1
00:01:54,499 --> 00:01:56,981
Go on! Go on, you lazy nag!
2
00:02:01,005 --> 00:02:03,080
Stop a moment!
3
00:02:05,969 --> 00:02:07,752
Go on!
4
00:02:09,055 --> 00:02:10,504
Go on!
5
00:02:12,225 --> 00:02:16,000
Wilber.
Wilber, you're not well enough.
6
00:02:16,187 --> 00:02:19,388
For once, let it pass.
7
00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,895
If you leave your horse alone
for an hour, he might recover.
8
00:02:28,283 --> 00:02:30,608
And who the hell are you?
9
00:02:31,369 --> 00:02:32,526
Hey.
10
00:02:34,414 --> 00:02:38,032
I've seen him speak in London.
That's William Wilberforce.
11
00:02:53,391 --> 00:02:56,550
- Now what?
- Leave it.
12
00:03:06,154 --> 00:03:10,012
- Welcome home, sir.
- You're so late!
13
00:03:11,159 --> 00:03:13,234
The mud stole half a day.
14
00:03:14,787 --> 00:03:17,613
But Marianne, look.
I have a surprise for you.
15
00:03:19,292 --> 00:03:23,786
- I hope a pleasant one.
- Wilber. Wilber, is that you?
16
00:03:23,963 --> 00:03:28,541
Oh, it is, half of me. My idiotic
body is playing games with me again.
17
00:03:28,718 --> 00:03:31,544
- I promised we'd make him well.
- Eat something.
18
00:03:31,721 --> 00:03:35,006
Breakfast, perhaps.
Not too early. I'm on holiday.
19
00:03:35,183 --> 00:03:38,342
Isn't that right, cousin Henry?
20
00:03:38,519 --> 00:03:42,763
Don't you talk to each other?
Haven't you told him he's killing himself?
21
00:03:42,941 --> 00:03:46,017
Now he's with us, he'll be fine.
22
00:04:28,695 --> 00:04:30,686
What time is it?
23
00:04:30,863 --> 00:04:34,523
This is your 3 a.m. dose.
24
00:04:34,701 --> 00:04:39,153
So, cousin, you're waking me up
to give me medicine to help me sleep.
25
00:04:39,330 --> 00:04:44,533
Ah. Now you're taking on the medical
profession, as well as everyone else.
26
00:04:51,718 --> 00:04:52,990
Did you sleep?
27
00:04:53,177 --> 00:04:55,920
Sleep is more exhausting than being awake.
28
00:04:57,098 --> 00:04:59,340
The laudanum will sharpen your dreams.
29
00:04:59,517 --> 00:05:04,553
It replays my life to mock me and shows
me things I should have done but didn't.
30
00:05:04,731 --> 00:05:08,182
Wilber, Parliament doesn't deserve you.
31
00:05:08,359 --> 00:05:11,811
Your last bill was defeated because
four of your loyal supporters
32
00:05:11,988 --> 00:05:16,315
took free tickets to a comic opera '
rather than stay to vote.
33
00:05:16,492 --> 00:05:19,944
In my dreams,
I turned over their tables.
34
00:05:24,667 --> 00:05:28,285
But you know the worst thing?
I can't sing any more.
35
00:05:28,463 --> 00:05:30,538
You remember how well I used to sing?
36
00:05:30,715 --> 00:05:34,041
Marianne and I will find a way
to restore your voice.
37
00:06:07,293 --> 00:06:11,996
The Romans believed this water
would restore the dead to life.
38
00:06:12,173 --> 00:06:16,500
Most pump water I've investigated
works in the opposite direction.
39
00:06:19,138 --> 00:06:20,713
So?
40
00:06:22,016 --> 00:06:25,259
- What was so urgent?
- Did I say it was urgent?
41
00:06:27,897 --> 00:06:30,598
Marianne, are you expecting someone else?
42
00:06:35,363 --> 00:06:40,566
Inside this building, you will find
the secret of health and happy life.
43
00:06:40,743 --> 00:06:42,401
In a glass of water?
44
00:06:42,578 --> 00:06:43,819
You may have noticed,
45
00:06:43,996 --> 00:06:47,771
since I married Marianne,
I have been a picture of health.
46
00:06:47,959 --> 00:06:51,035
- I'm very happy for you.
- It is almost a scientific fact.
47
00:06:51,212 --> 00:06:54,747
Marriage and health are twins.
Inseparable.
48
00:06:54,924 --> 00:06:59,585
Single men wither away and die
in rooms that smell of feet and armpits.
49
00:06:59,762 --> 00:07:02,327
Henry, what are you babbling on about?
50
00:07:02,515 --> 00:07:06,425
Love, Wilberforce.
Come. Come, we're late.
51
00:07:06,602 --> 00:07:09,845
The water has been here a million years.
How can we be late?
52
00:07:10,022 --> 00:07:13,714
- So, what shall we discuss next?
- I don't know.
53
00:07:13,901 --> 00:07:17,269
The abolition of the slave trade.
How about that?
54
00:07:17,447 --> 00:07:21,857
Marianne, if I'd known you were so
starved of political conversation,
55
00:07:22,034 --> 00:07:25,069
I'd have wrapped up a Tory and
sent him to your home by mail
56
00:07:25,246 --> 00:07:27,321
for you to shout at.
57
00:07:27,498 --> 00:07:29,490
Ah, now, look at that.
58
00:07:29,667 --> 00:07:32,618
Here we are discussing the
abolition of the slave trade
59
00:07:32,795 --> 00:07:36,330
and in walks my husband with
William Wilberforce himself,
60
00:07:36,507 --> 00:07:40,417
the most committed abolitionist
in England and also, of course,
61
00:07:40,595 --> 00:07:42,670
the most unmarried.
62
00:07:46,309 --> 00:07:50,636
Oh. Look over there. It's Marianne.
63
00:07:50,813 --> 00:07:53,483
And who's the charming-looking
woman with her?
64
00:07:53,649 --> 00:07:56,016
- Marianne's here?
- Never mind about her.
65
00:07:56,194 --> 00:07:59,478
Look at the woman she's with.
Barbara Spooner.
66
00:07:59,655 --> 00:08:02,106
Very committed to very many good causes.
67
00:08:02,283 --> 00:08:05,859
And also entirely unmarried.
68
00:08:09,123 --> 00:08:12,074
Marianne, you're outrageous!
69
00:08:13,586 --> 00:08:18,205
I do not need you or anyone else
to find a wife for me!
70
00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:33,387
Carriage! Carriage over here.
71
00:08:43,449 --> 00:08:46,775
- I'll never forgive him.
- I'll never forgive her.
72
00:08:50,122 --> 00:08:55,461
However, Mr Wilberforce,
if we had met in other circumstances,
73
00:08:55,628 --> 00:08:59,121
I would have told you how deeply
I admire your tireless efforts
74
00:08:59,298 --> 00:09:02,625
to force our ridiculous Parliament
to abolish the slave trade.
75
00:09:02,802 --> 00:09:06,545
If you had, I would have changed
the subject and talked about botany.
76
00:09:06,722 --> 00:09:09,173
Botany? Why botany?
77
00:09:09,350 --> 00:09:12,968
Anything but politics.
I'm in Bath to be cured of politics.
78
00:09:13,145 --> 00:09:15,512
Well, I would have been bored by botany.
79
00:09:15,690 --> 00:09:19,683
So, even in other circumstances,
it would have been a disaster.
80
00:09:23,656 --> 00:09:26,774
- Good day to you.
- Good day to you.
81
00:10:07,742 --> 00:10:10,943
Some simple truths about this horrendous war
82
00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:15,406
need to be restated for the
benefit of my honourable friends.
83
00:10:15,583 --> 00:10:20,921
Simple fact. We have the rebels
on the anvil and a hammer in our hands.
84
00:10:22,298 --> 00:10:24,998
There is no question that our military force
85
00:10:25,176 --> 00:10:27,710
is far superior to that of the Americans.
86
00:10:27,887 --> 00:10:32,381
But we must distinguish
between force and justice.
87
00:10:32,558 --> 00:10:34,675
Where did this terrier spring from?
88
00:10:34,852 --> 00:10:37,417
I believe he's a Yorkshire terrier, My Lord.
89
00:10:37,605 --> 00:10:40,003
...rather than able statesmen.
90
00:10:40,191 --> 00:10:43,642
Surely it is time for the fat
fellow and his friends opposite
91
00:10:43,819 --> 00:10:47,146
to make way for others who
consider the good of their country
92
00:10:47,323 --> 00:10:50,315
of greater moment than their own personal interests.
93
00:10:52,286 --> 00:10:56,228
Doesn't he know what dangers await
anyone who talks sense in this place?
94
00:10:56,415 --> 00:10:58,490
Oh, I think he's equal to the dangers.
95
00:10:58,668 --> 00:11:03,203
My honourable friend suggests
we surrender to the revolutionaries.
96
00:11:03,381 --> 00:11:07,750
Revolution is like a pox.
It spreads from person to person.
97
00:11:07,927 --> 00:11:11,503
I bow to my honourable friend's
superior knowledge and experience
98
00:11:11,681 --> 00:11:15,215
in all matters regarding the pox.
99
00:11:23,901 --> 00:11:26,935
Why would we withdraw from America
100
00:11:27,113 --> 00:11:29,938
when half of the Americans are loyal to the Crown?
101
00:11:30,116 --> 00:11:33,859
Less than one in four Americans are loyal.
102
00:11:34,036 --> 00:11:38,530
If he calls that half,
I'd hate to be his wife and share half his bed.
103
00:11:41,127 --> 00:11:42,576
Mr Foreign Secretary.
104
00:11:42,753 --> 00:11:45,954
My honourable and young friend
should explain to the House
105
00:11:46,132 --> 00:11:50,209
the difference between appeasement
and surrender.
106
00:11:50,386 --> 00:11:53,796
Hear, hear!
107
00:11:56,600 --> 00:12:01,720
The difference between appeasement and
surrender is merely a matter of time
108
00:12:01,897 --> 00:12:05,516
and perhaps 10,000 more young lives
109
00:12:05,693 --> 00:12:09,467
wasted for no reason.
110
00:12:15,703 --> 00:12:16,850
Go on.
111
00:12:17,413 --> 00:12:19,071
Two guineas.
112
00:12:19,248 --> 00:12:22,574
Sweet Prospero, why hast thou forsaken me?
113
00:12:24,170 --> 00:12:29,164
Brave in the House, but at the table a mouse.
114
00:12:29,341 --> 00:12:34,680
Your Grace, you know these merchant
boys are richer than we are.
115
00:12:39,435 --> 00:12:42,344
Aye. I have ten guineas left.
116
00:12:44,607 --> 00:12:47,088
So ten it is.
117
00:12:47,276 --> 00:12:49,518
In or out, Wilberforce?
118
00:13:00,748 --> 00:13:02,614
- A pencil and paper.
- No, no, no.
119
00:13:02,792 --> 00:13:05,492
Brooks's Club house rules. No IOUs.
120
00:13:05,669 --> 00:13:09,527
Amongst gentlemen, perhaps,
but Wilberforce is a tradesman.
121
00:13:09,715 --> 00:13:12,416
You gamble with what you have with you.
122
00:13:14,595 --> 00:13:18,964
Wilberforce, will you take my IOU?
123
00:13:21,977 --> 00:13:26,847
- We split the pot and call it evens.
