William Wilberforce is a kind-hearted person with a love for providing humanitarian aid. In the movie, he feeds poor people and encourages people to treat animals with kindness and respect. From his attitude and his actions, Wilberforce introduces the theme that a passionate individual can, with God’s help, change the world if he or she is willing to persevere.
Wilberforce emphatically insists that God created all men as equals and as such, he made it his life’s work to convince the Parliament to get rid of slavery. During the time period in which the film takes place, millions of African-Americans were taken and forcefully put into slave labor on sugarcane plantations. The conditions were inhumane and most died during the sea passage before ever reaching land. It is striking to think that one brave man, upheld by moral integrity, was able to stop this cruelty and change the course of history.
At the young age of twenty-one, Wilberforce is elected into the House of Commons with goals that he believes can be achieved. His primary goal is to get the institution of slavery abolished. He is old enough to know what he wants done, yet still young enough to believe that he can do it. John Newton, William’s childhood friend, acts as a mentor to him and is the primary reason that he puts his convictions into action to abolish slavery. The relationship between them in the movie is stirring as their scenes