Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance
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Go on! Go on, you lazy nag!
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Stop a moment!
3
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Go on!
4
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Go on!
5
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Wilber.
Wilber, you're not well enough.
6
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For once, let it pass.
7
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If you leave your horse alone for an hour, he might recover.
8
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And who the hell are you?
9
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Hey.
10
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I've seen him speak in London.
That's William Wilberforce.
11
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- Now what?
- Leave it.
12
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- Welcome home, sir.
- You're so late!
13
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The mud stole half a day.
14
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But Marianne, look.
I have a surprise for you.
15
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- I hope a pleasant one.
- Wilber. Wilber, is that you?
16
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Oh, it is, half of me. My idiotic body is playing games with me again.
17
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- I promised we'd make him well.
- Eat something.
18
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Breakfast, perhaps.
Not too early. I'm on holiday.
19
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Isn't that right, cousin Henry?
20
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Don't you talk to each other? Haven't you told him he's killing himself?
21
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Now he's with us, he'll be fine.
22
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What time is it?
23
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This is your 3 a.m. dose.
24
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So, cousin, you're waking me up to give me medicine to help me sleep.
25
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Ah. Now you're taking on the medical profession, as well as everyone else.
26
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Did you sleep?
27
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Sleep is more exhausting than being awake.
28
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The laudanum will sharpen your dreams.
29
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It replays my life to mock me and shows me things I should have done but didn't.
30
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Wilber, Parliament doesn't deserve you.
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Your last bill was defeated because four of your loyal supporters
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took free tickets to a comic opera rather than stay to vote.
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In my dreams, I turned over their tables.
34
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But you know the worst thing?
I can't sing any more.
35
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You remember how well I used to sing?
36
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Marianne and I will find a way to restore your voice.
37
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The Romans believed this water would restore the dead to life.
38
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Most pump water I've investigated works in the opposite direction.
39
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So?
40
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- What was so urgent?
- Did I say it was urgent?
41
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Marianne, are you expecting someone else?
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Inside this building, you will find the secret of health and happy life.
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In a glass of water?
44
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You may have noticed,
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since I married Marianne, I have been a picture of health.
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- I'm very happy for you.
- It is almost a scientific fact.
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Marriage and health are twins.
Inseparable.
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Single men wither away and die in rooms that smell of feet and armpits.
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Henry, what are you babbling on about?
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Love, Wilberforce.
Come. Come, we're late.
51
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The water has been here a million years.
How can we be late?
52
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- So, what shall we discuss next?
- I don't know.
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The abolition of the slave trade.
How about that?
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Marianne, if I'd known you were so starved of political conversation,
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I'd have wrapped up a Tory and sent him to your home by mail
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for you to shout at.
57
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Ah, now, look at that.
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Here we are discussing the abolition of the slave trade
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and in walks my husband with William Wilberforce himself,
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the most committed abolitionist in England and also, of course,
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the most unmarried.
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Oh. Look over there. It's Marianne.
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And who's the charming-looking woman with her?
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- Marianne's here?
- Never mind about her.
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Look at the woman she's with.
Barbara Spooner.
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Very committed to very many good causes.
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And also entirely unmarried.
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Marianne, you're outrageous!
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I do not need you or anyone else to find a wife for me!
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Carriage! Carriage over here.
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- I'll never forgive him.
- I'll never forgive her.
72
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However, Mr Wilberforce, if we had met in other circumstances,
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I would have told you how deeply I admire your tireless efforts
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to force our ridiculous Parliament to abolish the slave trade.
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If you had, I would have changed the subject and talked about botany.
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Botany? Why botany?
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Anything but politics.
I'm in Bath to be cured of politics.
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Well, I would have been bored by botany.
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So, even in other circumstances, it would have been a disaster.
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- Good day to you.
- Good day to you.
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Some simple truths about this horrendous war
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need to be restated for the benefit of my honourable friends.
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Simple fact. We have the rebels on the anvil and a hammer in our hands.
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There is no question that our military force
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is far superior to that of the Americans.
86
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But we must distinguish between force and justice.
87
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Where did this terrier spring from?
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I believe he's a Yorkshire terrier, My Lord.
89
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...rather than able statesmen.
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Surely it is time for the fat fellow and his friends opposite
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to make way for others who consider the good of their country
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of greater moment than their own personal interests.
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Doesn't he know what dangers await anyone who talks sense in this place?
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Oh, I think he's equal to the dangers.
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My honourable friend suggests we surrender to the revolutionaries.
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Revolution is like a pox.
It spreads from person to person.
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I bow to my honourable friend's superior knowledge and experience
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in all matters regarding the pox.
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Why would we withdraw from America
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when half of the Americans are loyal to the Crown?
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Less than one in four Americans are loyal.
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If he calls that half, I'd hate to be his wife and share half his bed.
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Mr Foreign Secretary.
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My honourable and young friend should explain to the House
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the difference between appeasement and surrender.
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Hear, hear!
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The difference between appeasement and surrender is merely a matter of time
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and perhaps 10,000 more young lives
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wasted for no reason.
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Go on.
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Two guineas.
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Sweet Prospero, why hast thou forsaken me?
113
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Brave in the House, but at the table a mouse.
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Your Grace, you know these merchant boys are richer than we are.
115
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Aye. I have ten guineas left.
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So ten it is.
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In or out, Wilberforce?
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- A pencil and paper.
- No, no, no.
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Brooks's Club house rules. No IOUs.
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Amongst gentlemen, perhaps, but Wilberforce is a tradesman.
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You gamble with what you have with you.
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Wilberforce, will you take my IOU?
123
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- We split the pot and call it evens.
- To hell with that. Payment in kind.
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There's nothing you have I'd want, Your Grace.
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Tarleton, fetch my nigger.
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My coach driver.
Go and wake him up and bring him in now.
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I bought a nigger in Port of Spain.
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He eats better than I do, so he's strong as an ox.
129
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He'd fetch at least 25 guineas at the West India Dock.
130
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The game is over.
131
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What's wrong, Wilberforce?
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If I hadn't brought the boy to London,
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he'd have been worked to death in a sugar cane field.
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I saved his miserable life. There.
135
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I raise the stakes.
136
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Wilberforce? In the game or out?
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Evening.
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You act as if you'd never seen slavery before.
139
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For me it's like arsenic.
Each new tiny dose doubles the effect.
140
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- You're not afraid of Clarence.
- Because he's the son of the king?
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So, you want "bloody noses and cracked crowns"?
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- Shakespeare, Henry IV.
- A play about England changing.
143
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- As it will soon change.- Only if we change it.
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You don't believe you and I could change things?
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I would change myself first.
146
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Do you remember, Billy, at Cambridge
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I had a reputation as something of a singer?
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I do remember.
149
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So I think I'm going to go and sing them a song.
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Silence!
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Silence!
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You sound like a chorus of bloody tomcats.
153
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Now, let me introduce you to somebody who does it properly.
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I dedicate this song to my honourable friend,
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His Grace, the Duke of Clarence.
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It was written by my old preacher.
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He was captain of a slave ship for 20 years.
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He repented his sins and then he wrote this song.
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# Amazing Grace
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- # How sweet the sound
- Times are hard for the militant boys!
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# That saved a wretch
162
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# Like me
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# I once was lost
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# But now am found
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# Was blind
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# But now
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# I see #
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Dear God, I know this is utterly absurd,
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but I feel I have to meet you in secret.
170
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Sorry to interrupt, sir.
There is a beggar at the kitchen door.
171
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I would turn him away, sir, but you insisted I always check.
172
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Just give him breakfast.
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Very good, sir.
174
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- Richard?
- Sir?
175
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I know that lying down on the wet grass is not a normal thing to do.
176
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None of my business, sir.
177
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Truth is, uh...
178
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...I've been even more strange than usual lately, haven't I?
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It's God.
180
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I have 10,000 engagements of state today,
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but I would prefer to spend the day getting a wet arse,
182
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studying dandelions and marvelling at bloody spiders' webs.
183
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You've found God, sir?
184
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I think he found me.
185
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Do you have any idea how inconvenient that is,
186
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how idiotic it will sound?
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I've a political career glittering ahead of me
188
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and in my heart I want spiders' webs.
189
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"It is a sad fate for a man to die too well-known to everybody else
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and still unknown to himself."
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Francis Bacon.
192
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I don'tjust dust your books, sir.
193
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When I was 15, I almost ran away with the circus.
194
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They said I could have been an acrobat.
195
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- Good morning, Mr Pitt.
- Morning.
196
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Excuse me, sir.
197
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You read my letter.
198
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The man who wrote that letter was not you.
199
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It was written by some wild preacher man that has gotten into your head.
200
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No.
201
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- So did he reply?
- Who
202
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God. You were going to ask God whether you should take up politics or religion.
203
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You're always too direct, Billy.
204
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I urgently need to know where your heart lies, Wilber.
205
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- What's urgent?
- I...
206
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I'm planning to become prime minister.
207
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- Some day.
- No, I mean soon. Very soon.
208
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Thanks to your performances in the House, Fox and North will resign.
209
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Lord Rockingham will become prime minister.
210
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Lord Rockingham's health is not good.
When he dies, I will make my move.
211
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- You've worked it all out.
- I want you beside me, Wilber.
212
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All the way.
213
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You've read my letter but not taken in a word.
214
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I would have you in my government in whichever capacity you choose.
215
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Billy, no one of our age has ever taken power.
216
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Which is why we're too young to realise that certain things are impossible.
217
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So we will do them anyway.
218
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I need an answer, Wilber.
219
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Do you intend to use your beautiful voice to praise the Lord
220
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or change the world?
221
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Here. Cut this, will you?
222
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- I've got too much to do.
- You take care of them.
223
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Any more flour?
224
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- I can't!
- Put your elbow into it.
225
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Marjorie, Mr Wilberforce is on his way down.
226
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Marjorie, I'm expecting some people for dinner.
227
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Marjorie? Marjorie?
228
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- She's been run off her feet, sir.
- How so?
229
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Well, take today, for example.
You have 25 guests for lunch.
230
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Do I?
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If you remember, you decided to reward various volunteers
232
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who worked for some quite precariously financed charities.
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Some brought deserving children.
Others brought less deserving relatives.
234
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- I really should get some sort of...
- Diary, sir. Yes. Or more cooks.
235
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Go on! Go on!
236
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Is that the appetiser?
237
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No, that's His Grace, the Duke of Clarence.
238
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Wilberforce, the Reverend John Ramsay.
239
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Reverend.
240
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Edward Hope.
241
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And Michael Shaw. Both friends.
242
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- This is Olaudah Equiano.
- Mr Equiano. Please.
243
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- You've travelled far to be here?
- No distance would be too great.
244
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- And this is Hannah Moore.
- Mr Wilberforce.
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Who has travelled all the way from Clapham.