- To hell with that. Payment in kind.
124
00:13:27,024 --> 00:13:29,474
There's nothing you have I'd want, Your Grace.
125
00:13:33,155 --> 00:13:34,771
Tarleton, fetch my nigger.
126
00:13:40,996 --> 00:13:45,240
My coach driver.
Go and wake him up and bring him in now.
127
00:13:51,841 --> 00:13:54,708
I bought a nigger in Port of Spain.
128
00:13:54,885 --> 00:13:57,878
He eats better than I do, so he's strong as an ox.
129
00:13:58,055 --> 00:14:01,214
He'd fetch at least 25 guineas at the West India Dock.
130
00:14:01,392 --> 00:14:03,759
The game is over.
131
00:14:07,857 --> 00:14:09,723
What's wrong, Wilberforce?
132
00:14:09,900 --> 00:14:12,935
If I hadn't brought the boy to London,
133
00:14:13,112 --> 00:14:15,854
he'd have been worked to
death in a sugar cane field.
134
00:14:16,031 --> 00:14:19,650
I saved his miserable life. There.
135
00:14:23,789 --> 00:14:25,197
I raise the stakes.
136
00:14:33,090 --> 00:14:37,250
Wilberforce? In the game or out?
137
00:14:51,358 --> 00:14:53,558
Evening.
138
00:15:03,454 --> 00:15:06,530
You act as if you'd never seen slavery before.
139
00:15:06,707 --> 00:15:10,867
For me it's like arsenic.
Each new tiny dose doubles the effect.
140
00:15:20,930 --> 00:15:26,341
- You're not afraid of Clarence.
- Because he's the son of the king?
141
00:15:26,518 --> 00:15:31,096
So, you want
- "bloody noses and cracked crowns"?
142
00:15:31,273 --> 00:15:35,183
<i>- Shakespeare, Henry IV.
- A play about England changing.</i>
143
00:15:35,361 --> 00:15:38,353
- As it will soon change.- Only if we change it.
144
00:15:41,200 --> 00:15:44,776
You don't believe you and I could change things?
145
00:15:44,954 --> 00:15:47,654
I would change myself first.
146
00:16:01,679 --> 00:16:03,837
Do you remember, Billy, at Cambridge
147
00:16:04,014 --> 00:16:06,882
I had a reputation as something of a singer?
148
00:16:07,059 --> 00:16:08,925
I do remember.
149
00:16:09,103 --> 00:16:12,012
So I think I'm going to go and sing them a song.
150
00:16:22,282 --> 00:16:26,141
Silence!
151
00:16:27,579 --> 00:16:29,529
Silence!
152
00:16:33,252 --> 00:16:37,110
You sound like a chorus of bloody tomcats.
153
00:16:37,297 --> 00:16:42,532
Now, let me introduce you to
somebody who does it properly.
154
00:16:46,348 --> 00:16:48,746
I dedicate this song to my honourable friend,
155
00:16:48,934 --> 00:16:52,344
His Grace, the Duke of Clarence.
156
00:16:52,521 --> 00:16:55,388
It was written by my old preacher.
157
00:16:55,566 --> 00:16:58,391
He was captain of a slave ship for 20 years.
158
00:16:58,569 --> 00:17:02,062
He repented his sins and
then he wrote this song.
159
00:17:04,241 --> 00:17:09,653
<i># Amazing Grace</i>
160
00:17:09,830 --> 00:17:15,784
<i>- # How sweet the sound
- Times are hard for the militant boys!</i>
161
00:17:15,961 --> 00:17:20,997
<i># That saved a wretch</i>
162
00:17:21,175 --> 00:17:26,242
<i># Like me</i>
163
00:17:26,430 --> 00:17:32,676
<i># I once was lost</i>
164
00:17:32,853 --> 00:17:39,057
<i># But now am found</i>
165
00:17:40,152 --> 00:17:43,436
<i># Was blind</i>
166
00:17:43,614 --> 00:17:46,731
<i># But now</i>
167
00:17:46,909 --> 00:17:50,193
<i># I see #</i>
168
00:18:32,871 --> 00:18:36,489
Dear God, I know this is utterly absurd,
169
00:18:36,667 --> 00:18:39,784
but I feel I have to meet you in secret.
170
00:18:42,756 --> 00:18:46,833
Sorry to interrupt, sir.
There is a beggar at the kitchen door.
171
00:18:47,010 --> 00:18:51,755
I would turn him away, sir,
but you insisted I always check.
172
00:18:53,058 --> 00:18:54,633
Just give him breakfast.
173
00:18:56,228 --> 00:18:57,802
Very good, sir.
174
00:19:03,777 --> 00:19:06,478
- Richard?
- Sir?
175
00:19:08,365 --> 00:19:12,442
I know that lying down on the
wet grass is not a normal thing to do.
176
00:19:13,662 --> 00:19:16,571
None of my business, sir.
177
00:19:16,748 --> 00:19:18,823
Truth is, uh...
178
00:19:21,837 --> 00:19:26,790
...I've been even more strange
than usual lately, haven't I?
179
00:19:26,967 --> 00:19:28,541
It's God.
180
00:19:29,845 --> 00:19:32,295
I have 10,000 engagements of state today,
181
00:19:32,472 --> 00:19:35,298
but I would prefer to spend
the day getting a wet arse,
182
00:19:35,476 --> 00:19:40,303
studying dandelions and marvelling at bloody spiders' webs.
183
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:42,264
You've found God, sir?
184
00:19:46,153 --> 00:19:47,310
I think he found me.
185
00:19:48,906 --> 00:19:53,942
Do you have any idea how inconvenient that is,
186
00:19:54,119 --> 00:19:56,945
how idiotic it will sound?
187
00:19:57,122 --> 00:19:59,948
I've a political career glittering ahead of me
188
00:20:00,125 --> 00:20:03,535
and in my heart I want spiders' webs.
189
00:20:14,806 --> 00:20:19,259
"It is a sad fate for a man to
die too well-known to everybody else
190
00:20:19,436 --> 00:20:22,137
and still unknown to himself."
191
00:20:24,233 --> 00:20:26,558
Francis Bacon.
192
00:20:26,735 --> 00:20:29,436
I don'tjust dust your books, sir.
193
00:20:32,366 --> 00:20:36,026
When I was 15, I almost ran away with the circus.
194
00:20:36,203 --> 00:20:38,903
They said I could have been an acrobat.
195
00:20:42,042 --> 00:20:44,326
- Good morning, Mr Pitt.
- Morning.
196
00:20:49,049 --> 00:20:50,582
Excuse me, sir.
197
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:02,427
You read my letter.
198
00:21:02,604 --> 00:21:06,014
The man who wrote that letter was not you.
199
00:21:06,191 --> 00:21:10,310
It was written by some wild preacher
man that has gotten into your head.
200
00:21:10,487 --> 00:21:12,562
No.
201
00:21:16,118 --> 00:21:20,195
- So did he reply?
- Who
202
00:21:20,372 --> 00:21:24,657
God. You were going to ask God whether
you should take up politics or religion.
203
00:21:24,835 --> 00:21:26,659
You're always too direct, Billy.
204
00:21:26,837 --> 00:21:30,163
I urgently need to know where your heart lies, Wilber.
205
00:21:30,340 --> 00:21:32,957
- What's urgent?
- I...
206
00:21:38,098 --> 00:21:40,090
I'm planning to become prime minister.
207
00:21:43,312 --> 00:21:48,014
- Some day.
- No, I mean soon. Very soon.
208
00:21:50,485 --> 00:21:54,062
Thanks to your performances in the House,
Fox and North will resign.
209
00:21:54,239 --> 00:21:57,273
Lord Rockingham will become prime minister.
210
00:21:57,451 --> 00:22:02,862
Lord Rockingham's health is not good.
When he dies, I will make my move.
211
00:22:03,790 --> 00:22:07,033
- You've worked it all out.
- I want you beside me, Wilber.
212
00:22:07,210 --> 00:22:08,910
All the way.
213
00:22:09,087 --> 00:22:11,454
You've read my letter but not taken in a word.
214
00:22:11,632 --> 00:22:15,959
I would have you in my government
in whichever capacity you choose.
215
00:22:17,512 --> 00:22:21,423
Billy, no one of our age has ever taken power.
216
00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:26,834
Which is why we're too young to
realise that certain things are impossible.
217
00:22:27,564 --> 00:22:30,265
So we will do them anyway.
218
00:22:31,526 --> 00:22:33,810
I need an answer, Wilber.
219
00:22:34,654 --> 00:22:39,607
Do you intend to use your beautiful
voice to praise the Lord
220
00:22:39,785 --> 00:22:42,485
or change the world?
221
00:22:46,500 --> 00:22:48,700
Here. Cut this, will you?
222
00:22:48,877 --> 00:22:53,329
- I've got too much to do.
- You take care of them.
223
00:22:53,507 --> 00:22:55,165
Any more flour?
224
00:22:55,342 --> 00:22:58,460
- I can't!
- Put your elbow into it.
225
00:23:00,931 --> 00:23:04,048
Marjorie, Mr Wilberforce is on his way down.
226
00:23:15,404 --> 00:23:19,772
Marjorie, I'm expecting some people for dinner.
227
00:23:22,786 --> 00:23:25,268
Marjorie? Marjorie?
228
00:23:27,916 --> 00:23:30,158
- She's been run off her feet, sir.
- How so?
229
00:23:30,335 --> 00:23:33,828
Well, take today, for example.
You have 25 guests for lunch.
230
00:23:34,005 --> 00:23:35,152
Do I?
231
00:23:43,014 --> 00:23:47,425
If you remember, you decided
to reward various volunteers
232
00:23:47,602 --> 00:23:51,513
who worked for some quite
precariously financed charities.
233
00:23:51,690 --> 00:23:56,100
Some brought deserving children.
Others brought less deserving relatives.
234
00:23:57,195 --> 00:24:03,024
- I really should get some sort of...
- Diary, sir. Yes. Or more cooks.
235
00:24:04,369 --> 00:24:06,444
Go on! Go on!
236
00:24:14,963 --> 00:24:17,632
Is that the appetiser?
237
00:24:17,799 --> 00:24:20,542
No, that's His Grace, the Duke of Clarence.
238
00:24:24,264 --> 00:24:27,173
Wilberforce, the Reverend John Ramsay.
239
00:24:27,350 --> 00:24:28,925
Reverend.
240
00:24:29,102 --> 00:24:31,667
Edward Hope.
241
00:24:31,855 --> 00:24:34,524
And Michael Shaw. Both friends.
242
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:41,510
- This is Olaudah Equiano.
- Mr Equiano. Please.
243
00:24:42,699 --> 00:24:46,859
- You've travelled far to be here?
- No distance would be too great.
244
00:24:49,664 --> 00:24:54,325
- And this is Hannah Moore.
- Mr Wilberforce.
245
00:24:54,503 --> 00:24:56,786
Who has travelled all the way from Clapham.
246
00:24:56,963 --> 00:25:00,206
Finally, let me introduce Mr Thomas Clarkson.
247
00:25:00,383 --> 00:25:04,210
Beautiful house. Sweet little rabbit.
248
00:25:06,223 --> 00:25:08,423
It's a hare, actually.
249
00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:10,675
Please.
250
00:25:13,730 --> 00:25:16,973
So come on. Who are they?
251
00:25:17,150 --> 00:25:19,632
Why don't you ask them?
