Talk:Amazing Grace (2006 film)/Historical inaccuracies

Historical inaccuracies

Prince William, the Duke of Clarence was not a member of the House of Commons, but was, beginning in 1789, a member of the House of Lords, where he did speak against the abolition of the slave trade. Prior to being made a duke like his elder brothers and receiving a similar Parliamentary grant, Prince William had put pressure on his reluctant father by threatening to run for the House of Commons. This prospect had horrified his father, George III, who in May 1789 made him a duke and thus ineligible for the House of Commons. Wilberforce addresses the Duke of Clarence as "Your Grace", which is not correct; as a prince, William's honorific would have been "Your Royal Highness". In one early scene, Clarence wagers his black slave coachman against Wilberforce in a card game. It is unlikely, that Clarence owned any domestic slaves at this time, as Somersett's Case in 1772 had virtually eliminated slavery in England. Furthermore, as the same scene is set in 1782, the Duke would have been serving in the Royal Navy. (Indeed, George Washington, in that same year, endorsed a plot to capture the Prince in New York.)

The film briefly refers to William's founding of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In reality, this post-dated the abolition debate by many years (1824).

Charles James Fox appears in Commons at the passage of the abolition bill, but he died in 1806, the year before the bill was passed. The speech given comparing Wilberforce and Napoleon's sleep was actually by Solicitor-General Sir Samuel Romilly. Fox was the younger son of a baron, and his title was "The Honourable Charles Fox" — not, as in the film, "Lord Charles Fox". Although portrayed as somewhat elderly and played by the sexagenarian actor Michael Gambon, Fox was in reality only ten years older than William Pitt and in his mid-30s when Pitt became Prime Minister.

Banastre Tarleton, later a baronet, was never a lord, as titled in the film. Furthermore, he is addressed as General Tarleton in the Hansard.

Various ships in the film fly the flag of the British East India Company despite the fact that that flag was not used outside the East Indies. When crossing the Atlantic, these ships would instead fly the British ensign.

In one scene Wilberforce, known as a fine singer, sings the first verse of "Amazing Grace". The verses written by John Newton were not associated with the now familiar melody until much later.

In a scene after Wilberforce's wedding (1797), John Newton is depicted as aged and blind when dictating his "confession" of his involvement in the slave trade, whereas Newton had authored Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade, which he described as his confession, some nine years earlier in 1788.