratification apply to those who aren’t even considered human? Their supposedly “superior” minds were so distorted they could not even recognize the common ties of humanity.
I really enjoyed this film. To me, a really excellent movie is one that makes you think. This one man dedicated everything he had-where most would have been discouraged or too worn down to continue, he stuck with it. So greatly he believed in his cause, so strong did he fight-it’s very inspiring. Small things do make a difference (like those on the community level who supported his work) but unless there are those in power who support change, it is so much more difficult to accomplish than (obviously proven by this film) it already is. Without this man working the Parliament-how long would it have taken before the slave trade was abolished? Even though it might have cost him everything politically, and even though it was costing him other things (like his life and his health), he did not abandon his cause. That’s amazing.
Wilberforce was successful in his campaign-it was a very long and difficult fight, but at the end, he was successful. Although slavery is no longer an issue, there are still other factors and issues just as important that are happening right now. Incredibly dedicated people fight for these issues everyday, yet they have not yet fully succeeded. There are things still going on. For example, abortion; I know that abortion is a highly controversial issue, but for me (I am very strongly pro-life) similar things that prevented the abolishment of slavery also prevent the abolishment of abortion: people want their power, people are selfish, and people don’t consider “them” humans. Abortion is one example of the point I’m trying to make: injustice is still prevalent and relevant today, it just takes different forms. It always makes me sick when I wonder if there are issues out there that I'm bind about...