252
00:25:28,745 --> 00:25:33,156
Well, I hope the goose is tender.
She was rather old.
253
00:25:33,333 --> 00:25:36,242
I find the older I get, the more tender I become.
254
00:25:41,383 --> 00:25:46,336
So, Miss Moore, you live in Clapham.
255
00:25:46,513 --> 00:25:48,588
I hear it's very tranquil there.
256
00:25:48,765 --> 00:25:51,966
When certain issues are raised amongst my friends and I,
257
00:25:52,143 --> 00:25:54,469
it is anything but tranquil.
258
00:25:54,646 --> 00:25:57,972
Ah. And, uh, which issues are those?
259
00:25:58,149 --> 00:26:01,726
Issues regarding the making of a better world.
260
00:26:01,903 --> 00:26:03,853
Better in which way?
261
00:26:04,030 --> 00:26:08,149
If you make the world better in one way,
it becomes better in every way.
262
00:26:08,326 --> 00:26:10,401
Don't you think?
263
00:26:13,081 --> 00:26:16,324
Mr Equiano, what business brings you to London?
264
00:26:16,501 --> 00:26:19,827
My business in London is you,
Mr Wilberforce.
265
00:26:20,005 --> 00:26:23,373
What? You wish to discuss something with me?
266
00:26:23,550 --> 00:26:26,292
No. We do not want to talk
267
00:26:26,469 --> 00:26:30,505
because we hear that you are
a man who doesn't believe what he hears
268
00:26:30,682 --> 00:26:33,383
until he sees it with his own eyes.
269
00:26:54,998 --> 00:26:57,281
These are for the legs.
270
00:27:03,089 --> 00:27:04,330
These for the arms.
271
00:27:08,261 --> 00:27:10,743
This is for the neck.
272
00:27:12,891 --> 00:27:15,717
Works like so.
273
00:27:21,608 --> 00:27:23,766
When the slaves leave port in Africa,
274
00:27:23,943 --> 00:27:26,853
they're locked into a space four foot by 18 inches.
275
00:27:27,030 --> 00:27:31,733
They have no sanitation,
very little food, stagnant water.
276
00:27:31,910 --> 00:27:37,530
Their waste and blood fills the holes
within three days and is never emptied.
277
00:27:37,707 --> 00:27:43,286
These irons and chains are to
keep them from throwing themselves overboard.
278
00:27:43,463 --> 00:27:49,208
The chains are not unlocked
until you reach the plantation in Jamaica.
279
00:27:49,386 --> 00:27:52,795
Around half of the slaves are dead already.
280
00:27:53,973 --> 00:27:57,091
In the markets, they stuff knotted rope
281
00:27:57,268 --> 00:28:00,344
into the anuses of those who are sick
282
00:28:00,522 --> 00:28:03,765
to disguise the dysentery.
283
00:28:03,942 --> 00:28:09,562
When you reach the plantation,
they put irons to the fire...
284
00:28:10,907 --> 00:28:12,774
...and do this.
285
00:28:14,077 --> 00:28:19,280
To let you know that you no
longer belong to God, but to a man.
286
00:28:21,334 --> 00:28:26,329
Mr Wilberforce,
we understand you're having problems
287
00:28:26,506 --> 00:28:29,457
choosing whether to do the work of God
288
00:28:29,634 --> 00:28:32,418
or the work of a political activist.
289
00:28:35,056 --> 00:28:39,926
We humbly suggest that you can do both.
290
00:29:08,339 --> 00:29:10,414
You planned this.
291
00:29:10,592 --> 00:29:13,073
I've seen the literature you've been reading.
292
00:29:13,261 --> 00:29:16,337
You've stooped to searching through my desk?
293
00:29:16,514 --> 00:29:20,925
Sir William Dolben told me you'd
asked to be shown round the East India Docks.
294
00:29:26,483 --> 00:29:31,102
So, you would use my private
concerns for your own political ends.
295
00:29:31,279 --> 00:29:34,063
Yes, exactly that.
296
00:29:38,161 --> 00:29:41,779
The principles of Christianity
lead to action as well as meditation.
297
00:29:41,956 --> 00:29:45,157
Allow me to meditate on it
before I decide on any action.
298
00:29:45,335 --> 00:29:49,161
Just think about this, Wilber.
299
00:29:49,339 --> 00:29:52,790
The slave trade has 300 MPs in its pocket.
300
00:29:54,552 --> 00:29:57,222
It would be just you against them.
301
00:29:58,473 --> 00:29:59,714
But you could do it.
302
00:30:02,060 --> 00:30:04,093
You would do it.
303
00:30:25,500 --> 00:30:27,982
Oh, stop moaning.
304
00:30:32,465 --> 00:30:34,540
Excuse me, sir.
305
00:30:36,469 --> 00:30:39,378
Do you have a penny for a boy
that went to fight the Yanks
306
00:30:39,556 --> 00:30:40,796
and came back half a man?
307
00:30:58,867 --> 00:31:01,317
Hello, Mr Newton. It's me, William.
308
00:31:03,246 --> 00:31:05,321
Hello, John. How are you?
309
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,160
Hello, John. It's me, Wilber.
310
00:31:14,132 --> 00:31:16,207
I'm here to seek your...
311
00:31:32,609 --> 00:31:36,143
The beggar at the door assures
me that I'm now old enough
312
00:31:36,321 --> 00:31:38,719
to call you John.
313
00:31:43,369 --> 00:31:45,820
You're dressing very simply these days.
314
00:31:45,997 --> 00:31:51,534
I'm a simple man. I try to pretend
I am a monk, but I don't have the willpower.
315
00:31:51,711 --> 00:31:55,204
I'm a monk Mondays, Wednesdays...
316
00:31:55,381 --> 00:32:00,334
When I read your name in the papers,
doing these great things,
317
00:32:00,511 --> 00:32:03,546
I still see a tiny boy with his hair a mess
318
00:32:03,723 --> 00:32:06,288
and ink on his fingers.
319
00:32:08,853 --> 00:32:13,556
So, what do you want with an old creature?
320
00:32:13,733 --> 00:32:16,402
I'm here to seek your advice.
321
00:32:16,569 --> 00:32:20,187
When you were a child,
you used to ask God for advice.
322
00:32:20,365 --> 00:32:24,358
Then I grew up. And grew foolish.
323
00:32:24,535 --> 00:32:26,444
And now?
324
00:32:29,207 --> 00:32:33,117
Now... slowly, my faith is returning.
325
00:32:33,294 --> 00:32:35,964
How slowly?
326
00:32:36,130 --> 00:32:39,457
No bolts of lightning.
327
00:32:39,634 --> 00:32:45,588
God sometimes does his work
with gentle drizzle, not storms.
328
00:32:45,765 --> 00:32:49,842
Drip... drip... drip.
329
00:32:52,897 --> 00:32:56,182
My friend William Pitt has declared an interest in me.
330
00:32:56,359 --> 00:32:57,850
William who?
331
00:32:59,779 --> 00:33:02,104
He's offering me a place in the world.
332
00:33:02,281 --> 00:33:06,275
Just make sure you're in the world, not of the world.
333
00:33:07,537 --> 00:33:11,311
There'd be no escape from power once I have it.
334
00:33:11,499 --> 00:33:15,159
- I would have to see things through.
- Why wouldn't you?
335
00:33:21,634 --> 00:33:24,418
Are you contemplating a life of solitude?
336
00:33:28,641 --> 00:33:31,258
Wilber, you have work to do.
337
00:33:31,436 --> 00:33:35,638
Besides, people like you too much
338
00:33:35,815 --> 00:33:38,057
to let you live a life of solitude.
339
00:33:38,234 --> 00:33:40,142
Haven't you chosen solitude?
340
00:33:40,319 --> 00:33:45,731
You, of all people, should know I can never be alone.
341
00:33:46,534 --> 00:33:48,776
There now.
342
00:33:50,788 --> 00:33:54,782
- There now what?
- You're the reason I came.
343
00:33:56,044 --> 00:34:01,455
You told me that you live in the company of 20,000 ghosts.
344
00:34:01,632 --> 00:34:04,750
The ghosts of slaves.
345
00:34:07,305 --> 00:34:11,340
I was explaining to a child
346
00:34:11,517 --> 00:34:17,263
why a grown man cowers in a dark corner.
347
00:34:24,655 --> 00:34:26,730
I need you to tell me about them.
348
00:34:26,908 --> 00:34:29,900
I'm not strong enough to hear my own confession.
349
00:34:31,746 --> 00:34:35,364
- I thought time might have changed you.
- It has. I'm older.
350
00:34:35,541 --> 00:34:39,368
Pitt has asked me to take them on, the slavers.
351
00:34:39,545 --> 00:34:42,413
I'm the last person you should come to for advice.
352
00:34:42,590 --> 00:34:44,988
I can't even say the name of any of my ships
353
00:34:45,176 --> 00:34:48,335
without being back onboard them in my head.
354
00:34:48,513 --> 00:34:53,664
All I know is 20,000 slaves
live with me in this little church.
355
00:34:53,851 --> 00:34:58,053
- There's still blood on my hands.
- Will you help me, John?
356
00:34:58,231 --> 00:35:00,848
I can't help you.
357
00:35:01,025 --> 00:35:04,967
But do it, Wilber. Do it.
358
00:35:05,154 --> 00:35:09,096
Take them on. Blow their dirty,
filthy ships out of the water.
359
00:35:09,283 --> 00:35:11,953
The planters, sugar barons,
360
00:35:12,120 --> 00:35:16,061
Alderman "Sugar Cane",
the Lord Mayor of London.
361
00:35:16,249 --> 00:35:19,366
Liverpool, Boston, Bristol, New York.
362
00:35:19,544 --> 00:35:25,331
All their streets running
with blood, dysentery, puke!
363
00:35:26,551 --> 00:35:30,325
You won't come away from those streets clean, Wilber.
364
00:35:30,513 --> 00:35:34,006
You'll get filthy with it, you'll dream it,
365
00:35:34,183 --> 00:35:37,092
see it in broad daylight.
366
00:35:37,270 --> 00:35:41,722
But do it. For God's sake.
367
00:35:48,281 --> 00:35:51,523
Sir, I have Mr Thomas Clarkson.
368
00:35:56,164 --> 00:35:58,989
Forgive me.
Mr Wilberforce was here a moment ago.
369
00:36:00,001 --> 00:36:02,482
I'd better go and find him.
370
00:36:22,231 --> 00:36:25,349
- Good afternoon.
- Sorry if I alarmed you.
371
00:36:27,486 --> 00:36:31,345
I had this box made up in the
exact dimensions of a slave berth.
372
00:36:33,034 --> 00:36:37,194
I thought you could use it
in your practical demonstrations.
373
00:36:39,874 --> 00:36:44,326
Why did you wait until your butler
had left before you got out of the box?
374
00:36:45,671 --> 00:36:48,205
They all think I'm mad already.
375
00:36:50,635 --> 00:36:54,128
As will most people in the House of Commons
376
00:36:54,305 --> 00:36:57,131
when I present my bill.