246
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Finally, let me introduce Mr Thomas Clarkson.
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Beautiful house. Sweet little rabbit.
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It's a hare, actually.
249
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Please.
250
00:24:12,880 --> 00:24:15,990
So come on. Who are they?
251
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,540
Why don't you ask them?
252
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:31,510
Well, I hope the goose is tender.
She was rather old.
253
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,470
I find the older I get, the more tender I become.
254
00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:44,150
So, Miss Moore, you live in Clapham.
255
00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:46,310
I hear it's very tranquil there.
256
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:49,550
When certain issues are raised amongst my friends and I,
257
00:24:49,720 --> 00:24:51,950
it is anything but tranquil.
258
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:55,310
Ah. And, uh, which issues are those?
259
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:58,910
Issues regarding the making of a better world.
260
00:24:59,080 --> 00:25:00,950
Better in which way?
261
00:25:01,120 --> 00:25:05,070
If you make the world better in one way, it becomes better in every way.
262
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:07,230
Don't you think?
263
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,910
Mr Equiano, what business brings you to London?
264
00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,270
My business in London is you, Mr Wilberforce.
265
00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:19,670
What? You wish to discuss something with me?
266
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,470
No. We do not want to talk
267
00:25:22,640 --> 00:25:26,510
because we hear that you are a man who doesn't believe what he hears
268
00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:29,270
until he sees it with his own eyes.
269
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:52,190
These are for the legs.
270
00:25:57,760 --> 00:25:58,950
These for the arms.
271
00:26:02,720 --> 00:26:05,100
This is for the neck.
272
00:26:07,160 --> 00:26:09,870
Works like so.
273
00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:17,590
When the slaves leave port in Africa,
274
00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:20,550
they're locked into a space four foot by 18 inches.
275
00:26:20,720 --> 00:26:25,230
They have no sanitation, very little food, stagnant water.
276
00:26:25,400 --> 00:26:30,790
Their waste and blood fills the holes within three days and is never emptied.
277
00:26:30,960 --> 00:26:36,310
These irons and chains are to keep them from throwing themselves overboard.
278
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:41,990
The chains are not unlocked until you reach the plantation in Jamaica.
279
00:26:42,160 --> 00:26:45,430
Around half of the slaves are dead already.
280
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:49,550
In the markets, they stuff knotted rope
281
00:26:49,720 --> 00:26:52,670
into the anuses of those who are sick
282
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,950
to disguise the dysentery.
283
00:26:56,120 --> 00:27:01,510
When you reach the plantation, they put irons to the fire...
284
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:04,590
...and do this.
285
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:10,830
To let you know that you no longer belong to God, but to a man.
286
00:27:12,800 --> 00:27:17,590
Mr Wilberforce, we understand you're having problems
287
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,590
choosing whether to do the work of God
288
00:27:20,760 --> 00:27:23,430
or the work of a political activist.
289
00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:30,630
We humbly suggest that you can do both.
290
00:27:57,880 --> 00:27:59,870
You planned this.
291
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:02,420
I've seen the literature you've been reading.
292
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,550
You've stooped to searching through my desk?
293
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:09,950
Sir William Dolben told me you'd asked to be shown round the East India Docks.
294
00:28:15,280 --> 00:28:19,710
So, you would use my private concerns for your own political ends.
295
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,550
Yes, exactly that.
296
00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:29,950
The principles of Christianity lead to action as well as meditation.
297
00:28:30,120 --> 00:28:33,190
Allow me to meditate on it before I decide on any action.
298
00:28:33,360 --> 00:28:37,030
Just think about this, Wilber.
299
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,510
The slave trade has 300 MPs in its pocket.
300
00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:44,760
It would be just you against them.
301
00:28:45,960 --> 00:28:47,150
But you could do it.
302
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:51,350
You would do it.
303
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:14,260
Oh, stop moaning.
304
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:20,550
Excuse me, sir.
305
00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:25,190
Do you have a penny for a boy that went to fight the Yanks
306
00:29:25,360 --> 00:29:26,550
and came back half a man?
307
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:46,230
Hello, Mr Newton. It's me, William.
308
00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:50,070
Hello, John. How are you?
309
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:55,670
Hello, John. It's me, Wilber.
310
00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:00,510
I'm here to seek your...
311
00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:19,630
The beggar at the door assures me that I'm now old enough
312
00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:22,100
to call you John.
313
00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:28,910
You're dressing very simply these days.
314
00:30:29,080 --> 00:30:34,390
I'm a simple man. I try to pretend I am a monk, but I don't have the willpower.
315
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,910
I'm a monk Mondays, Wednesdays...
316
00:30:38,080 --> 00:30:42,830
When I read your name in the papers, doing these great things,
317
00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,910
I still see a tiny boy with his hair a mess
318
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:48,540
and ink on his fingers.
319
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:55,510
So, what do you want with an old creature?
320
00:30:55,680 --> 00:30:58,240
I'm here to seek your advice.
321
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,870
When you were a child, you used to ask God for advice.
322
00:31:02,040 --> 00:31:05,870
Then I grew up. And grew foolish.
323
00:31:06,040 --> 00:31:07,870
And now?
324
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:14,270
Now... slowly, my faith is returning.
325
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:17,000
How slowly?
326
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:20,350
No bolts of lightning.
327
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:26,230
God sometimes does his work with gentle drizzle, not storms.
328
00:31:26,400 --> 00:31:30,310
Drip... drip... drip.
329
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,390
My friend William Pitt has declared an interest in me.
330
00:31:36,560 --> 00:31:37,990
William who?
331
00:31:39,840 --> 00:31:42,070
He's offering me a place in the world.
332
00:31:42,240 --> 00:31:46,070
Just make sure you're in the world, not of the world.
333
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,900
There'd be no escape from power once I have it.
334
00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:54,590
- I would have to see things through.
- Why wouldn't you?
335
00:32:00,800 --> 00:32:03,470
Are you contemplating a life of solitude?
336
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:10,030
Wilber, you have work to do.
337
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:14,230
Besides, people like you too much
338
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:16,550
to let you live a life of solitude.
339
00:32:16,720 --> 00:32:18,550
Haven't you chosen solitude?
340
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:23,910
You, of all people, should know I can never be alone.
341
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:26,830
There now.
342
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,590
- There now what?
- You're the reason I came.
343
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:38,990
You told me that you live in the company of 20,000 ghosts.
344
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:42,150
The ghosts of slaves.
345
00:32:44,600 --> 00:32:48,470
I was explaining to a child
346
00:32:48,640 --> 00:32:54,150
why a grown man cowers in a dark corner.
347
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,230
I need you to tell me about them.
348
00:33:03,400 --> 00:33:06,270
I'm not strong enough to hear my own confession.
349
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,510
- I thought time might have changed you.
- It has. I'm older.
350
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:15,350
Pitt has asked me to take them on, the slavers.
351
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:18,270
I'm the last person you should come to for advice.
352
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,740
I can't even say the name of any of my ships
353
00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,950
without being back onboard them in my head.
354
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:29,060
All I know is 20,000 slaves live with me in this little church.
355
00:33:29,240 --> 00:33:33,270
- There's still blood on my hands.
- Will you help me, John?
356
00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:35,950
I can't help you.
357
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:39,900
But do it, Wilber. Do it.
358
00:33:40,080 --> 00:33:43,860
Take them on. Blow their dirty, filthy ships out of the water.
359
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:46,600
The planters, sugar barons,
360
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,540
Alderman "Sugar Cane", the Lord Mayor of London.
361
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,710
Liverpool, Boston, Bristol, New York.
362
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:59,430
All their streets running with blood, dysentery, puke!
363
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,220
You won't come away from those streets clean, Wilber.
364
00:34:04,400 --> 00:34:07,750
You'll get filthy with it, you'll dream it,
365
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:10,710
see it in broad daylight.
366
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:15,150
But do it. For God's sake.
367
00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,550
Sir, I have Mr Thomas Clarkson.
368
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:31,710
Forgive me.
Mr Wilberforce was here a moment ago.
369
00:34:32,680 --> 00:34:35,060
I'd better go and find him.
370
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:56,990
- Good afternoon.
- Sorry if I alarmed you.
371
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:02,740
I had this box made up in the exact dimensions of a slave berth.
372
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:08,350
I thought you could use it in your practical demonstrations.
373
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:15,190
Why did you wait until your butler had left before you got out of the box?
374
00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:18,910
They all think I'm mad already.
375
00:35:21,240 --> 00:35:24,590
As will most people in the House of Commons
376
00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:27,470
when I present my bill.
377
00:35:33,760 --> 00:35:36,510
Wilberforce, conditions in Jamaica
378
00:35:36,680 --> 00:35:39,830
are far more brutal than I could have imagined.
379
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:45,020
Many children are scalded to death by the molten lava.
380
00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:50,430
Others die of exhaustion or roll into the fires in their sleep.
381
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:55,230
The result in the morning is a few pounds of pure, refined sugar.
382
00:35:58,480 --> 00:36:01,510
Wilberforce, are you all right?
383
00:36:04,160 --> 00:36:06,150
Sit up for me.
384
00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:10,950
Here, drink this.
385
00:36:17,280 --> 00:36:21,630
- What happened?
- I read James's letter from Jamaica.
386
00:36:21,800 --> 00:36:25,190
When I fell asleep, it was as if I were living inside it.
387
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:30,660
Perhaps the laudanum the doctor gave you is badly mixed.
388
00:36:30,840 --> 00:36:32,750
I know the effects of opium, Henry.
389
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:37,270
- This isn't the medication.
- What, then?
390
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:40,310
I was chosen for this task and I failed.
391
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:47,880
Some part of me does not accept the idea that I've given up.
392
00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:50,910
- I'll dilute this.
- Can you dilute what I feel?
393
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:58,310
You've given your youth and your health for this cause.
394
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:01,390
It's time to let someone else try.
395
00:37:21,440 --> 00:37:25,110
So, Mr Wilberforce...
396
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:27,660
...I understand you have an interest in botany.
397
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:34,590
Botany, Miss Spooner? Whatever gives you the idea that I might be interested
398
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:37,060
in something as tedious as botany?
399
00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:54,710
Sorry. It's a private joke.
400
00:38:00,760 --> 00:38:04,710
Now, Wilber, I know you're not interested in botany,
401
00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:10,390
but there's a fascinating creeping ivy up the far end of the garden.
402
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:13,590
Barbara, you really must go and see it too.
403
00:38:13,760 --> 00:38:15,750
Go on.
404
00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:25,310
To irritate them, let's pretend to argue.
405
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,990
- What about?
- Something we disagree on.
406
00:38:28,160 --> 00:38:30,150
Think of something.
407
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,310
The war in France.
408
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:37,070
I think we should settle with Napoleon right now.
409
00:38:37,240 --> 00:38:40,150
So do I. Schools.