377
00:37:03,689 --> 00:37:06,557
<i>Wilberforce, conditions in Jamaica</i>
378
00:37:06,734 --> 00:37:10,019
<i>are far more brutal than I could have imagined.</i>
379
00:37:10,196 --> 00:37:15,430
<i>Many children are scalded to
death by the molten lava.</i>
380
00:37:15,618 --> 00:37:21,071
<i>Others die of exhaustion or roll
into the fires in their sleep.</i>
381
00:37:21,249 --> 00:37:26,076
<i>The result in the morning is a
few pounds of pure, refined sugar.</i>
382
00:37:29,465 --> 00:37:32,624
Wilberforce, are you all right?
383
00:37:35,388 --> 00:37:37,463
Sit up for me.
384
00:37:40,393 --> 00:37:42,468
Here, drink this.
385
00:37:49,068 --> 00:37:53,604
- What happened?
- I read James's letter from Jamaica.
386
00:37:53,781 --> 00:37:57,316
When I fell asleep, it was as if I were living inside it.
387
00:37:59,078 --> 00:38:03,019
Perhaps the laudanum the doctor gave you is badly mixed.
388
00:38:03,207 --> 00:38:05,199
I know the effects of opium, Henry.
389
00:38:06,294 --> 00:38:09,912
- This isn't the medication.
- What, then?
390
00:38:10,089 --> 00:38:13,082
I was chosen for this task and I failed.
391
00:38:15,636 --> 00:38:20,975
Some part of me does not accept the idea that I've given up.
392
00:38:21,142 --> 00:38:24,134
- I'll dilute this.
- Can you dilute what I feel?
393
00:38:27,273 --> 00:38:31,850
You've given your youth and your health for this cause.
394
00:38:32,028 --> 00:38:35,062
It's time to let someone else try.
395
00:38:55,968 --> 00:38:59,795
So, Mr Wilberforce...
396
00:38:59,972 --> 00:39:02,454
...I understand you have an interest in botany.
397
00:39:05,519 --> 00:39:09,680
Botany, Miss Spooner? Whatever gives
you the idea that I might be interested
398
00:39:09,857 --> 00:39:12,255
in something as tedious as botany?
399
00:39:26,332 --> 00:39:30,659
Sorry. It's a private joke.
400
00:39:36,967 --> 00:39:41,086
Now, Wilber, I know you're not interested in botany,
401
00:39:41,263 --> 00:39:47,009
but there's a fascinating creeping
ivy up the far end of the garden.
402
00:39:47,186 --> 00:39:50,345
Barbara, you really must go and see it too.
403
00:39:50,523 --> 00:39:52,598
Go on.
404
00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:02,566
To irritate them, let's pretend to argue.
405
00:40:02,743 --> 00:40:05,360
- What about?
- Something we disagree on.
406
00:40:05,538 --> 00:40:07,613
Think of something.
407
00:40:07,790 --> 00:40:09,865
The war in France.
408
00:40:11,085 --> 00:40:14,828
I think we should settle with Napoleon right now.
409
00:40:15,005 --> 00:40:18,040
So do I. Schools.
410
00:40:18,217 --> 00:40:21,084
I'm a member of your movement for free education.
411
00:40:21,262 --> 00:40:25,036
I agreed with every word you
said on the Dales factory debate.
412
00:40:25,224 --> 00:40:27,299
You read every word?
413
00:40:28,769 --> 00:40:31,303
- No.
- Neither did I.
414
00:40:33,607 --> 00:40:37,684
- Gin.
- Replace it in the cities with beer.
415
00:40:37,862 --> 00:40:39,009
Absolutely.
416
00:40:41,907 --> 00:40:44,608
I'm definitely alone in my opinions about animals.
417
00:40:44,785 --> 00:40:47,736
No. I joined your society for the prevention of cruelty.
418
00:40:47,913 --> 00:40:51,823
Well, I'm extreme. I have a pet fox,
a pet rat and a crow that can't fly.
419
00:40:52,001 --> 00:40:54,482
I used to have a pet hare, but it died of kindness.
420
00:40:54,670 --> 00:40:57,579
America.
421
00:40:57,756 --> 00:41:01,667
We must reassess the power of
the collective political process.
422
00:41:01,844 --> 00:41:02,991
Agreed.
423
00:41:03,053 --> 00:41:05,295
Oh, and, of course, we are agreed on slavery.
424
00:41:05,473 --> 00:41:09,091
I'm against flowers in church.
What do you say to that?
425
00:41:09,268 --> 00:41:11,343
I am for them.
426
00:41:13,147 --> 00:41:15,222
As am I.
427
00:41:18,277 --> 00:41:20,602
I shouldn't talk about the slave trade?
428
00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:23,949
I've spent so many years talking about it.
429
00:41:24,116 --> 00:41:26,441
So, what are a few more minutes?
430
00:41:26,619 --> 00:41:28,944
When Mr Pitt first became prime minister,
431
00:41:29,121 --> 00:41:33,407
the two of you were like meteorites
shooting through our imagination.
432
00:41:33,584 --> 00:41:37,578
- Whose imaginations?
- Girls my age.
433
00:41:37,755 --> 00:41:39,830
You stopped taking sugar in your tea?
434
00:41:40,007 --> 00:41:42,749
I wore an abolition badge made by Josiah Wedgwood.
435
00:41:42,927 --> 00:41:44,793
He was a good friend to us.
436
00:41:44,970 --> 00:41:48,912
And I travelled 30 miles in the rain
to hear Thomas Clarkson speak.
437
00:41:49,099 --> 00:41:52,259
- Did he deafen you?
- He opened my eyes.
438
00:41:52,436 --> 00:41:54,761
- I met the African.
- Equiano.
439
00:41:54,939 --> 00:41:58,932
He came to town with a hundred
copies of his book. They sold in an hour.
440
00:41:59,109 --> 00:42:01,810
- You signed our petitions.
- A hundred times.
441
00:42:01,987 --> 00:42:06,440
A hundred times. Three million names,
a million candles to read them by.
442
00:42:06,617 --> 00:42:09,818
- Must have been so exciting.
- Exciting?
443
00:42:09,995 --> 00:42:13,155
It seemed that every spring the daffodils came out,
444
00:42:13,332 --> 00:42:15,574
every summer the cherries ripened
445
00:42:15,751 --> 00:42:19,609
and every autumn William Wilberforce
would present his bill to the House.
446
00:42:19,797 --> 00:42:21,830
- And still...
- And still...?
447
00:42:22,007 --> 00:42:24,916
And still, after all the badges, the petitions,
448
00:42:25,094 --> 00:42:26,960
all the speeches and the bills,
449
00:42:27,137 --> 00:42:32,476
ships full of human souls in
chains sail around the world as cargo!
450
00:42:52,246 --> 00:42:53,779
I'm sorry.
451
00:42:59,920 --> 00:43:03,580
- This is why I shouldn't talk about it.
- I think you should.
452
00:43:06,802 --> 00:43:10,837
There. We've found something we disagree on.
453
00:43:25,946 --> 00:43:30,023
"Am I not a man whose soul is drawn to heaven
454
00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:33,527
like water from the dark well of Africa?"
455
00:43:33,704 --> 00:43:35,153
From Equiano's book.
456
00:43:36,624 --> 00:43:39,408
He was a man like no other.
457
00:43:40,961 --> 00:43:43,912
Please, tell me about him.
458
00:43:51,430 --> 00:43:53,505
It seems to me
459
00:43:53,682 --> 00:43:58,593
that if there is a bad taste in your mouth,
you spit it out.
460
00:43:59,521 --> 00:44:02,472
You don't constantly swallow it back.
461
00:44:13,077 --> 00:44:16,278
<i>Not long after I first met him,</i>
462
00:44:16,455 --> 00:44:19,948
<i>he asked me to come to the East India Dock.</i>
463
00:44:20,125 --> 00:44:23,034
<i>He said there was a ship I should see.</i>
464
00:44:23,212 --> 00:44:25,693
<i>A ship he knew well.</i>
465
00:44:30,928 --> 00:44:32,711
Mr Equiano.
466
00:44:36,016 --> 00:44:38,341
This way.
467
00:44:43,899 --> 00:44:45,891
Thank you, sir.
468
00:44:46,068 --> 00:44:49,311
- Hello.
- Sweetheart.
469
00:45:14,304 --> 00:45:17,506
They make you lie in this space.
470
00:45:17,683 --> 00:45:22,719
The shackles dislocate your hip or your shoulder.
471
00:45:22,896 --> 00:45:25,722
You are in pain all the way around the world.
472
00:45:38,704 --> 00:45:40,779
How long is the journey?
473
00:45:40,956 --> 00:45:43,865
Three weeks, if the weather is good.
474
00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:50,997
For amusement, they sometimes hang the women from these,
475
00:45:51,175 --> 00:45:53,656
by the ankles, to rape them.
476
00:45:55,971 --> 00:45:59,047
In stormy weather, they take the very sickest
477
00:45:59,224 --> 00:46:03,385
and throw them into the sea to lighten the ship's load.
478
00:46:09,735 --> 00:46:11,601
How did you survive?
479
00:46:11,779 --> 00:46:16,189
Your life is a thread.
It breaks or it doesn't break.
480
00:46:18,619 --> 00:46:21,100
Before I travelled in a ship like this,
481
00:46:21,288 --> 00:46:25,699
I was a prince, in many ways not unlike you.
482
00:46:41,308 --> 00:46:43,790
It was a beautiful day like no other,
483
00:46:43,977 --> 00:46:46,678
the last day I saw my home in Africa.
484
00:46:52,194 --> 00:46:54,269
It is with a heavy heart
485
00:46:54,446 --> 00:46:56,980
that I bring to the attention of this House
486
00:46:57,157 --> 00:47:01,943
a trade which degrades men to the level of brutes
487
00:47:02,120 --> 00:47:07,866
and insults the highest qualities
of our common nature.
488
00:47:08,043 --> 00:47:11,119
I am speaking of... the slave trade.
489
00:47:16,385 --> 00:47:19,502
I know that many of my honourable friends in this House
490
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:22,631
have interests in the Indies.
491
00:47:22,808 --> 00:47:27,594
Others have investments in plantations.
Others are ship owners.
492
00:47:27,771 --> 00:47:31,348
And I believe them to be men of humanity.
493
00:47:31,525 --> 00:47:35,143
I believe you all to be men of humanity.
494
00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,604
If the wretchedness of any one
495
00:47:37,781 --> 00:47:40,690
of the many hundreds of slaves stowed in their ships
496
00:47:40,868 --> 00:47:44,694
could be brought to view...
497
00:47:48,041 --> 00:47:50,440
Order! Order!
498
00:47:50,627 --> 00:47:54,245
I can hardly believe my ears.
499
00:47:54,423 --> 00:47:58,917
We can hardly believe your mouth.
500
00:47:59,094 --> 00:48:04,798
It seems my young friend opposite
has a long-term strategy
501
00:48:04,975 --> 00:48:07,509
to destroy the very nation that spawned him.
502
00:48:11,023 --> 00:48:16,685
While I was in Virginia losing my
fingers in battle with the Americans,
503
00:48:16,862 --> 00:48:20,553
he was busy appeasing them.
504
00:48:20,741 --> 00:48:26,945
Now he would hand over the riches o
f the Indies to the bloody French!
505
00:48:33,211 --> 00:48:39,374
If... If we didn't have slaves,
there would be no plantations.
506
00:48:39,551 --> 00:48:45,338
And with no plantations, how
would we fill the coffers of the king?
507
00:48:45,515 --> 00:48:50,468
Does my honourable friend
508
00:48:50,646 --> 00:48:54,723
really believe that if we left off the trade,
509
00:48:54,900 --> 00:49:00,562
the French wouldn't immediately
step into our place and reap the rewards?