410
00:38:40,320 --> 00:38:43,070
I'm a member of your movement for free education.
411
00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:46,860
I agreed with every word you said on the Dales factory debate.
412
00:38:47,040 --> 00:38:49,030
You read every word?
413
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:52,870
- No.
- Neither did I.
414
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,990
- Gin.
- Replace it in the cities with beer.
415
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:00,260
Absolutely.
416
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:05,630
I'm definitely alone in my opinions about animals.
417
00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,630
No. I joined your society for the prevention of cruelty.
418
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:12,550
Well, I'm extreme. I have a pet fox, a pet rat and a crow that can't fly.
419
00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:15,100
I used to have a pet hare, but it died of kindness.
420
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,070
America.
421
00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:21,990
We must reassess the power of the collective political process.
422
00:39:22,160 --> 00:39:23,260
Agreed.
423
00:39:23,320 --> 00:39:25,470
Oh, and, of course, we are agreed on slavery.
424
00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:29,110
I'm against flowers in church.
What do you say to that?
425
00:39:29,280 --> 00:39:31,270
I am for them.
426
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:34,990
As am I.
427
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,150
I shouldn't talk about the slave trade?
428
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:43,360
I've spent so many years talking about it.
429
00:39:43,520 --> 00:39:45,750
So, what are a few more minutes?
430
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:48,150
When Mr Pitt first became prime minister,
431
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:52,430
the two of you were like meteorites shooting through our imagination.
432
00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:56,430
- Whose imaginations?
- Girls my age.
433
00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:58,590
You stopped taking sugar in your tea?
434
00:39:58,760 --> 00:40:01,390
I wore an abolition badge made by Josiah Wedgwood.
435
00:40:01,560 --> 00:40:03,350
He was a good friend to us.
436
00:40:03,520 --> 00:40:07,300
And I travelled 30 miles in the rain to hear Thomas Clarkson speak.
437
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:10,510
- Did he deafen you?
- He opened my eyes.
438
00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:12,910
- I met the African.
- Equiano.
439
00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:16,910
He came to town with a hundred copies of his book. They sold in an hour.
440
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:19,670
- You signed our petitions.
- A hundred times.
441
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:24,110
A hundred times. Three million names, a million candles to read them by.
442
00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:27,350
- Must have been so exciting.
- Exciting?
443
00:40:27,520 --> 00:40:30,550
It seemed that every spring the daffodils came out,
444
00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:32,870
every summer the cherries ripened
445
00:40:33,040 --> 00:40:36,740
and every autumn William Wilberforce would present his bill to the House.
446
00:40:36,920 --> 00:40:38,870
- And still...
- And still...?
447
00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:41,830
And still, after all the badges, the petitions,
448
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,790
all the speeches and the bills,
449
00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:49,080
ships full of human souls in chains sail around the world as cargo!
450
00:41:08,040 --> 00:41:09,510
I'm sorry.
451
00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:18,910
- This is why I shouldn't talk about it.
- I think you should.
452
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:25,870
There. We've found something we disagree on.
453
00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:44,270
"Am I not a man whose soul is drawn to heaven
454
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:47,630
like water from the dark well of Africa?"
455
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:49,190
From Equiano's book.
456
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:53,270
He was a man like no other.
457
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:57,590
Please, tell me about him.
458
00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:06,790
It seems to me
459
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:11,670
that if there is a bad taste in your mouth, you spit it out.
460
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:15,390
You don't constantly swallow it back.
461
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:28,630
Not long after I first met him,
462
00:42:28,800 --> 00:42:32,150
he asked me to come to the East India Dock.
463
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,110
He said there was a ship I should see.
464
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:37,660
A ship he knew well.
465
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:44,390
Mr Equiano.
466
00:42:47,560 --> 00:42:49,790
This way.
467
00:42:55,120 --> 00:42:57,030
Thank you, sir.
468
00:42:57,200 --> 00:43:00,310
- Hello.
- Sweetheart.
469
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:27,350
They make you lie in this space.
470
00:43:27,520 --> 00:43:32,350
The shackles dislocate your hip or your shoulder.
471
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,230
You are in pain all the way around the world.
472
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:49,670
How long is the journey?
473
00:43:49,840 --> 00:43:52,630
Three weeks, if the weather is good.
474
00:43:55,560 --> 00:43:59,470
For amusement, they sometimes hang the women from these,
475
00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:02,020
by the ankles, to rape them.
476
00:44:04,240 --> 00:44:07,190
In stormy weather, they take the very sickest
477
00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:11,350
and throw them into the sea to lighten the ship's load.
478
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:19,230
How did you survive?
479
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:23,630
Your life is a thread.
It breaks or it doesn't break.
480
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:28,340
Before I travelled in a ship like this,
481
00:44:28,520 --> 00:44:32,750
I was a prince, in many ways not unlike you.
482
00:44:47,720 --> 00:44:50,100
It was a beautiful day like no other,
483
00:44:50,280 --> 00:44:52,870
the last day I saw my home in Africa.
484
00:44:58,160 --> 00:45:00,150
It is with a heavy heart
485
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:02,750
that I bring to the attention of this House
486
00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:07,510
a trade which degrades men to the level of brutes
487
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:13,190
and insults the highest qualities of our common nature.
488
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:16,310
I am speaking of... the slave trade.
489
00:45:21,360 --> 00:45:24,350
I know that many of my honourable friends in this House
490
00:45:24,520 --> 00:45:27,350
have interests in the Indies.
491
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:32,110
Others have investments in plantations.
Others are ship owners.
492
00:45:32,280 --> 00:45:35,710
And I believe them to be men of humanity.
493
00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:39,350
I believe you all to be men of humanity.
494
00:45:39,520 --> 00:45:41,710
If the wretchedness of any one
495
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,670
of the many hundreds of slaves stowed in their ships
496
00:45:44,840 --> 00:45:48,510
could be brought to view...
497
00:45:51,720 --> 00:45:54,020
Order! Order!
498
00:45:54,200 --> 00:45:57,670
I can hardly believe my ears.
499
00:45:57,840 --> 00:46:02,150
We can hardly believe your mouth.
500
00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:07,790
It seems my young friend opposite has a long-term strategy
501
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:10,390
to destroy the very nation that spawned him.
502
00:46:13,760 --> 00:46:19,190
While I was in Virginia losing my fingers in battle with the Americans,
503
00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:22,900
he was busy appeasing them.
504
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:29,030
Now he would hand over the riches of the Indies to the bloody French!
505
00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:40,950
If... If we didn't have slaves, there would be no plantations.
506
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:46,670
And with no plantations, how would we fill the coffers of the king?
507
00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:51,590
Does my honourable friend
508
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:55,670
really believe that if we left off the trade,
509
00:46:55,840 --> 00:47:01,270
the French wouldn't immediately step into our place and reap the rewards?
510
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:15,830
All this food. There's only a handful of people in there.
511
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,910
He's an optimist. Completely incurable.
512
00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:22,390
Our defeat in the House today was not unexpected.
513
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:25,020
But our intention was to flush out the opposition
514
00:47:25,200 --> 00:47:27,870
and discover how many people would support us.
515
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:30,990
Yes, well, we certainly found out who our friends are.
516
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:33,230
All 16 of them.
517
00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:37,180
I... I sent a note of thanks to everyone who voted for us.
518
00:47:37,360 --> 00:47:39,150
How sweet of you.
519
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:41,700
Some of us know how to take defeat graciously.
520
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:45,950
- Something to with with breeding?
- On this occasion, it probably is.
521
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:50,150
Everything that is said at this meeting is being taken down for our records.
522
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:53,070
My friend James Stephen has agreed to be our secretary.
523
00:47:53,240 --> 00:47:54,350
You were saying?
524
00:47:56,440 --> 00:48:01,710
As you can see, not many MPs have responded to our invitation.
525
00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:05,500
Indeed, outside my own family, there is only one: Sir William Dolben.
526
00:48:05,680 --> 00:48:08,350
Sir William, what brings you to this gathering?
527
00:48:10,120 --> 00:48:16,110
I recently took passage from Sierra Leone aboard a slave ship.
528
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:19,350
What I saw during those 15 days...
529
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:25,350
But I believe there are plenty of others in the House who share your feelings.
530
00:48:25,520 --> 00:48:28,080
- They're just afraid to show it.
- Shame on them!
531
00:48:28,240 --> 00:48:32,830
No shame. No shame. Were I the representative of a port city,
532
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:38,070
how could I tell those whom I represent that I'm voting to end their livelihood?
533
00:48:38,240 --> 00:48:40,590
Exactly so.
534
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:43,060
How can human beings be commerce?
535
00:48:43,240 --> 00:48:48,550
- It's exactly this pursuit of lofty...
- Nothing lofty about simple humanity.
536
00:48:48,720 --> 00:48:50,710
Please!
537
00:48:56,360 --> 00:49:00,270
Perhaps we should begin this journey with the first step.
538
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:03,750
We are talking about the truth.
539
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:07,950
So we should hand it out to people.
Drop it from church roofs.
540
00:49:08,120 --> 00:49:12,870
Paint pictures of it. Write songs about it. Make bloody pies out of it.
541
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:14,870
Go on.
542
00:49:15,040 --> 00:49:17,870
There is a slave ship at dock in Tilbury
543
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:20,390
with twice the slave berths it is insured for.
544
00:49:20,560 --> 00:49:24,340
I know that for a fact.
But how do we prove it?
545
00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:25,710
Wilber.
546
00:49:28,960 --> 00:49:31,340
- Dear God.
- Well, almost.
547
00:49:36,440 --> 00:49:42,030
I've spent 18 months being torn apart by you in the House, Mr Wilberforce.
548
00:49:42,200 --> 00:49:46,190
I thought I'd find out what it feels like to be on your side.
549
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:52,150
I see you've got plenty of food.
Any of you saints drink?
550
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:01,060
Well, this one bloody does.
551
00:50:07,520 --> 00:50:09,550
Thank you very much.
552
00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:21,670
Agh!
553
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,070
Not fair! Not fair.
554
00:50:26,560 --> 00:50:28,830
I'm not well. My belly.
555
00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:31,380
What's wrong with your belly?
556
00:50:33,160 --> 00:50:34,910
Oh!
557
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:37,950
Besides, you're prime minister.
558
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:40,150
It is my ministerial duty to let you win.
559
00:50:40,320 --> 00:50:43,830
So, what will we do with Fox?
560
00:50:45,320 --> 00:50:48,860
- Put him in a box?
- Let him throw the heavy rocks.
561
00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:53,110
- Provide the shocks.
- Put Lord Tarleton in the stocks.
562
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:57,510
Oh!
563
00:50:57,680 --> 00:51:00,870
Oh, if the House of Lords could hear the idiotic way we carry on,
564
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:04,710
they'd ban anyone under the age of 30 from holding high office ever again.
565
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:10,550
Well, at least with Fox on board, the world will know we mean business.
566
00:51:10,720 --> 00:51:13,390
The world doesn't know yet.
567
00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:17,350
Nor will it, not until we're ready.
568
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:21,950
You were born for this, Wilber.
569
00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,110
Sometimes I get giddy.
570
00:51:26,720 --> 00:51:31,310
Why is it you only feel the thorns in your feet when you stop running?
571
00:51:31,480 --> 00:51:35,100
Is that some sort of heavy-handed metaphorical advice for me, Mr Pitt?
572
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:37,390
Yes, I suppose it is.
573
00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:42,230
We must keep going, keep going fast.
574
00:52:18,560 --> 00:52:19,750
Thank you very much.
575
00:52:43,800 --> 00:52:47,390
Gentlemen, would you stop the music, please? Thank you.
576
00:52:47,560 --> 00:52:52,710
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have enjoyed our little tour of the estuary.
577
00:52:52,880 --> 00:52:57,270
But now our sojourn is almost over, I have a confession to make.
578
00:52:57,440 --> 00:53:00,910
This trip wasn't purely arranged to reward those MPs
579
00:53:01,080 --> 00:53:06,790
who have supported me in the past year, nor am I the only sponsor.
580
00:53:10,040 --> 00:53:12,070
- What's he doing?
- Ladies and gentleman,
581
00:53:12,240 --> 00:53:16,430
this is a slave ship. The Madagascar.
582
00:53:17,920 --> 00:53:19,910
It has just returned from the Indies
583
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:25,950
where it delivered 200 men, women and children to Jamaica.
584
00:53:26,120 --> 00:53:31,390
When it left Africa, there were 600 on board.
585
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,500
The rest died of disease or despair.
586
00:53:39,600 --> 00:53:43,830
That smell is the smell of death.
587
00:53:44,960 --> 00:53:47,670
Slow, painful death.
588
00:53:49,800 --> 00:53:53,580
Breathe it in. Breathe it deeply.
589
00:53:55,080 --> 00:53:58,590
Take those handkerchiefs away from your noses.
590
00:53:59,600 --> 00:54:01,790
There, now.
591
00:54:03,120 --> 00:54:06,030
Remember that smell.
592
00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:08,760
Remember the Madagascar.
593
00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:13,070
Remember that God made men equal.
594
00:54:17,840 --> 00:54:20,950
All that winter, we spread out across the country
595
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:23,350
gathering evidence for Parliament.
596
00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:26,870
Thomas rode to Bristol, Liverpool, Plymouth,
597
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:29,470
talking to men who'd worked the slave ships,
598
00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:32,200
ships' doctors who'd treated them,
599
00:54:32,360 --> 00:54:35,310
slaves themselves who'd been whipped and branded.
600
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:40,310
Equiano published his account of his years as a slave.
601
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:46,000
He sold 50,000 copies in two months.
602
00:54:55,200 --> 00:54:57,110
Spare a coin, sir?
603
00:54:57,280 --> 00:55:02,630
Our supporters began to only buy sugar produced without slaves in India.
604
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:06,990
Or they stopped using sugar altogether.
605
00:55:07,160 --> 00:55:09,070
It seemed our message was everywhere.
606
00:55:09,240 --> 00:55:13,350
At least now there was hope. Real hope.
607
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:17,030
We had a year to collect enough evidence
608
00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:20,550
to convince Parliament of our case.
609
00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:24,910
The planters and the ship owners began to spread rumours about us.
610
00:55:25,080 --> 00:55:29,670
They called us seditious, secretly working to bring down the government.
611
00:55:29,840 --> 00:55:32,430
Clarkson sat in a coach to Birmingham
612
00:55:32,600 --> 00:55:36,590
and overheard someone claim that I'd secretly married a slave woman.
613
00:55:42,760 --> 00:55:48,110
But the weight of our hope made it all seem like glorious infamy.
614
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:51,270
How long have you been taking laudanum?
615
00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:57,150
I recognise its presence.
616
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:10,110
My illness and my crusade were born around the same time.
617
00:56:10,280 --> 00:56:12,430
What is your illness?
618
00:56:13,400 --> 00:56:16,270
The doctors tell me it's called colitis.
619
00:56:16,440 --> 00:56:19,630
They don't really understand it, but I do.
620
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:21,950
You see, sometimes my stomach
621
00:56:22,120 --> 00:56:25,230
gets bored of being a stomach and decides it's a sailing ship.
622
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,790
Then my heart gets jealous and decides it wants to be a see-saw.
623
00:56:28,960 --> 00:56:31,870
And before you know it, my lungs are arguing with one another
624
00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:34,420
whether to be lungs or sponges full of seawater.
625
00:56:36,840 --> 00:56:40,910
Well, at least that's what I tell my nieces and nephews.
626
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,150
Marianne tells me you like children.
627
00:56:46,720 --> 00:56:48,710
My poor father almost went mad
628
00:56:48,880 --> 00:56:51,670
when I told him I'd stopped taking sugar in my tea.
629
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,270
I was 14,
630
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:59,430
reading your name in the papers, willing you to win.
631
00:57:00,640 --> 00:57:06,110
I told my friends there was actual slave blood in every lump of sugar.
632
00:57:12,240 --> 00:57:14,540
Has this been so painful to talk about?
633
00:57:15,680 --> 00:57:19,830
It's only painful to talk about because we haven't changed anything.
634
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,430
But, unlike the slaves, I have opium for my pain.
635
00:57:25,050 --> 00:57:26,360
Begging your pardon, sir.
636
00:57:28,730 --> 00:57:31,360
I thought everyone was in bed.
637
00:57:31,530 --> 00:57:34,440
She brings the breakfasts.
What time is it?
638
00:57:34,610 --> 00:57:35,920
Does it matter?
639
00:57:50,250 --> 00:57:53,560
That year we should have won.
640
00:57:53,730 --> 00:57:58,320
With the evidence we had collected, by natural justice we should have won.
641
00:58:00,250 --> 00:58:04,160
Winds blow ships from Africa to the Indies naturally,
642
00:58:04,330 --> 00:58:07,320
as if the route were blessed by God.
643
00:58:08,530 --> 00:58:11,160
Another argument in defence of the trade
644
00:58:11,330 --> 00:58:17,280
is that the Newfoundland fishing industry is kept afloat
645
00:58:17,450 --> 00:58:22,000
by the fact that slaves in the West Indies
646
00:58:22,170 --> 00:58:25,640
consume that part of the fish
647
00:58:25,810 --> 00:58:29,160
which is fit for no other consumption.
648
00:58:31,010 --> 00:58:33,200
I do feel that if my honourable friend
649
00:58:33,370 --> 00:58:37,680
continues to scrape the bottom of the barrel for objections,
650
00:58:37,850 --> 00:58:40,880
he is in danger of getting splinters under his fingernails.
651
00:58:43,090 --> 00:58:45,440
Now, if I may continue with my argument...
652
00:58:45,610 --> 00:58:49,000
As representative of the great and flourishing
653
00:58:49,170 --> 00:58:51,160
commercial town of Liverpool,
654
00:58:51,330 --> 00:58:56,520
I must once again remind the House that we have no evidence
655
00:58:56,690 --> 00:59:00,720
that the Africans themselves have any objection to the trade.
656
00:59:05,290 --> 00:59:10,410
I have here an account written by a... Mr Clutterbuck...
657
00:59:11,730 --> 00:59:15,040
...which states that most slaves in the Indies
658
00:59:15,210 --> 00:59:18,560
have a snug little garden with plenty of pigs and poultry.
659
00:59:20,130 --> 00:59:25,600
There are many poor families in Liverpool who do not have as much.
660
00:59:26,810 --> 00:59:29,240
Which... Which is why,
661
00:59:29,410 --> 00:59:34,720
apart from a few mendicant physicians and itinerant clergymen,
662
00:59:34,890 --> 00:59:38,320
the ordinary people of Britain are not at all exercised
663
00:59:38,490 --> 00:59:42,600
by the whole issue of slavery.
664
00:59:42,770 --> 00:59:45,150
My honourable friend, the member for Liverpool,
665
00:59:45,330 --> 00:59:47,920
seeks evidence of people's concern.
666
00:59:48,090 --> 00:59:52,280
In the past year, I and my itinerant clergymen friends
667
00:59:52,450 --> 00:59:54,680
have been gathering just such evidence.
668
00:59:56,650 --> 01:00:01,360
We have taken a petition calling for the abolition of the slave trade
669
01:00:01,530 --> 01:00:04,480
to all the great cities of this country.
670
01:00:05,450 --> 01:00:10,960
It has been signed by over 390,000 people.
671
01:00:20,010 --> 01:00:23,320
However, this petition is not yet complete.
672
01:00:23,490 --> 01:00:27,600
There is one more person who wishes to add his name.
673
01:00:40,050 --> 01:00:41,190
Do something.
674
01:00:45,050 --> 01:00:48,040
Mr Speaker, I humbly request a suspension
675
01:00:48,210 --> 01:00:51,720
while we take time to examine the signatures on this document.
676
01:00:53,530 --> 01:00:55,320
There is something very provoking
677
01:00:55,490 --> 01:00:58,080
in the calm way my honourable friend seeks delay.
678
01:00:58,250 --> 01:01:02,840
- Mr Speaker, will he not give way?
- Is the desolation of Africa suspended?
679
01:01:03,010 --> 01:01:05,720
- Please, gentlemen.
- Is the work of death suspended?
680
01:01:05,890 --> 01:01:09,080
- You bring petitions into the House...
- Mr Speaker...
681
01:01:09,250 --> 01:01:13,280
...as if this country should be governed by the rule of the mob,
682
01:01:13,450 --> 01:01:16,520
- rather than its natural rulers!
- Order!
683
01:01:16,690 --> 01:01:19,250
That roll of paper reeks of rebellion!
684
01:01:19,410 --> 01:01:23,520
No matter how loud you shout, you will not drown out the voice of the people!
685
01:01:26,730 --> 01:01:28,400
The people?
686
01:01:32,290 --> 01:01:36,920
This session will be suspended while the petition is examined.
687
01:01:40,250 --> 01:01:42,320
Wilber.
688
01:02:08,610 --> 01:02:11,240
My spies tell me that Tarleton and Coconut Clarence
689
01:02:11,410 --> 01:02:13,160
have gone to see the Home Secretary.
690
01:02:15,210 --> 01:02:19,800
- What would they want with Lord Dundas?
- He's one of ours, isn't he?
691
01:02:19,970 --> 01:02:22,680
James. James.
692
01:02:23,730 --> 01:02:28,160
- Where does Lord Dundas stand?
- Probable, I think.
693
01:02:29,090 --> 01:02:31,080
We have him down as a probable.