510
00:49:12,250 --> 00:49:15,744
All this food. There's only a
handful of people in there.
511
00:49:15,921 --> 00:49:18,955
He's an optimist. Completely incurable.
512
00:49:19,132 --> 00:49:22,584
Our defeat in the House
today was not unexpected.
513
00:49:22,761 --> 00:49:25,326
But our intention was to
flush out the opposition
514
00:49:25,514 --> 00:49:28,298
and discover how many people
would support us.
515
00:49:28,475 --> 00:49:31,551
Yes, well, we certainly found
out who our friends are.
516
00:49:31,728 --> 00:49:33,887
All 16 of them.
517
00:49:34,064 --> 00:49:38,005
I... I sent a note of thanks
to everyone who voted for us.
518
00:49:38,193 --> 00:49:40,060
How sweet of you.
519
00:49:40,237 --> 00:49:42,718
Some of us know how to take defeat graciously.
520
00:49:42,906 --> 00:49:47,150
- Something to with with breeding?
- On this occasion, it probably is.
521
00:49:47,327 --> 00:49:51,529
Everything that is said at this
meeting is being taken down for our records.
522
00:49:51,707 --> 00:49:54,574
My friend James Stephen has
agreed to be our secretary.
523
00:49:54,751 --> 00:49:55,909
You were saying?
524
00:49:58,088 --> 00:50:03,583
As you can see, not many MPs
have responded to our invitation.
525
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:07,535
Indeed, outside my own family,
there is only one: Sir William Dolben.
526
00:50:07,723 --> 00:50:10,507
Sir William, what brings
you to this gathering?
527
00:50:12,352 --> 00:50:18,598
I recently took passage from
Sierra Leone aboard a slave ship.
528
00:50:18,775 --> 00:50:21,976
What I saw during those 15 days...
529
00:50:23,989 --> 00:50:28,233
But I believe there are plenty of
others in the House who share your feelings.
530
00:50:28,410 --> 00:50:31,079
- They're just afraid to show it.
- Shame on them!
531
00:50:31,246 --> 00:50:36,032
No shame. No shame. Were I
the representative of a port city,
532
00:50:36,209 --> 00:50:41,496
how could I tell those whom I represent
that I'm voting to end their livelihood?
533
00:50:41,673 --> 00:50:44,124
Exactly so.
534
00:50:44,301 --> 00:50:46,699
How can human beings be commerce?
535
00:50:46,887 --> 00:50:52,423
- It's exactly this pursuit of lofty...
- Nothing lofty about simple humanity.
536
00:50:52,601 --> 00:50:54,676
Please!
537
00:51:00,567 --> 00:51:04,644
Perhaps we should begin this
journey with the first step.
538
00:51:04,821 --> 00:51:08,273
We are talking about the truth.
539
00:51:08,450 --> 00:51:12,652
So we should hand it out to people.
Drop it from church roofs.
540
00:51:12,829 --> 00:51:17,782
Paint pictures of it. Write songs about it.
Make bloody pies out of it.
541
00:51:17,959 --> 00:51:19,868
Go on.
542
00:51:20,045 --> 00:51:22,996
There is a slave ship at dock in Tilbury
543
00:51:23,173 --> 00:51:25,623
with twice the slave berths it is insured for.
544
00:51:25,801 --> 00:51:29,742
I know that for a fact.
But how do we prove it?
545
00:51:29,930 --> 00:51:31,171
Wilber.
546
00:51:34,559 --> 00:51:37,041
- Dear God.
- Well, almost.
547
00:51:42,359 --> 00:51:48,188
I've spent 18 months being torn apart
by you in the House, Mr Wilberforce.
548
00:51:48,365 --> 00:51:52,525
I thought I'd find out what it feels
like to be on your side.
549
00:51:53,954 --> 00:51:58,740
I see you've got plenty of food.
Any of you saints drink?
550
00:52:05,549 --> 00:52:08,030
Well, this one bloody does.
551
00:52:14,766 --> 00:52:16,883
Thank you very much.
552
00:52:27,737 --> 00:52:29,520
Agh!
553
00:52:29,698 --> 00:52:33,066
Not fair! Not fair.
554
00:52:34,619 --> 00:52:36,986
I'm not well. My belly.
555
00:52:37,164 --> 00:52:39,645
What's wrong with your belly?
556
00:52:41,501 --> 00:52:43,326
Oh!
557
00:52:43,503 --> 00:52:46,496
Besides, you're prime minister.
558
00:52:46,673 --> 00:52:48,790
It is my ministerial duty to let you win.
559
00:52:48,967 --> 00:52:52,627
So, what will we do with Fox?
560
00:52:54,181 --> 00:52:57,872
- Put him in a box?
- Let him throw the heavy rocks.
561
00:52:58,059 --> 00:53:02,303
- Provide the shocks.
- Put Lord Tarleton in the stocks.
562
00:53:04,774 --> 00:53:06,891
Oh!
563
00:53:07,068 --> 00:53:10,395
Oh, if the House of Lords could hear
the idiotic way we carry on,
564
00:53:10,572 --> 00:53:14,399
they'd ban anyone under the age of 30
from holding high office ever again.
565
00:53:14,576 --> 00:53:20,488
Well, at least with Fox on board,
the world will know we mean business.
566
00:53:20,665 --> 00:53:23,449
The world doesn't know yet.
567
00:53:24,252 --> 00:53:27,578
Nor will it, not until we're ready.
568
00:53:29,174 --> 00:53:32,375
You were born for this, Wilber.
569
00:53:32,552 --> 00:53:34,627
Sometimes I get giddy.
570
00:53:37,349 --> 00:53:42,135
Why is it you only feel the thorns
in your feet when you stop running?
571
00:53:42,312 --> 00:53:46,087
Is that some sort of heavy-handed
metaphorical advice for me, Mr Pitt?
572
00:53:46,274 --> 00:53:48,474
Yes, I suppose it is.
573
00:53:48,652 --> 00:53:53,521
We must keep going, keep going fast.
574
00:54:31,403 --> 00:54:32,643
Thank you very much.
575
00:54:57,721 --> 00:55:01,464
Gentlemen, would you stop the music,
please? Thank you.
576
00:55:01,641 --> 00:55:07,011
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have
enjoyed our little tour of the estuary.
577
00:55:07,188 --> 00:55:11,766
But now our sojourn is almost over,
I have a confession to make.
578
00:55:11,943 --> 00:55:15,561
This trip wasn't purely arranged
to reward those MPs
579
00:55:15,739 --> 00:55:21,692
who have supported me in the past year,
nor am I the only sponsor.
580
00:55:25,081 --> 00:55:27,198
- What's he doing?
- Ladies and gentleman,
581
00:55:27,375 --> 00:55:31,744
<i>this is a slave ship. The Madagascar.</i>
582
00:55:33,298 --> 00:55:35,373
It has just returned from the Indies
583
00:55:35,550 --> 00:55:41,671
where it delivered 200 men, women and children to Jamaica.
584
00:55:41,848 --> 00:55:47,343
When it left Africa, there were 600 on board.
585
00:55:48,980 --> 00:55:52,671
The rest died of disease or despair.
586
00:55:55,904 --> 00:56:00,314
That smell is the smell of death.
587
00:56:01,493 --> 00:56:04,318
Slow, painful death.
588
00:56:06,539 --> 00:56:10,481
Breathe it in. Breathe it deeply.
589
00:56:12,045 --> 00:56:15,705
Take those handkerchiefs away from your noses.
590
00:56:16,758 --> 00:56:19,041
There, now.
591
00:56:20,428 --> 00:56:23,463
Remember that smell.
592
00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:26,309
<i>Remember the Madagascar.</i>
593
00:56:26,476 --> 00:56:30,803
Remember that God made men equal.
594
00:56:35,777 --> 00:56:39,020
<i>All that winter,
we spread out across the country</i>
595
00:56:39,197 --> 00:56:41,522
<i>gathering evidence for Parliament.</i>
596
00:56:41,699 --> 00:56:45,193
Thomas rode to Bristol, Liverpool, Plymouth,
597
00:56:45,370 --> 00:56:47,904
<i>talking to men who'd worked the slave ships,</i>
598
00:56:48,081 --> 00:56:50,750
<i>ships' doctors who'd treated them,</i>
599
00:56:50,917 --> 00:56:53,993
<i>slaves themselves who'd been whipped and branded.</i>
600
00:56:55,130 --> 00:56:59,207
Equiano published his account of his years as a slave.
601
00:57:02,470 --> 00:57:05,140
<i>He sold 50,000 copies in two months.</i>
602
00:57:14,732 --> 00:57:16,724
Spare a coin, sir?
603
00:57:16,901 --> 00:57:22,480
<i>Our supporters began to only buy sugar
produced without slaves in India.</i>
604
00:57:23,408 --> 00:57:27,026
Or they stopped using sugar altogether.
605
00:57:27,203 --> 00:57:29,195
It seemed our message was everywhere.
606
00:57:29,372 --> 00:57:33,658
At least now there was hope. Real hope.
607
00:57:34,878 --> 00:57:37,495
We had a year to collect enough evidence
608
00:57:37,672 --> 00:57:41,165
to convince Parliament of our case.
609
00:57:41,342 --> 00:57:45,711
The planters and the ship owners
began to spread rumours about us.
610
00:57:45,889 --> 00:57:50,675
They called us seditious,
secretly working to bring down the government.
611
00:57:50,852 --> 00:57:53,553
Clarkson sat in a coach to Birmingham
612
00:57:53,730 --> 00:57:57,890
and overheard someone claim that
I'd secretly married a slave woman.
613
00:58:04,324 --> 00:58:09,902
But the weight of our hope made
it all seem like glorious infamy.
614
00:58:10,079 --> 00:58:13,197
How long have you been taking laudanum?
615
00:58:16,628 --> 00:58:19,328
I recognise its presence.
616
00:58:27,806 --> 00:58:32,842
My illness and my crusade were
born around the same time.
617
00:58:33,019 --> 00:58:35,261
What is your illness?
618
00:58:36,272 --> 00:58:39,265
The doctors tell me it's called colitis.
619
00:58:39,442 --> 00:58:42,768
They don't really understand it, but I do.
620
00:58:42,946 --> 00:58:45,187
You see, sometimes my stomach
621
00:58:45,365 --> 00:58:48,608
gets bored of being a stomach
and decides it's a sailing ship.
622
00:58:48,785 --> 00:58:52,320
Then my heart gets jealous and
decides it wants to be a see-saw.
623
00:58:52,497 --> 00:58:55,531
And before you know it,
my lungs are arguing with one another
624
00:58:55,708 --> 00:58:58,190
whether to be lungs or sponges full of seawater.
625
00:59:00,713 --> 00:59:04,957
Well, at least that's what
I tell my nieces and nephews.
626
00:59:05,134 --> 00:59:07,293
Marianne tells me you like children.
627
00:59:11,015 --> 00:59:13,090
My poor father almost went mad
628
00:59:13,268 --> 00:59:16,177
when I told him I'd stopped
taking sugar in my tea.
629
00:59:17,647 --> 00:59:20,973
I was 14,
630
00:59:21,150 --> 00:59:24,268
reading your name in the papers,
willing you to win.
631
00:59:25,530 --> 00:59:31,233
I told my friends there was actual
slave blood in every lump of sugar.