694
01:02:31,250 --> 01:02:34,840
Last year he stopped the deportation of a Jamaican slave from Scotland,
695
01:02:35,010 --> 01:02:38,320
- so his heart's in the right place.
- Be wary of Dundas.
696
01:02:42,050 --> 01:02:45,440
If he's capable of compassion once, why not twice?
697
01:02:47,610 --> 01:02:49,480
What damage could he do if he's turned?
698
01:02:50,370 --> 01:02:54,440
He controls the Scottish vote, 34 MPs.
699
01:02:57,850 --> 01:02:59,920
We'll have to have faith in his integrity.
700
01:03:02,930 --> 01:03:04,920
Integrity?
701
01:03:11,370 --> 01:03:12,470
Where are you going?
702
01:03:13,210 --> 01:03:16,910
To look up the word "integrity"
in Dr Johnson's Dictionary.
703
01:03:19,050 --> 01:03:21,640
Come.
704
01:03:22,810 --> 01:03:25,800
Prime Minister, Lord Charles Fox to see you.
705
01:03:30,250 --> 01:03:33,040
You look more at home when doing something devious.
706
01:03:35,850 --> 01:03:40,120
Prime Minister, your friend Wilberforce doesn't play cards any more.
707
01:03:40,970 --> 01:03:44,670
No. He resigned from all five card clubs when he saw the light.
708
01:03:44,850 --> 01:03:46,640
Pity. He was good.
709
01:03:46,810 --> 01:03:49,270
Well, I think there's a hand you should play for him.
710
01:03:51,970 --> 01:03:55,840
- Against whom?
- Someone who stands in his way.
711
01:03:59,130 --> 01:04:01,200
So name him.
712
01:04:11,530 --> 01:04:13,520
Good evening.
713
01:04:21,970 --> 01:04:26,880
Billy, did I not win enough money from you on Saturday evening?
714
01:04:27,050 --> 01:04:32,200
Really, I have no time for cards.
I have urgent business in the House.
715
01:04:40,410 --> 01:04:46,360
As prime minister, idle gossip collects around you like scum in slack water.
716
01:04:46,530 --> 01:04:48,240
What have you heard?
717
01:04:48,410 --> 01:04:51,240
Lord Tarleton's throwing East India Company money
718
01:04:51,410 --> 01:04:54,080
at people who are speaking against abolition tonight.
719
01:04:55,570 --> 01:04:58,440
Of course, no true friend of mine would accept such an offer.
720
01:05:01,530 --> 01:05:03,320
I appear to have three jacks.
721
01:05:04,290 --> 01:05:07,830
I've always ensured that you have been dealt a favourable hand.
722
01:05:08,010 --> 01:05:12,400
- Are you threatening me?
- You are threatening our friendship.
723
01:05:13,770 --> 01:05:16,800
It isn't money that has made me decide to oppose Wilberforce.
724
01:05:16,970 --> 01:05:18,840
His enemy is my enemy.
725
01:05:19,010 --> 01:05:22,080
You are sleepwalking hand-in-hand with a bloody rebel.
726
01:05:22,250 --> 01:05:26,680
Wilberforce follows no leader but the preacher in his head.
727
01:05:28,850 --> 01:05:30,520
How much were you offered?
728
01:05:31,730 --> 01:05:33,640
Keep yourjacks.
729
01:05:33,810 --> 01:05:38,520
The planters still have the king, and I, at least, am still loyal to him.
730
01:05:39,730 --> 01:05:42,440
Don't force me to put a pistol to your head.
731
01:05:44,570 --> 01:05:47,720
Well, if you do, there will be two pistols,
732
01:05:47,890 --> 01:05:50,680
one from each side.
733
01:05:50,850 --> 01:05:55,520
And perhaps if I duck, you'll shoot each other.
734
01:06:08,050 --> 01:06:10,320
Order.
735
01:06:11,010 --> 01:06:12,230
Order.
736
01:06:16,650 --> 01:06:18,280
First, let me be clear.
737
01:06:19,450 --> 01:06:23,200
After long consideration and much consultation,
738
01:06:23,370 --> 01:06:27,480
I am in favour of the abolition of the slave trade.
739
01:06:30,810 --> 01:06:35,080
There's no doubt in my mind that this trade in human beings
740
01:06:35,250 --> 01:06:40,920
is an almighty calumny and is a disgrace to this nation.
741
01:06:41,090 --> 01:06:47,000
However... I also take the point of my honourable friend,
742
01:06:47,170 --> 01:06:49,200
the member for Liverpool.
743
01:06:49,370 --> 01:06:53,720
If we were to outlaw the trade tomorrow, it would bring financial disaster
744
01:06:53,890 --> 01:06:56,160
to many cities and industries in this country.
745
01:06:59,010 --> 01:07:04,160
I therefore suggest a period of reflection.
746
01:07:04,330 --> 01:07:07,560
After a year and a half of privy council investigations,
747
01:07:07,730 --> 01:07:09,920
what good would it do to delay the inevitable?
748
01:07:10,090 --> 01:07:14,680
Inevitable? Is my honourable friend counting the votes before they are cast?
749
01:07:14,850 --> 01:07:17,480
I didn't mean that.
750
01:07:17,650 --> 01:07:22,280
If the trade were to be abolished, I suggest that we do so gradually.
751
01:07:22,450 --> 01:07:26,640
Violent storms sink ships.
752
01:07:28,010 --> 01:07:31,440
This great ship of state must not be sunk
753
01:07:31,610 --> 01:07:33,840
by a wave of good intentions.
754
01:07:58,770 --> 01:08:01,150
They are cleverer than us, Thomas.
755
01:08:03,010 --> 01:08:04,320
And yet...
756
01:08:06,530 --> 01:08:09,090
...outside the House of Commons, the mood is with us.
757
01:08:10,170 --> 01:08:13,080
And what good is that?
758
01:08:13,930 --> 01:08:16,520
I have friends in France.
759
01:08:18,290 --> 01:08:22,840
Our counterparts.
Men of principle, like you and I.
760
01:08:23,010 --> 01:08:26,630
- They bring me only good news.
- News of what?
761
01:08:28,850 --> 01:08:30,040
Revolution.
762
01:08:31,050 --> 01:08:32,600
They're certain it's coming.
763
01:08:35,090 --> 01:08:38,040
In Paris they speak openly in the streets of emancipation.
764
01:08:38,210 --> 01:08:40,640
Freedom for all men, and women too.
765
01:08:43,330 --> 01:08:47,030
The Americans pulled the cork out of the bottle, Wilberforce.
766
01:08:47,210 --> 01:08:49,000
Now the French share the wine.
767
01:08:49,170 --> 01:08:51,920
You talk about revolution as if it were a safe thing.
768
01:08:52,090 --> 01:08:53,640
It's just a word.
769
01:08:53,810 --> 01:08:57,280
Every day we change things, by degrees.
Education, factories.
770
01:08:57,450 --> 01:09:00,990
By degrees.
You sound like Dundas! Gradually.
771
01:09:01,170 --> 01:09:03,470
An imperfect order's better than no order.
772
01:09:03,650 --> 01:09:06,160
We must fight for a perfect order!
773
01:09:09,730 --> 01:09:11,920
I've pledged an allegiance to the king.
774
01:09:14,690 --> 01:09:19,840
You know as well as I do...
the king is insane.
775
01:09:20,570 --> 01:09:22,360
He shakes hands with oak trees
776
01:09:22,530 --> 01:09:25,160
and claims he can see Germany through his telescope.
777
01:09:30,170 --> 01:09:33,560
I know you have your loyalties, Wilberforce,
778
01:09:33,730 --> 01:09:38,280
but underneath it you're more radical than any of us.
779
01:09:38,450 --> 01:09:40,800
You see, you never doubt you're right.
780
01:09:42,130 --> 01:09:47,640
What we say of the slave is true of the worker in the field,
781
01:09:47,810 --> 01:09:50,240
the weaver, the miner.
782
01:09:50,410 --> 01:09:53,920
Shouldn't they be free to prosper too,
783
01:09:54,970 --> 01:09:58,360
instead of the fruits of their labours going to men like Tarleton?
784
01:09:58,530 --> 01:10:03,320
Men who spend their money on whores and comic operas.
785
01:10:06,810 --> 01:10:09,190
Young girls debauched.
786
01:10:12,690 --> 01:10:15,960
Soldiers forced to beg.
787
01:10:16,130 --> 01:10:22,080
It's a natural wave that's flowing, Wilber.
788
01:10:22,250 --> 01:10:26,800
First Boston, then Paris.
789
01:10:26,970 --> 01:10:28,760
Next London.
790
01:10:28,930 --> 01:10:30,920
Thomas...
791
01:10:32,690 --> 01:10:36,230
...you must never speak of revolution in my presence ever again.
792
01:10:49,850 --> 01:10:51,960
I'm going to Paris to see for myself.
793
01:10:56,570 --> 01:10:58,950
Why don't you come with me?
794
01:11:00,610 --> 01:11:02,800
Drink some of that wine?
795
01:11:16,290 --> 01:11:20,240
Africa, your sufferings have been a theme
796
01:11:20,410 --> 01:11:23,760
that has engaged and arrested my heart.
797
01:11:25,130 --> 01:11:27,590
Your sufferings...
798
01:11:28,850 --> 01:11:33,080
...no tongue can express, no language impart.
799
01:11:34,010 --> 01:11:36,200
Agh!
800
01:11:41,970 --> 01:11:45,560
God has set before me two great objects:
801
01:11:47,410 --> 01:11:50,120
The suppression of the slave trade
802
01:11:50,290 --> 01:11:52,720
and the reformation of society.
803
01:11:53,650 --> 01:11:56,210
Agh! Agh!
804
01:12:03,890 --> 01:12:05,960
Sir!
805
01:12:06,130 --> 01:12:07,880
Marjorie.
806
01:12:10,730 --> 01:12:13,920
The trouble is, Doctor, he doesn't believe he has a body.
807
01:12:14,090 --> 01:12:17,280
Utterly careless of it. He, um...
808
01:12:17,450 --> 01:12:19,880
He thinks he's a disembodied spirit.
809
01:12:22,490 --> 01:12:27,080
Perhaps you should spend some time away from London.
810
01:12:27,250 --> 01:12:29,880
- What's this?
- Laudanum, for the pain.
811
01:12:30,050 --> 01:12:32,800
An opiate? No, no, no.
I need my mind sharp.
812
01:12:32,970 --> 01:12:34,760
You need to rest.
813
01:12:34,930 --> 01:12:38,080
My bill is before the House in three weeks.
814
01:12:38,250 --> 01:12:41,640
- Would you leave us a moment, Doctor?
- Yes, Prime Minister.
815
01:12:48,090 --> 01:12:51,400
It's now five years since you first brought this bill to the House.
816
01:12:51,570 --> 01:12:54,080
And each time we get a little closer.
817
01:12:54,250 --> 01:12:59,040
Wilberforce, there are other MPs who could carry the debate.
818
01:12:59,210 --> 01:13:01,770
Who? Name one.
819
01:13:04,210 --> 01:13:06,590
The only man I would trust is you.
820
01:13:11,130 --> 01:13:12,230
Well?
821
01:13:12,290 --> 01:13:14,280
I can't be seen to openly oppose the king
822
01:13:14,450 --> 01:13:16,560
when the streets of Paris run with blood.
823
01:13:16,730 --> 01:13:19,110
You've read too many lurid newspaper articles.
824
01:13:19,290 --> 01:13:22,520
The French Republic plans to declare war within the year.
825
01:13:22,690 --> 01:13:26,120
- On who?
- On who?
826
01:13:26,290 --> 01:13:31,200
You're locked inside your own head! Us, Great Britain, everything we stand for!
827
01:13:35,090 --> 01:13:37,920
Considering the situation, you mix with the wrong people.
828
01:13:40,610 --> 01:13:43,280
- Who do I mix with?
- Clarkson, for one.
829
01:13:43,450 --> 01:13:47,680
- Who introduced me to Clarkson?
- In different times.
830
01:13:52,290 --> 01:13:54,750
They say in the cafés that Clarkson's a French spy.
831
01:13:56,050 --> 01:14:00,760
And Equiano, they say he was born in Carolina,
832
01:14:00,930 --> 01:14:04,800
and as an American, therefore must be a revolutionary.
833
01:14:09,690 --> 01:14:12,480
Others say they've seen with their own eyes
834
01:14:12,650 --> 01:14:16,160
letters addressed to you from Thomas Jefferson.
835
01:14:16,330 --> 01:14:20,080
- On matters to do with abolition.
- War changes everything.
836
01:14:20,250 --> 01:14:22,760
- Even friendships?
- Especially those!
837
01:14:24,410 --> 01:14:27,120
So you will keep your precious conscience intact
838
01:14:27,290 --> 01:14:29,750
and let the rest of us do the war's dirty work.
839
01:14:32,170 --> 01:14:33,800
Conscience is indeed precious.
840
01:14:33,970 --> 01:14:36,000
I am warning you as your prime minister
841
01:14:36,170 --> 01:14:40,040
that when war comes, opposition will soon be called sedition!
842
01:14:41,850 --> 01:14:43,120
By who?
843
01:14:47,130 --> 01:14:49,120
By you?
844
01:15:11,370 --> 01:15:15,960
This evening I would like to return to the theme of abolition.
845
01:15:16,850 --> 01:15:22,400
In these dangerous times, it is easy to put aside our concerns for those in need
846
01:15:22,570 --> 01:15:25,320
simply to confirm our loyalty to the nation.
847
01:15:25,490 --> 01:15:31,560
But the issues of war and the issues of slavery must not be confused.
848
01:15:31,730 --> 01:15:34,520
Our fear of an unknown enemy must not be allowed
849
01:15:34,690 --> 01:15:36,760
to erode our long-cherished liberties.
850
01:15:36,930 --> 01:15:41,040
If this is to happen, how bitter will our history be?
851
01:15:43,290 --> 01:15:49,600
We must not prohibit all political discussion of political subjects.
852
01:15:49,770 --> 01:15:52,880
The issue of slavery is not made any less important
853
01:15:53,050 --> 01:15:55,160
by the unrelated issues of war!
854
01:15:55,330 --> 01:15:59,880
In war or in peace, the buying and selling of human beings
855
01:16:00,050 --> 01:16:02,840
is equally abhorrent!
856
01:16:03,010 --> 01:16:05,840
This is not a seditious statement!
857
01:16:23,930 --> 01:16:26,360
Where is your laudanum?
I'll prepare it for you.
858
01:16:26,530 --> 01:16:29,920
No. No, I want to tell you how it ends.
859
01:16:30,090 --> 01:16:34,000
I already know.
Your bills were easily defeated.
860
01:16:36,730 --> 01:16:40,480
Equiano... died in his bed.
861
01:16:40,650 --> 01:16:44,400
Thomas Clarkson found a cottage in the hills to hide away in.
862
01:16:44,570 --> 01:16:49,510
Charles Fox watched and waited.
863
01:16:49,690 --> 01:16:54,160
The Quakers still sent their letters.
No one replied.
864
01:16:56,290 --> 01:16:58,320
Is that the end of your story?
865
01:16:59,890 --> 01:17:01,760
- You think not?
- No.
866
01:17:01,930 --> 01:17:05,960
- Why not?
- Because after night comes day.
867
01:17:07,290 --> 01:17:10,990
The people aren't so afraid now the war with France is being won.
868
01:17:11,170 --> 01:17:15,400
And when they stop being afraid, they rediscover their compassion.
869
01:17:16,130 --> 01:17:19,480
So the people have their compassion back.
870
01:17:19,650 --> 01:17:21,760
And you still have passion.
871
01:17:22,970 --> 01:17:25,840
That matters more.
872
01:17:41,730 --> 01:17:44,640
- Good morning, Wilber.
- Morning.
873
01:17:44,810 --> 01:17:47,320
- Get much sleep?
- Not much.
874
01:17:47,490 --> 01:17:50,080
- What time did Barbara leave?
- Late.
875
01:17:50,250 --> 01:17:53,360
I mean, early.
876
01:17:55,050 --> 01:17:57,610
I'm afraid I'm going back to London.
877
01:17:58,370 --> 01:18:00,120
- So soon?
- Yes.
878
01:18:00,290 --> 01:18:02,560
I think the waters worked their magic on me.
879
01:18:03,690 --> 01:18:06,070
But I need to send a letter to James Stephen.
880
01:18:06,250 --> 01:18:09,080
- To ask him to come back to England.
- For what reason?
881
01:18:09,250 --> 01:18:11,710
To put his evidence before a select committee.
882
01:18:15,330 --> 01:18:17,320
Also, Barbara and I have discovered
883
01:18:17,490 --> 01:18:21,680
that we're both impatient and prone to rash decisions.
884
01:18:21,850 --> 01:18:25,520
But she wants to tell you about it herself.
885
01:18:59,650 --> 01:19:03,320
Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin,
886
01:19:03,490 --> 01:19:07,520
we will sing the hymn requested by the bride.
887
01:19:13,290 --> 01:19:16,990
# Amazing Grace
888
01:19:17,170 --> 01:19:20,710
# How sweet the sound
889
01:19:20,890 --> 01:19:26,600
# That saved a wretch like me
890
01:19:26,770 --> 01:19:30,440
# I once was lost
891
01:19:30,610 --> 01:19:34,600
# But now am found
892
01:19:34,770 --> 01:19:40,000
# Was blind but now I see...
893
01:19:45,130 --> 01:19:48,080
- Delightful service.
- Thank you so much for coming.
894
01:19:48,250 --> 01:19:51,720
Thank you.
How are you coping with the new kitchen?
895
01:19:51,890 --> 01:19:54,350
"Great changes are easier than small ones."
896
01:19:54,530 --> 01:19:56,880
- Francis Bacon.
- Well done.
897
01:19:59,450 --> 01:20:01,440
- Have you forgiven us yet?
- Never.
898
01:20:01,610 --> 01:20:04,480
It'll be wonderful to have you both living so near.
899
01:20:04,650 --> 01:20:05,750
Thank you.
900
01:20:05,810 --> 01:20:08,880
I do hope you didn't come to Clapham for the tranquillity.
901
01:20:09,050 --> 01:20:12,320
- We're very noisy neighbours.
- I'm counting on it.
902
01:20:27,050 --> 01:20:29,040
Barbara.
903
01:20:30,650 --> 01:20:34,520
- You have my deepest condolences.
- Thank you so much.
904
01:20:36,850 --> 01:20:40,440
But please, I beg of you, do this for me. Make him eat some of his pets.
905
01:20:40,610 --> 01:20:44,520
- Oh, I rather like them.
- I like them too. In brandy sauce.
906
01:20:52,530 --> 01:20:55,160
- If you'll excuse me...
- There's no need, Barbara.
907
01:20:55,330 --> 01:20:57,560
You're discussing politics with your eyes.
908
01:20:57,730 --> 01:21:00,360
You may as well do it with your mouths.
909
01:21:11,050 --> 01:21:13,960
I, uh... didn't think you'd invite me.
910
01:21:14,130 --> 01:21:16,430
Didn't think you'd come.
911
01:21:19,690 --> 01:21:22,560
- You well?
- My mind's well.
912
01:21:23,450 --> 01:21:25,750
The rest of me is fraying at the edges.
913
01:21:29,370 --> 01:21:31,750
Billy, I'm going to try again.
914
01:21:33,290 --> 01:21:34,390
Well?
915
01:21:34,450 --> 01:21:37,800
It's your wedding day.
I agree with everything you say.
916
01:21:37,970 --> 01:21:40,080
I never changed.
917
01:21:40,250 --> 01:21:43,040
- I don't change.
- Well, hurrah for you.
918
01:21:44,610 --> 01:21:47,600
The mood may even be swinging back in your favour.
919
01:21:49,610 --> 01:21:54,730
How can we live in houses like this when others are living in boxes?
920
01:21:54,890 --> 01:21:56,920
Is that still sedition?
921
01:21:59,130 --> 01:22:01,080
As your prime minister, I urge caution.
922
01:22:01,850 --> 01:22:06,040
- And as my friend?
- Oh, to hell with caution.
923
01:22:07,010 --> 01:22:10,960
When the slaves are flogged on the wharfs,
924
01:22:11,130 --> 01:22:16,280
their arms are tied to a hook on a crane
925
01:22:16,450 --> 01:22:21,000
and weights of 56 pounds
926
01:22:21,170 --> 01:22:24,560
applied to their feet.
927
01:22:25,530 --> 01:22:28,840
The crane is raised
928
01:22:29,010 --> 01:22:34,200
so that their feet barely touch the ground.
929
01:22:34,370 --> 01:22:37,040
The slaves are then whipped
930
01:22:37,210 --> 01:22:39,800
with ebony bushes, comma...
931
01:22:44,130 --> 01:22:48,120
...to let out the congealing blood.
932
01:22:48,290 --> 01:22:51,360
I don't hear the nib scratching the page.
933
01:22:51,530 --> 01:22:52,750
We have company, sir.
934
01:22:54,530 --> 01:22:57,680
John, it's me, Wilber.
935
01:23:01,690 --> 01:23:02,790
Leave it.
936
01:23:13,250 --> 01:23:15,710
They only told me your sight was fading.
937
01:23:15,890 --> 01:23:18,680
Well, now it's faded altogether.
938
01:23:18,850 --> 01:23:22,390
I never did things by halves.
God decided I'd seen enough.