632
00:59:37,625 --> 00:59:40,023
Has this been so painful to talk about?
633
00:59:41,212 --> 00:59:45,539
It's only painful to talk about
because we haven't changed anything.
634
00:59:45,717 --> 00:59:48,250
But, unlike the slaves,
I have opium for my pain.
635
00:59:50,982 --> 00:59:52,348
Begging your pardon, sir.
636
00:59:54,820 --> 00:59:57,562
I thought everyone was in bed.
637
00:59:57,739 --> 01:00:00,773
She brings the breakfasts.
What time is it?
638
01:00:00,951 --> 01:00:02,317
Does it matter?
639
01:00:17,259 --> 01:00:20,710
That year we should have won.
640
01:00:20,887 --> 01:00:25,673
With the evidence we had collected,
by natural justice we should have won.
641
01:00:27,686 --> 01:00:31,763
Winds blow ships from Africa
to the Indies naturally,
642
01:00:31,940 --> 01:00:35,058
as if the route were blessed by God.
643
01:00:36,319 --> 01:00:39,062
Another argument in defence of the trade
644
01:00:39,239 --> 01:00:45,443
is that the Newfoundland fishing
industry is kept afloat
645
01:00:45,620 --> 01:00:50,365
by the fact that slaves in the West Indies
646
01:00:50,542 --> 01:00:54,160
consume that part of the fish
647
01:00:54,337 --> 01:00:57,830
which is fit for no other consumption.
648
01:00:59,759 --> 01:01:02,043
I do feel that if my honourable friend
649
01:01:02,220 --> 01:01:06,714
continues to scrape the bottom
of the barrel for objections,
650
01:01:06,892 --> 01:01:10,051
he is in danger of getting
splinters under his fingernails.
651
01:01:12,355 --> 01:01:14,806
Now, if I may continue with my argument...
652
01:01:14,983 --> 01:01:18,518
As representative of the great and flourishing
653
01:01:18,695 --> 01:01:20,770
commercial town of Liverpool,
654
01:01:20,947 --> 01:01:26,359
I must once again remind the House
that we have no evidence
655
01:01:26,536 --> 01:01:30,738
that the Africans themselves
have any objection to the trade.
656
01:01:35,503 --> 01:01:40,842
I have here an account written by a...
Mr Clutterbuck...
657
01:01:42,218 --> 01:01:45,670
...which states that most slaves in the Indies
658
01:01:45,847 --> 01:01:49,340
have a snug little garden with
plenty of pigs and poultry.
659
01:01:50,977 --> 01:01:56,681
There are many poor families
in Liverpool who do not have as much.
660
01:01:57,943 --> 01:02:00,476
Which... Which is why,
661
01:02:00,654 --> 01:02:06,190
apart from a few mendicant
physicians and itinerant clergymen,
662
01:02:06,368 --> 01:02:09,944
the ordinary people of
Britain are not at all exercised
663
01:02:10,121 --> 01:02:14,407
by the whole issue of slavery.
664
01:02:14,584 --> 01:02:17,066
My honourable friend, the member for Liverpool,
665
01:02:17,253 --> 01:02:19,954
seeks evidence of people's concern.
666
01:02:20,131 --> 01:02:24,500
In the past year, I and my
itinerant clergymen friends
667
01:02:24,678 --> 01:02:27,003
have been gathering just such evidence.
668
01:02:29,057 --> 01:02:33,968
We have taken a petition calling
for the abolition of the slave trade
669
01:02:34,145 --> 01:02:37,221
to all the great cities of this country.
670
01:02:38,233 --> 01:02:43,978
It has been signed by over 390,000 people.
671
01:02:53,415 --> 01:02:56,866
However, this petition is not yet complete.
672
01:02:57,043 --> 01:03:01,329
There is one more person who wishes
to add his name.
673
01:03:14,310 --> 01:03:15,499
Do something.
674
01:03:19,524 --> 01:03:22,642
Mr Speaker, I humbly request a suspension
675
01:03:22,819 --> 01:03:26,479
while we take time to examine the
signatures on this document.
676
01:03:28,366 --> 01:03:30,233
There is something very provoking
677
01:03:30,410 --> 01:03:33,110
in the calm way my honourable
friend seeks delay.
678
01:03:33,288 --> 01:03:38,074
- Mr Speaker, will he not give way?
- Is the desolation of Africa suspended?
679
01:03:38,251 --> 01:03:41,077
- Please, gentlemen.
- Is the work of death suspended?
680
01:03:41,254 --> 01:03:44,580
- You bring petitions into the House...
- Mr Speaker...
681
01:03:44,758 --> 01:03:48,960
...as if this country should be
governed by the rule of the mob,
682
01:03:49,137 --> 01:03:52,338
- rather than its natural rulers!
- Order!
683
01:03:52,515 --> 01:03:55,185
That roll of paper reeks of rebellion!
684
01:03:55,351 --> 01:03:59,637
No matter how loud you shout,
you will not drown out the voice of the people!
685
01:04:02,984 --> 01:04:04,725
The people?
686
01:04:08,782 --> 01:04:13,609
This session will be suspended
while the petition is examined.
687
01:04:17,082 --> 01:04:19,240
Wilber.
688
01:04:46,653 --> 01:04:49,395
My spies tell me that Tarleton and Coconut Clarence
689
01:04:49,572 --> 01:04:51,397
have gone to see the Home Secretary.
690
01:04:53,535 --> 01:04:58,321
- What would they want with Lord Dundas?
- He's one of ours, isn't he?
691
01:04:58,498 --> 01:05:01,324
James. James.
692
01:05:02,418 --> 01:05:07,038
- Where does Lord Dundas stand?
- Probable, I think.
693
01:05:08,007 --> 01:05:10,082
We have him down as a probable.
694
01:05:10,260 --> 01:05:14,003
Last year he stopped the deportation
of a Jamaican slave from Scotland,
695
01:05:14,180 --> 01:05:17,632
- so his heart's in the right place.
- Be wary of Dundas.
696
01:05:21,521 --> 01:05:25,056
If he's capable of compassion once, why not twice?
697
01:05:27,318 --> 01:05:29,268
What damage could he do if he's turned?
698
01:05:30,196 --> 01:05:34,440
He controls the Scottish vote, 34 MPs.
699
01:05:37,996 --> 01:05:40,154
We'll have to have faith in his integrity.
700
01:05:43,293 --> 01:05:45,368
Integrity?
701
01:05:52,093 --> 01:05:53,240
Where are you going?
702
01:05:54,012 --> 01:05:57,870
<i>To look up the word "integrity"
in Dr Johnson's Dictionary.</i>
703
01:06:00,101 --> 01:06:02,802
Come.
704
01:06:04,022 --> 01:06:07,139
Prime Minister, Lord Charles Fox to see you.
705
01:06:11,779 --> 01:06:14,689
You look more at home when doing
something devious.
706
01:06:17,619 --> 01:06:22,071
Prime Minister, your friend
Wilberforce doesn't play cards any more.
707
01:06:22,957 --> 01:06:26,815
No. He resigned from all five card
clubs when he saw the light.
708
01:06:27,003 --> 01:06:28,869
Pity. He was good.
709
01:06:29,047 --> 01:06:31,612
Well, I think there's a hand you
should play for him.
710
01:06:34,427 --> 01:06:38,462
- Against whom?
- Someone who stands in his way.
711
01:06:41,893 --> 01:06:44,051
So name him.
712
01:06:54,822 --> 01:06:56,897
Good evening.
713
01:07:05,708 --> 01:07:10,828
Billy, did I not win enough money
from you on Saturday evening?
714
01:07:11,005 --> 01:07:16,375
Really, I have no time for cards.
I have urgent business in the House.
715
01:07:24,936 --> 01:07:31,140
As prime minister, idle gossip collects
around you like scum in slack water.
716
01:07:31,317 --> 01:07:33,100
What have you heard?
717
01:07:33,278 --> 01:07:36,228
Lord Tarleton's throwing East India Company money
718
01:07:36,406 --> 01:07:39,190
at people who are speaking against abolition tonight.
719
01:07:40,743 --> 01:07:43,736
Of course, no true friend of mine
would accept such an offer.
720
01:07:46,958 --> 01:07:48,824
I appear to have three jacks.
721
01:07:49,836 --> 01:07:53,527
I've always ensured that you have
been dealt a favourable hand.
722
01:07:53,715 --> 01:07:58,292
- Are you threatening me?
- You are threatening our friendship.
723
01:07:59,721 --> 01:08:02,880
It isn't money that has made me
decide to oppose Wilberforce.
724
01:08:03,057 --> 01:08:05,007
His enemy is my enemy.
725
01:08:05,184 --> 01:08:08,385
You are sleepwalking hand-in-hand with a bloody rebel.
726
01:08:08,563 --> 01:08:13,182
Wilberforce follows no leader but
the preacher in his head.
727
01:08:15,445 --> 01:08:17,186
How much were you offered?
728
01:08:18,448 --> 01:08:20,439
Keep yourjacks.
729
01:08:20,616 --> 01:08:25,528
The planters still have the king,
and I, at least, am still loyal to him.
730
01:08:26,789 --> 01:08:29,615
Don't force me to put a pistol to your head.
731
01:08:31,836 --> 01:08:35,121
Well, if you do, there will be two pistols,
732
01:08:35,298 --> 01:08:38,207
one from each side.
733
01:08:38,384 --> 01:08:43,254
And perhaps if I duck, you'll shoot each other.
734
01:08:56,319 --> 01:08:58,686
Order.
735
01:08:59,405 --> 01:09:00,677
Order.
736
01:09:05,286 --> 01:09:06,986
First, let me be clear.
737
01:09:08,206 --> 01:09:12,116
After long consideration and much consultation,
738
01:09:12,293 --> 01:09:16,579
I am in favour of the abolition
of the slave trade.
739
01:09:20,051 --> 01:09:24,503
There's no doubt in my mind that
this trade in human beings
740
01:09:24,680 --> 01:09:30,593
is an almighty calumny and is a
disgrace to this nation.
741
01:09:30,770 --> 01:09:36,932
However... I also take the point
of my honourable friend,
742
01:09:37,110 --> 01:09:39,226
the member for Liverpool.
743
01:09:39,404 --> 01:09:43,939
If we were to outlaw the trade tomorrow,
it would bring financial disaster
744
01:09:44,117 --> 01:09:46,483
to many cities and industries in this country.
745
01:09:49,455 --> 01:09:54,825
I therefore suggest a period of reflection.
746
01:09:55,002 --> 01:09:58,370
After a year and a half of privy council investigations,
747
01:09:58,548 --> 01:10:00,831
what good would it do to delay the inevitable?
748
01:10:01,008 --> 01:10:05,794
Inevitable? Is my honourable friend
counting the votes before they are cast?
749
01:10:05,972 --> 01:10:08,714
I didn't mean that.
750
01:10:08,891 --> 01:10:13,719
If the trade were to be abolished,
I suggest that we do so gradually.
751
01:10:13,896 --> 01:10:18,265
Violent storms sink ships.
752
01:10:19,694 --> 01:10:23,270
This great ship of state must not be sunk
753
01:10:23,448 --> 01:10:25,773
by a wave of good intentions.
754
01:10:51,767 --> 01:10:54,249
They are cleverer than us, Thomas.
755
01:10:56,189 --> 01:10:57,555
And yet...