939
01:23:22,570 --> 01:23:25,600
- So it's true.
- What's true?
940
01:23:26,770 --> 01:23:29,760
- You're writing your account.
- Uh-huh.
941
01:23:31,770 --> 01:23:33,960
I wish I could see your face.
942
01:23:37,290 --> 01:23:40,080
- How are you looking?
- The same.
943
01:23:40,890 --> 01:23:44,160
- Still too thin.
- A little fatter lately.
944
01:23:44,330 --> 01:23:47,040
She feeds you well then, this wife of yours?
945
01:23:47,210 --> 01:23:50,830
- She's given me an appetite.
- An appetite to change things?
946
01:24:01,450 --> 01:24:04,040
This is my confession.
947
01:24:04,210 --> 01:24:06,200
You must use it.
948
01:24:07,810 --> 01:24:11,560
Names, ships' records,
949
01:24:11,730 --> 01:24:14,080
ports, people.
950
01:24:14,250 --> 01:24:17,920
Everything I remember is in here.
951
01:24:18,090 --> 01:24:20,440
Although my memory is fading,
952
01:24:20,610 --> 01:24:23,680
I remember two things very clearly:
953
01:24:23,850 --> 01:24:27,720
I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great saviour.
954
01:24:28,770 --> 01:24:31,360
You must publish it.
955
01:24:31,530 --> 01:24:35,560
Blow a hole in their boat with it.
Damn them with it!
956
01:24:37,730 --> 01:24:40,920
I wish I could remember all their names.
957
01:24:42,450 --> 01:24:46,600
My 20,000 ghosts,
958
01:24:46,770 --> 01:24:49,360
they all had names.
959
01:24:49,530 --> 01:24:52,840
Beautiful African names.
960
01:24:54,530 --> 01:24:58,040
We called them with just grunts.
961
01:24:58,210 --> 01:25:00,200
Noises.
962
01:25:01,290 --> 01:25:05,400
We were apes. They were human.
963
01:25:13,850 --> 01:25:15,840
I'm weeping.
964
01:25:17,810 --> 01:25:22,080
I couldn't weep till I wrote this.
965
01:25:27,610 --> 01:25:31,800
"I once was blind, but now I see."
966
01:25:31,970 --> 01:25:34,000
Didn't I write that too?
967
01:25:34,170 --> 01:25:36,600
Yes, you did.
968
01:25:36,770 --> 01:25:39,640
Well, now at last it's true.
969
01:25:41,570 --> 01:25:43,800
Now go, Wilber. Go.
970
01:25:44,610 --> 01:25:47,640
We have lots of work to do, you and I.
971
01:25:55,890 --> 01:25:59,960
"Strange treasures in this fair world appear,
972
01:26:00,130 --> 01:26:05,520
strange all and new to me."
973
01:26:07,850 --> 01:26:09,640
That is a poem by Thomas Traherne,
974
01:26:09,810 --> 01:26:12,440
and I have absolutely no idea what it's about.
975
01:26:12,610 --> 01:26:15,280
But when I was small, I was made to learn it by heart,
976
01:26:15,450 --> 01:26:17,720
so I don't see why you shouldn't suffer too.
977
01:26:17,890 --> 01:26:22,600
Clarkson! Clarkson!
978
01:26:23,530 --> 01:26:25,360
Good God, he's got his voice back.
979
01:26:25,530 --> 01:26:27,640
We need you back in London straightaway!
980
01:26:27,810 --> 01:26:29,800
Oh.
981
01:26:30,450 --> 01:26:33,960
Bollocks.
982
01:26:34,130 --> 01:26:36,320
Hurry up, come on.
983
01:26:53,650 --> 01:26:54,760
Wilber!
984
01:27:00,370 --> 01:27:03,990
- You look fine. Fine.
- I look wet and feeble.
985
01:27:04,170 --> 01:27:08,440
You, however, look disgustingly like a lusty adventurer from a storybook.
986
01:27:08,610 --> 01:27:13,280
Come on. I've got a coach. The others are waiting for us at Palace Yard.
987
01:27:13,450 --> 01:27:16,480
- Don't I get to wash or sleep?
- Sleep?
988
01:27:16,650 --> 01:27:18,680
You haven't changed at all, William.
989
01:27:32,210 --> 01:27:35,750
I called this meeting to welcome back James Stephen from the Indies.
990
01:27:35,930 --> 01:27:37,920
But he should speak for himself.
991
01:27:39,330 --> 01:27:41,960
I have here diagrams,
992
01:27:42,130 --> 01:27:45,880
first-hand accounts and transcripts of trials
993
01:27:46,050 --> 01:27:50,840
where innocent Africans have been convicted of crimes they did not commit
994
01:27:51,010 --> 01:27:52,880
and were then burnt alive.
995
01:27:53,050 --> 01:27:57,040
There are pages and pages and pages
996
01:27:57,210 --> 01:28:01,680
of first-hand accounts and figures and statistics.
997
01:28:01,850 --> 01:28:04,560
On every island now, there are rebellions.
998
01:28:04,730 --> 01:28:06,880
Haiti is in the hands of slaves.
999
01:28:07,050 --> 01:28:10,560
And the slaves are anxious.
They're impatient for their freedom.
1000
01:28:10,730 --> 01:28:12,640
They hear about your work here.
1001
01:28:14,490 --> 01:28:17,720
I saw a woman and her child being beaten...
1002
01:28:19,370 --> 01:28:21,880
...in a coffee field.
1003
01:28:22,050 --> 01:28:24,430
Afterwards, I heard the woman tell her daughter
1004
01:28:24,610 --> 01:28:27,600
that someone was coming across the sea to save them.
1005
01:28:29,810 --> 01:28:31,920
She said it was King Wilberforce.
1006
01:28:37,250 --> 01:28:41,160
So this time, gentlemen, we must not fail them.
1007
01:28:49,010 --> 01:28:50,110
What is it, James?
1008
01:28:52,610 --> 01:28:55,400
- This is not a game for them.
- We know that.
1009
01:28:55,570 --> 01:28:58,360
What I mean is, it's not enough.
1010
01:29:02,770 --> 01:29:05,330
If we go to Parliament with this evidence,
1011
01:29:05,490 --> 01:29:07,840
there'll be sympathy, there'll be concern,
1012
01:29:08,010 --> 01:29:11,630
but it'll be just the same as every other time.
1013
01:29:11,810 --> 01:29:14,080
Have you come back to preach hopelessness?
1014
01:29:14,250 --> 01:29:18,200
No. No, I've had an idea.
1015
01:29:18,370 --> 01:29:21,120
In my law books I might have stumbled across something
1016
01:29:21,290 --> 01:29:23,720
and I want to propose it as a strategy.
1017
01:29:25,290 --> 01:29:26,960
Nosus Decipio.
1018
01:29:28,250 --> 01:29:30,040
It's Latin.
1019
01:29:30,210 --> 01:29:33,160
Loosely translated, it means...
1020
01:29:35,130 --> 01:29:36,230
..."we cheat".
1021
01:30:11,970 --> 01:30:13,520
Oh, God.
1022
01:30:19,490 --> 01:30:22,080
I don't care how important this is.
1023
01:30:22,250 --> 01:30:24,680
I'll finish my shot.
1024
01:30:30,450 --> 01:30:32,120
Oh, for God's sakes, what is it?
1025
01:30:32,290 --> 01:30:34,080
- We've decided...
- We think...
1026
01:30:36,530 --> 01:30:39,240
We've decided not to bring forward an abolition bill.
1027
01:30:39,410 --> 01:30:42,040
- No?
- Indeed not.
1028
01:30:42,210 --> 01:30:46,480
We're going to address the issue of the use of neutral flags on cargo ships.
1029
01:30:46,650 --> 01:30:49,520
- How unutterably dull.
- Exactly.
1030
01:30:49,690 --> 01:30:52,360
We're going to suggest that French cargo ships
1031
01:30:52,530 --> 01:30:54,880
sailing under the American flag of convenience
1032
01:30:55,050 --> 01:30:56,800
be liable to seizure by privateers.
1033
01:30:56,970 --> 01:31:00,080
Part of the war effort.
1034
01:31:00,250 --> 01:31:02,600
Patriotism, all that.
1035
01:31:02,770 --> 01:31:07,320
Since when have you been interested in the war effort, patriotism and all that?
1036
01:31:09,770 --> 01:31:10,870
I'm not.
1037
01:31:12,530 --> 01:31:16,310
So... I'll continue with my game?
1038
01:31:21,890 --> 01:31:24,720
You don't see anything sinister in that measure?
1039
01:31:26,250 --> 01:31:27,600
No.
1040
01:31:29,290 --> 01:31:32,280
- Then neither will they.
- What the hell are you talking about?
1041
01:31:34,130 --> 01:31:36,880
80 percent of all slave ships sailing to the Indies
1042
01:31:37,050 --> 01:31:39,120
are flying the neutral American flag
1043
01:31:39,290 --> 01:31:42,600
to prevent them from being boarded by privateers.
1044
01:31:42,770 --> 01:31:45,520
If we pass a law removing that protection,
1045
01:31:45,690 --> 01:31:48,320
no ship owner will allow his vessel to make the journey.
1046
01:31:48,490 --> 01:31:51,680
This will only apply to French ships, not British.
1047
01:31:51,850 --> 01:31:53,120
That's the beauty of it.
1048
01:31:53,290 --> 01:31:58,080
Once any ship raises the American flag, by law it is neither French nor British.
1049
01:31:58,250 --> 01:32:01,640
So our slave ships will be just as liable to seizure as French ones.
1050
01:32:01,810 --> 01:32:04,760
The privateers won't care whose booty they're taking,
1051
01:32:04,930 --> 01:32:07,310
as long as they're operating within the law.
1052
01:32:07,490 --> 01:32:10,800
Without the protection of neutral flags,
1053
01:32:10,970 --> 01:32:15,080
80 percent of the British slave trade will be finished overnight.
1054
01:32:15,250 --> 01:32:16,800
Dear God.
1055
01:32:16,970 --> 01:32:20,400
But Prime Minister, we need to...
1056
01:32:20,570 --> 01:32:24,110
...tuck this bill away somewhere.
1057
01:32:25,010 --> 01:32:27,920
Disguise it. Oh.
1058
01:32:29,130 --> 01:32:31,690
I won't even get on my feet in the House.
1059
01:32:31,850 --> 01:32:34,440
This would still fall short of abolition.
1060
01:32:34,610 --> 01:32:38,880
With their profits cut, half the slavers will be bankrupt in two years.
1061
01:32:39,050 --> 01:32:42,320
Then we'll pick off their MPs in the House one by one.
1062
01:32:42,490 --> 01:32:44,280
Whose idea was this?
1063
01:32:45,970 --> 01:32:47,600
A lawyer.
1064
01:32:49,610 --> 01:32:54,600
Anti-French bill which is also anti-slavery.
1065
01:32:57,170 --> 01:33:00,400
Don't know why I didn't think of this any sooner.
1066
01:33:04,090 --> 01:33:05,520
Oh...
1067
01:33:05,690 --> 01:33:08,600
But we can't let anyone know that we're behind this.
1068
01:33:08,770 --> 01:33:12,280
Instruct someone to put this bill forward who's seen as a patriot.
1069
01:33:12,450 --> 01:33:13,800
We don't want any fuss.
1070
01:33:13,970 --> 01:33:19,040
We just need someone really, really... boring.
1071
01:33:22,050 --> 01:33:25,750
Typically, a French ship will change its registration
1072
01:33:25,930 --> 01:33:31,320
to raise the American flag and pick up a cargo of sugar in Havana.
1073
01:33:31,490 --> 01:33:34,960
It will then sail to Carolina
1074
01:33:35,130 --> 01:33:39,360
or Virginia or Florida
1075
01:33:39,530 --> 01:33:44,160
or New York City or even Boston.
1076
01:33:44,330 --> 01:33:48,240
The cargo will then be unloaded onto a second ship
1077
01:33:48,410 --> 01:33:52,600
carrying the American flag and set sail for France.
1078
01:33:53,610 --> 01:33:58,920
As things stand, neither the Royal Navy nor licensed privateers
1079
01:33:59,090 --> 01:34:02,560
have power to seize such a ship.
1080
01:34:03,370 --> 01:34:04,720
My proposition is
1081
01:34:04,890 --> 01:34:09,480
that all the ships flying the American flag
1082
01:34:09,650 --> 01:34:11,920
be liable to search and seizure
1083
01:34:12,090 --> 01:34:14,760
to put an end to this lamentable deceit
1084
01:34:14,930 --> 01:34:16,920
on the part of the French
1085
01:34:17,090 --> 01:34:19,320
and their Dutch and Spanish allies.
1086
01:34:19,490 --> 01:34:23,560
Mr Speaker! I believe the abolitionists are coming at us at a side wind.
1087
01:34:23,730 --> 01:34:27,600
A side wind? What kind of side wind?
1088
01:34:27,770 --> 01:34:32,120
I'm not sure what kind of side wind.
I just know there's something going on.
1089
01:34:32,290 --> 01:34:36,400
- The Jacobites are in.
- The Jacobites?
1090
01:34:36,570 --> 01:34:41,000
Really, I do think you might update your invective to reflect changing times.
1091
01:34:41,170 --> 01:34:43,760
Am I too late to call for an adjournment?
1092
01:34:51,010 --> 01:34:52,120
Of course you are.
1093
01:34:54,930 --> 01:34:58,630
Now, will you let the honourable gentleman proceed?
1094
01:34:58,810 --> 01:35:00,600
As I was saying...
1095
01:35:02,370 --> 01:35:08,040
...my proposition is that all ships flying the American flag
1096
01:35:08,210 --> 01:35:12,440
be liable to search and seizure to put an end to this lamentable deceit
1097
01:35:12,610 --> 01:35:14,720
on the part of the French, Dutch and Spanish.
1098
01:35:23,370 --> 01:35:25,750
- Jackson, get into the chamber.
- Right, sir.
1099
01:35:25,930 --> 01:35:28,840
Camber, chamber! Move your arse!
1100
01:35:29,010 --> 01:35:33,000
- What's going on?
- Just do it!
1101
01:36:01,610 --> 01:36:03,400
Where the hell is everyone?
1102
01:36:03,570 --> 01:36:07,350
Everybody's at the races in Epsom.
They were given free tickets.
1103
01:36:08,250 --> 01:36:12,120
I saved one for you.
A free gift from William Wilberforce.
1104
01:36:21,290 --> 01:36:22,390
Wilby?
1105
01:36:26,010 --> 01:36:29,400
What on earth is happening?
The poor maids are terrified.
1106
01:36:30,890 --> 01:36:33,800
- I'll bring your laudanum.
- No! No!
1107
01:36:33,970 --> 01:36:37,400
I've poured it all away this morning.
Every drop.
1108
01:36:37,570 --> 01:36:41,840
- Then I'll fetch more.
- No. I'm finished with it.
1109
01:36:42,010 --> 01:36:44,880
I can't even feel the joy of this victory.
1110
01:36:46,930 --> 01:36:49,560
This new baby will find me as myself.
1111
01:36:51,610 --> 01:36:53,960
- What will be his name?
- Who says it's a boy?
1112
01:36:54,130 --> 01:36:56,840
Just tell me some names.
Please, just keep talking.
1113
01:36:57,010 --> 01:37:00,360
William, if it's a boy.
Emma, if it's a girl.
1114
01:37:00,530 --> 01:37:03,360
It's... it's a boy. I'm sure of it.
1115
01:37:03,530 --> 01:37:05,000
- How will he look?
- Sweet.
1116
01:37:08,650 --> 01:37:13,000
He will be strong with curly hair, but dark, like yours.
1117
01:37:13,170 --> 01:37:17,400
- He's inside you now.
- Yes, yes, he's inside.
1118
01:37:17,570 --> 01:37:20,400
I can almost hear him.
He's singing to us.
1119
01:37:20,570 --> 01:37:22,760
Yes, he will have a fine voice like you.
1120
01:37:22,930 --> 01:37:25,040
Yes, yes, a strong voice.
1121
01:37:25,210 --> 01:37:28,280
And you will play with him in the garden every morning.
1122
01:37:28,450 --> 01:37:31,920
- Yes.
- And soon we'll have a girl and a boy.
1123
01:37:32,090 --> 01:37:35,600
And a girl and a boy and...
1124
01:37:47,850 --> 01:37:49,840
Wilby!
1125
01:37:51,850 --> 01:37:54,000
Come quickly!
1126
01:37:55,610 --> 01:37:57,120
Come on!
1127
01:38:11,970 --> 01:38:13,960
Please leave us now.
1128
01:38:25,650 --> 01:38:28,440
They tell me you're improving, Billy.
1129
01:38:28,610 --> 01:38:30,600
Bull.
1130
01:38:38,930 --> 01:38:41,230
We cracked crowns, didn't we?
1131
01:38:41,410 --> 01:38:45,520
- We left the heads intact.
- Because we're so pathetically English.
1132
01:38:52,410 --> 01:38:57,560
- We have agreed on a succession.
- You're not gone yet.
1133
01:38:57,730 --> 01:39:02,920
I will be replaced by Lord Granville as prime minister,
1134
01:39:03,090 --> 01:39:07,480
and the foreign secretary will be Charles Fox.
1135
01:39:08,810 --> 01:39:11,000
And Wilber,
1136
01:39:11,170 --> 01:39:16,240
Fox has already secured a guarantee from the palace.
1137
01:39:16,410 --> 01:39:20,400
They will remain neutral in the issue of the slave trade.
1138
01:39:22,810 --> 01:39:27,640
Next time you will be pushing at an open door.
1139
01:39:36,850 --> 01:39:38,760
I'm scared, Wilber.
1140
01:39:41,250 --> 01:39:42,680
Of what?
1141
01:39:43,770 --> 01:39:46,330
At this moment, I wish I had your faith.
1142
01:39:53,250 --> 01:39:55,160
No more excuses now, Wilber.
1143
01:39:58,370 --> 01:40:01,200
Finish them off.
1144
01:40:11,730 --> 01:40:15,270
As you know, Equiano, I rarely drink.
1145
01:40:15,450 --> 01:40:17,440
But today's an exception.
1146
01:40:20,330 --> 01:40:22,710
Today we're drinking to victory.
1147
01:40:34,490 --> 01:40:36,120
Wish you were...
1148
01:40:37,090 --> 01:40:41,440
...here to see all this... unfolding.
1149
01:40:44,690 --> 01:40:47,320
Just one more push.
1150
01:40:49,730 --> 01:40:51,720
One more.
1151
01:41:35,770 --> 01:41:39,470
I say to this House that there is now no reason
1152
01:41:39,650 --> 01:41:43,160
why my bill should not be commended to the king.
1153
01:41:44,090 --> 01:41:49,080
And I urge my honourable friends to vote once and for all
1154
01:41:49,250 --> 01:41:51,810
for the abolition of the slave trade
1155
01:41:51,970 --> 01:41:55,670
throughout His Majesty's empire.
1156
01:41:55,850 --> 01:41:57,840
They're taking the vote!
1157
01:42:10,570 --> 01:42:12,040
Here's the tally.
1158
01:42:51,970 --> 01:42:53,070
Order!
1159
01:42:54,530 --> 01:42:57,120
Order!
1160
01:42:59,770 --> 01:43:04,120
On the Home and Foreign Slave Trade Act,
1161
01:43:04,290 --> 01:43:08,560
the unamended bill calling for the abolition of the slave trade
1162
01:43:08,730 --> 01:43:12,680
throughout the entire British Empire.
1163
01:43:12,850 --> 01:43:16,000
No's to the left: 16.
1164
01:43:16,170 --> 01:43:20,520
Ayes to the right: 283.
1165
01:43:26,650 --> 01:43:32,480
I declare the bill of abolition of the slave trade to be passed.
1166
01:43:45,730 --> 01:43:46,920
Noblesse oblige.
1167
01:43:47,970 --> 01:43:50,120
What the bloody hell does that mean?
1168
01:43:50,290 --> 01:43:52,520
It means my nobility obliges me
1169
01:43:52,690 --> 01:43:55,800
to recognise the virtue of an exceptional commoner.
1170
01:44:02,610 --> 01:44:04,240
Order!
1171
01:44:05,010 --> 01:44:07,000
Order!
1172
01:44:19,890 --> 01:44:22,240
When people speak of great men,
1173
01:44:22,410 --> 01:44:26,160
they think of men like Napoleon.
1174
01:44:26,330 --> 01:44:29,000
Men of violence.
1175
01:44:29,170 --> 01:44:32,160
Rarely do they think of peaceful men.
1176
01:44:34,170 --> 01:44:36,440
But contrast the reception they'll receive
1177
01:44:36,610 --> 01:44:39,640
when they return home from their battles.
1178
01:44:39,810 --> 01:44:43,480
Napoleon will arrive in pomp and in power.
1179
01:44:43,650 --> 01:44:47,680
A man who's achieved the very summit of earthly ambition.
1180
01:44:48,610 --> 01:44:53,200
Yet his dreams will be haunted by the oppressions of war.
1181
01:44:54,730 --> 01:44:56,440
William Wilberforce, however,
1182
01:44:57,850 --> 01:44:59,760
will return to his family,
1183
01:45:00,890 --> 01:45:03,450
lay his head on his pillow
1184
01:45:03,610 --> 01:45:06,360
and remember
1185
01:45:06,530 --> 01:45:09,640
the slave trade is no more.
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