756
01:10:59,859 --> 01:11:02,528
...outside the House of Commons, the mood is with us.
757
01:11:03,654 --> 01:11:06,689
And what good is that?
758
01:11:07,575 --> 01:11:10,276
I have friends in France.
759
01:11:12,121 --> 01:11:16,865
Our counterparts.
Men of principle, like you and I.
760
01:11:17,043 --> 01:11:20,817
- They bring me only good news.
- News of what?
761
01:11:23,132 --> 01:11:24,373
Revolution.
762
01:11:25,426 --> 01:11:27,042
They're certain it's coming.
763
01:11:29,639 --> 01:11:32,715
In Paris they speak openly
in the streets of emancipation.
764
01:11:32,892 --> 01:11:35,426
Freedom for all men, and women too.
765
01:11:38,231 --> 01:11:42,089
The Americans pulled the cork
out of the bottle, Wilberforce.
766
01:11:42,276 --> 01:11:44,143
Now the French share the wine.
767
01:11:44,320 --> 01:11:47,187
You talk about revolution as if it were a safe thing.
768
01:11:47,365 --> 01:11:48,981
It's just a word.
769
01:11:49,158 --> 01:11:52,776
Every day we change things, by degrees.
Education, factories.
770
01:11:52,954 --> 01:11:56,645
By degrees.
You sound like Dundas! Gradually.
771
01:11:56,832 --> 01:11:59,231
An imperfect order's better than no order.
772
01:11:59,418 --> 01:12:02,036
We must fight for a perfect order!
773
01:12:05,758 --> 01:12:08,042
I've pledged an allegiance to the king.
774
01:12:10,930 --> 01:12:16,300
You know as well as I do...
the king is insane.
775
01:12:17,061 --> 01:12:18,927
He shakes hands with oak trees
776
01:12:19,105 --> 01:12:21,847
and claims he can see Germany through his telescope.
777
01:12:27,071 --> 01:12:30,606
I know you have your loyalties, Wilberforce,
778
01:12:30,783 --> 01:12:35,527
but underneath it you're more radical than any of us.
779
01:12:35,705 --> 01:12:38,155
You see, you never doubt you're right.
780
01:12:39,542 --> 01:12:45,287
What we say of the slave is true of the worker in the field,
781
01:12:45,464 --> 01:12:47,998
the weaver, the miner.
782
01:12:48,175 --> 01:12:51,835
Shouldn't they be free to prosper too,
783
01:12:52,930 --> 01:12:56,465
instead of the fruits of their
labours going to men like Tarleton?
784
01:12:56,642 --> 01:13:01,637
Men who spend their money on whores and comic operas.
785
01:13:05,276 --> 01:13:07,757
Young girls debauched.
786
01:13:11,407 --> 01:13:14,817
Soldiers forced to beg.
787
01:13:14,994 --> 01:13:21,198
It's a natural wave that's flowing, Wilber.
788
01:13:21,375 --> 01:13:26,120
First Boston, then Paris.
789
01:13:26,297 --> 01:13:28,163
Next London.
790
01:13:28,341 --> 01:13:30,416
Thomas...
791
01:13:32,261 --> 01:13:35,952
...you must never speak of revolution
in my presence ever again.
792
01:13:50,154 --> 01:13:52,354
I'm going to Paris to see for myself.
793
01:13:57,161 --> 01:13:59,643
Why don't you come with me?
794
01:14:01,374 --> 01:14:03,657
Drink some of that wine?
795
01:14:17,723 --> 01:14:21,842
Africa, your sufferings have been a theme
796
01:14:22,019 --> 01:14:25,512
that has engaged and arrested my heart.
797
01:14:26,941 --> 01:14:29,506
Your sufferings...
798
01:14:30,820 --> 01:14:35,230
...no tongue can express, no language impart.
799
01:14:36,200 --> 01:14:38,484
Agh!
800
01:14:44,500 --> 01:14:48,243
God has set before me two great objects:
801
01:14:50,172 --> 01:14:52,998
The suppression of the slave trade
802
01:14:53,175 --> 01:14:55,709
and the reformation of society.
803
01:14:56,679 --> 01:14:59,348
Agh! Agh!
804
01:15:07,356 --> 01:15:09,515
Sir!
805
01:15:09,692 --> 01:15:11,517
Marjorie.
806
01:15:14,488 --> 01:15:17,815
The trouble is, Doctor, he doesn't believe he has a body.
807
01:15:17,992 --> 01:15:21,318
Utterly careless of it. He, um...
808
01:15:21,495 --> 01:15:24,029
He thinks he's a disembodied spirit.
809
01:15:26,751 --> 01:15:31,537
Perhaps you should spend some time away from London.
810
01:15:31,714 --> 01:15:34,456
- What's this?
- Laudanum, for the pain.
811
01:15:34,633 --> 01:15:37,501
An opiate? No, no, no.
I need my mind sharp.
812
01:15:37,678 --> 01:15:39,545
You need to rest.
813
01:15:39,722 --> 01:15:43,006
My bill is before the House in three weeks.
814
01:15:43,184 --> 01:15:46,718
- Would you leave us a moment, Doctor?
- Yes, Prime Minister.
815
01:15:53,444 --> 01:15:56,895
It's now five years since you first
brought this bill to the House.
816
01:15:57,072 --> 01:15:59,690
And each time we get a little closer.
817
01:15:59,867 --> 01:16:04,861
Wilberforce, there are other MPs
who could carry the debate.
818
01:16:05,039 --> 01:16:07,708
Who? Name one.
819
01:16:10,252 --> 01:16:12,734
The only man I would trust is you.
820
01:16:17,468 --> 01:16:18,615
Well?
821
01:16:18,677 --> 01:16:20,752
I can't be seen to openly oppose the king
822
01:16:20,930 --> 01:16:23,130
when the streets of Paris run with blood.
823
01:16:23,307 --> 01:16:25,789
You've read too many lurid newspaper articles.
824
01:16:25,976 --> 01:16:29,344
The French Republic plans to declare war within the year.
825
01:16:29,522 --> 01:16:33,098
- On who?
- On who?
826
01:16:33,275 --> 01:16:38,395
You're locked inside your own head!
Us, Great Britain, everything we stand for!
827
01:16:42,451 --> 01:16:45,402
Considering the situation,
you mix with the wrong people.
828
01:16:48,207 --> 01:16:50,991
- Who do I mix with?
- Clarkson, for one.
829
01:16:51,168 --> 01:16:55,579
- Who introduced me to Clarkson?
- In different times.
830
01:17:00,386 --> 01:17:02,951
They say in the cafйs that Clarkson's a French spy.
831
01:17:04,306 --> 01:17:09,217
And Equiano, they say he was born in Carolina,
832
01:17:09,395 --> 01:17:13,430
and as an American,
therefore must be a revolutionary.
833
01:17:18,529 --> 01:17:21,438
Others say they've seen with their own eyes
834
01:17:21,615 --> 01:17:25,275
letters addressed to you from Thomas Jefferson.
835
01:17:25,452 --> 01:17:29,363
- On matters to do with abolition.
- War changes everything.
836
01:17:29,540 --> 01:17:32,157
- Even friendships?
- Especially those!
837
01:17:33,878 --> 01:17:36,703
So you will keep your precious conscience intact
838
01:17:36,881 --> 01:17:39,446
and let the rest of us do the war's dirty work.
839
01:17:41,969 --> 01:17:43,669
Conscience is indeed precious.
840
01:17:43,846 --> 01:17:45,962
I am warning you as your prime minister
841
01:17:46,140 --> 01:17:50,175
that when war comes,
opposition will soon be called sedition!
842
01:17:52,062 --> 01:17:53,387
By who?
843
01:17:57,568 --> 01:17:59,643
By you?
844
01:18:22,843 --> 01:18:27,629
This evening I would like to
return to the theme of abolition.
845
01:18:28,557 --> 01:18:34,344
In these dangerous times,
it is easy to put aside our concerns for those in need
846
01:18:34,521 --> 01:18:37,389
simply to confirm our loyalty to the nation.
847
01:18:37,566 --> 01:18:43,895
But the issues of war and the
issues of slavery must not be confused.
848
01:18:44,073 --> 01:18:46,982
Our fear of an unknown enemy must not be allowed
849
01:18:47,159 --> 01:18:49,317
to erode our long-cherished liberties.
850
01:18:49,495 --> 01:18:53,780
If this is to happen, how bitter will our history be?
851
01:18:56,126 --> 01:19:02,706
We must not prohibit all political
discussion of political subjects.
852
01:19:02,883 --> 01:19:06,126
The issue of slavery is not made any less important
853
01:19:06,303 --> 01:19:08,503
by the unrelated issues of war!
854
01:19:08,681 --> 01:19:13,425
In war or in peace, the buying and selling of human beings
855
01:19:13,602 --> 01:19:16,511
is equally abhorrent!
856
01:19:16,689 --> 01:19:19,639
This is not a seditious statement!
857
01:19:38,502 --> 01:19:41,036
Where is your laudanum?
I'll prepare it for you.
858
01:19:41,213 --> 01:19:44,748
No. No, I want to tell you how it ends.
859
01:19:44,925 --> 01:19:49,002
I already know.
Your bills were easily defeated.
860
01:19:51,849 --> 01:19:55,759
Equiano... died in his bed.
861
01:19:55,936 --> 01:19:59,846
Thomas Clarkson found a cottage
in the hills to hide away in.
862
01:20:00,024 --> 01:20:05,174
Charles Fox watched and waited.
863
01:20:05,362 --> 01:20:10,023
The Quakers still sent their letters.
No one replied.
864
01:20:12,244 --> 01:20:14,361
Is that the end of your story?
865
01:20:15,998 --> 01:20:17,948
- You think not?
- No.
866
01:20:18,125 --> 01:20:22,327
- Why not?
- Because after night comes day.
867
01:20:23,714 --> 01:20:27,572
The people aren't so afraid now the
war with France is being won.
868
01:20:27,760 --> 01:20:32,170
And when they stop being afraid,
they rediscover their compassion.
869
01:20:32,931 --> 01:20:36,424
So the people have their compassion back.
870
01:20:36,602 --> 01:20:38,802
And you still have passion.
871
01:20:40,064 --> 01:20:43,056
That matters more.
872
01:20:59,625 --> 01:21:02,659
- Good morning, Wilber.
- Morning.
873
01:21:02,836 --> 01:21:05,453
- Get much sleep?
- Not much.
874
01:21:05,631 --> 01:21:08,331
- What time did Barbara leave?
- Late.
875
01:21:08,509 --> 01:21:11,751
I mean, early.
876
01:21:13,514 --> 01:21:16,183
I'm afraid I'm going back to London.
877
01:21:16,975 --> 01:21:18,800
- So soon?
- Yes.
878
01:21:18,977 --> 01:21:21,344
I think the waters worked their magic on me.
879
01:21:22,523 --> 01:21:25,004
But I need to send a letter to James Stephen.
880
01:21:25,192 --> 01:21:28,143
- To ask him to come back to England.
- For what reason?
881
01:21:28,320 --> 01:21:30,885
To put his evidence before a select committee.
882
01:21:34,660 --> 01:21:36,735
Also, Barbara and I have discovered
883
01:21:36,912 --> 01:21:41,281
that we're both impatient
and prone to rash decisions.
884
01:21:41,458 --> 01:21:45,285
But she wants to tell you about it herself.
885
01:22:20,873 --> 01:22:24,699
Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin,
886
01:22:24,877 --> 01:22:29,079
we will sing the hymn requested by the bride.
887
01:22:35,095 --> 01:22:38,953
<i># Amazing Grace</i>
888
01:22:39,141 --> 01:22:42,832
<i># How sweet the sound</i>
889
01:22:43,020 --> 01:22:48,974
<i># That saved a wretch like me</i>
890
01:22:49,151 --> 01:22:52,978
<i># I once was lost</i>
891
01:22:53,155 --> 01:22:57,315
<i># But now am found</i>
892
01:22:57,492 --> 01:23:02,946
<i># Was blind but now I see...</i>
893
01:23:08,295 --> 01:23:11,371
- Delightful service.
- Thank you so much for coming.
894
01:23:11,548 --> 01:23:15,166
Thank you.
How are you coping with the new kitchen?
895
01:23:15,344 --> 01:23:17,909
"Great changes are easier than small ones."
896
01:23:18,096 --> 01:23:20,547
- Francis Bacon.
- Well done.
897
01:23:23,227 --> 01:23:25,301
- Have you forgiven us yet?
- Never.
898
01:23:25,479 --> 01:23:28,471
It'll be wonderful to have you both living so near.
899
01:23:28,649 --> 01:23:29,796
Thank you.
900
01:23:29,858 --> 01:23:33,059
I do hope you didn't come to Clapham for the tranquillity.
901
01:23:33,237 --> 01:23:36,646
- We're very noisy neighbours.
- I'm counting on it.
902
01:23:52,005 --> 01:23:54,080
Barbara.
903
01:23:55,759 --> 01:23:59,794
- You have my deepest condolences.
- Thank you so much.
904
01:24:02,224 --> 01:24:05,967
But please, I beg of you, do this for me.
Make him eat some of his pets.
905
01:24:06,144 --> 01:24:10,221
- Oh, I rather like them.
- I like them too. In brandy sauce.
906
01:24:18,573 --> 01:24:21,316
- If you'll excuse me...
- There's no need, Barbara.
907
01:24:21,493 --> 01:24:23,818
You're discussing politics with your eyes.
908
01:24:23,996 --> 01:24:26,738
You may as well do it with your mouths.
909
01:24:37,884 --> 01:24:40,919
I, uh... didn't think you'd invite me.
910
01:24:41,096 --> 01:24:43,494
Didn't think you'd come.
911
01:24:46,893 --> 01:24:49,886
- You well?
- My mind's well.
912
01:24:50,814 --> 01:24:53,212
The rest of me is fraying at the edges.
913
01:24:56,987 --> 01:24:59,468
Billy, I'm going to try again.
914
01:25:01,074 --> 01:25:02,221
Well?
915
01:25:02,284 --> 01:25:05,777
It's your wedding day.
I agree with everything you say.
916
01:25:05,954 --> 01:25:08,154
I never changed.
917
01:25:08,332 --> 01:25:11,241
- I don't change.
- Well, hurrah for you.
918
01:25:12,878 --> 01:25:15,995
The mood may even be swinging back in your favour.
919
01:25:18,091 --> 01:25:23,430
How can we live in houses like
this when others are living in boxes?
920
01:25:23,597 --> 01:25:25,713
Is that still sedition?
921
01:25:28,018 --> 01:25:30,051
As your prime minister, I urge caution.
922
01:25:30,854 --> 01:25:35,223
- And as my friend?
- Oh, to hell with caution.
923
01:25:36,234 --> 01:25:40,353
When the slaves are flogged on the wharfs,
924
01:25:40,530 --> 01:25:45,900
their arms are tied to a hook on a crane
925
01:25:46,078 --> 01:25:50,822
and weights of 56 pounds
926
01:25:50,999 --> 01:25:54,534
applied to their feet.
927
01:25:55,545 --> 01:25:58,997
The crane is raised
928
01:25:59,174 --> 01:26:04,586
so that their feet barely touch the ground.
929
01:26:04,763 --> 01:26:07,547
The slaves are then whipped
930
01:26:07,724 --> 01:26:10,425
with ebony bushes, comma...
931
01:26:14,940 --> 01:26:19,100
...to let out the congealing blood.
932
01:26:19,277 --> 01:26:22,478
I don't hear the nib scratching the page.
933
01:26:22,656 --> 01:26:23,928
We have company, sir.
934
01:26:25,784 --> 01:26:29,068
John, it's me, Wilber.
935
01:26:33,250 --> 01:26:34,397
Leave it.
936
01:26:45,303 --> 01:26:47,868
They only told me your sight was fading.
937
01:26:48,056 --> 01:26:50,965
Well, now it's faded altogether.
938
01:26:51,143 --> 01:26:54,834
I never did things by halves.
God decided I'd seen enough.
939
01:26:55,021 --> 01:26:58,181
- So it's true.
- What's true?
940
01:26:59,401 --> 01:27:02,518
- You're writing your account.
- Uh-huh.
941
01:27:04,614 --> 01:27:06,898
I wish I could see your face.
942
01:27:10,370 --> 01:27:13,279
- How are you looking?
- The same.
943
01:27:14,124 --> 01:27:17,533
- Still too thin.
- A little fatter lately.
944
01:27:17,711 --> 01:27:20,536
She feeds you well then, this wife of yours?
945
01:27:20,714 --> 01:27:24,488
- She's given me an appetite.
- An appetite to change things?
946
01:27:35,562 --> 01:27:38,263
This is my confession.
947
01:27:38,440 --> 01:27:40,515
You must use it.
948
01:27:42,194 --> 01:27:46,104
Names, ships' records,
949
01:27:46,281 --> 01:27:48,731
ports, people.
950
01:27:48,909 --> 01:27:52,735
Everything I remember is in here.
951
01:27:52,913 --> 01:27:55,363
Although my memory is fading,
952
01:27:55,540 --> 01:27:58,741
I remember two things very clearly:
953
01:27:58,919 --> 01:28:02,954
I'm a great sinner and Christ is a great saviour.
954
01:28:04,049 --> 01:28:06,749
You must publish it.
955
01:28:06,927 --> 01:28:11,129
Blow a hole in their boat with it.
Damn them with it!
956
01:28:13,391 --> 01:28:16,718
I wish I could remember all their names.
957
01:28:18,313 --> 01:28:22,640
My 20,000 ghosts,
958
01:28:22,817 --> 01:28:25,518
they all had names.
959
01:28:25,695 --> 01:28:29,147
Beautiful African names.
960
01:28:30,909 --> 01:28:34,569
We called them with just grunts.
961
01:28:34,746 --> 01:28:36,821
Noises.
962
01:28:37,958 --> 01:28:42,243
We were apes. They were human.
963
01:28:51,054 --> 01:28:53,129
I'm weeping.
964
01:28:55,183 --> 01:28:59,635
I couldn't weep till I wrote this.
965
01:29:05,402 --> 01:29:09,771
"I once was blind, but now I see."
966
01:29:09,948 --> 01:29:12,065
Didn't I write that too?
967
01:29:12,242 --> 01:29:14,776
Yes, you did.
968
01:29:14,953 --> 01:29:17,945
Well, now at last it's true.
969
01:29:19,958 --> 01:29:22,283
Now go, Wilber. Go.
970
01:29:23,128 --> 01:29:26,287
We have lots of work to do, you and I.
971
01:29:34,889 --> 01:29:39,133
"Strange treasures in this fair world appear,
972
01:29:39,311 --> 01:29:44,931
strange all and new to me."
973
01:29:47,360 --> 01:29:49,227
That is a poem by Thomas Traherne,
974
01:29:49,404 --> 01:29:52,146
and I have absolutely no idea what it's about.
975
01:29:52,324 --> 01:29:55,108
But when I was small,
I was made to learn it by heart,
976
01:29:55,285 --> 01:29:57,652
so I don't see why you shouldn't suffer too.
977
01:29:57,829 --> 01:30:02,740
Clarkson! Clarkson!
978
01:30:03,710 --> 01:30:05,618
Good God, he's got his voice back.
979
01:30:05,795 --> 01:30:07,995
We need you back in London straightaway!
980
01:30:08,173 --> 01:30:10,248
Oh.
981
01:30:10,925 --> 01:30:14,585
Bollocks.
982
01:30:14,763 --> 01:30:17,046
Hurry up, come on.
983
01:30:35,116 --> 01:30:36,274
Wilber!
984
01:30:42,123 --> 01:30:45,898
- You look fine. Fine.
- I look wet and feeble.
985
01:30:46,086 --> 01:30:50,538
You, however, look disgustingly
like a lusty adventurer from a storybook.
986
01:30:50,715 --> 01:30:55,585
Come on. I've got a coach.
The others are waiting for us at Palace Yard.
987
01:30:55,762 --> 01:30:58,921
- Don't I get to wash or sleep?
- Sleep?
988
01:30:59,099 --> 01:31:01,215
You haven't changed at all, William.
989
01:31:15,323 --> 01:31:19,014
I called this meeting to welcome
back James Stephen from the Indies.
990
01:31:19,202 --> 01:31:21,277
But he should speak for himself.
991
01:31:22,747 --> 01:31:25,490
I have here diagrams,
992
01:31:25,667 --> 01:31:29,577
first-hand accounts and transcripts of trials
993
01:31:29,754 --> 01:31:34,749
where innocent Africans have been
convicted of crimes they did not commit
994
01:31:34,926 --> 01:31:36,876
and were then burnt alive.
995
01:31:37,053 --> 01:31:41,214
There are pages and pages and pages
996
01:31:41,391 --> 01:31:46,052
of first-hand accounts and figures and statistics.
997
01:31:46,229 --> 01:31:49,055
On every island now, there are rebellions.
998
01:31:49,232 --> 01:31:51,474
Haiti is in the hands of slaves.
999
01:31:51,651 --> 01:31:55,311
And the slaves are anxious.
They're impatient for their freedom.
1000
01:31:55,488 --> 01:31:57,480
They hear about your work here.
1001
01:31:59,409 --> 01:32:02,777
I saw a woman and her child being beaten...
1002
01:32:04,497 --> 01:32:07,114
...in a coffee field.
1003
01:32:07,292 --> 01:32:09,773
Afterwards, I heard the woman tell her daughter
1004
01:32:09,961 --> 01:32:13,079
that someone was coming across the sea to save them.
1005
01:32:15,383 --> 01:32:17,583
She said it was King Wilberforce.
1006
01:32:23,141 --> 01:32:27,218
So this time, gentlemen, we must not fail them.
1007
01:32:35,403 --> 01:32:36,550
What is it, James?
1008
01:32:39,157 --> 01:32:42,066
- This is not a game for them.
- We know that.
1009
01:32:42,243 --> 01:32:45,152
What I mean is, it's not enough.
1010
01:32:49,751 --> 01:32:52,420
If we go to Parliament with this evidence,
1011
01:32:52,587 --> 01:32:55,037
there'll be sympathy, there'll be concern,
1012
01:32:55,215 --> 01:32:58,989
but it'll be just the same as every other time.
1013
01:32:59,177 --> 01:33:01,544
Have you come back to preach hopelessness?
1014
01:33:01,721 --> 01:33:05,840
No. No, I've had an idea.
1015
01:33:06,017 --> 01:33:08,884
In my law books I might have stumbled across something
1016
01:33:09,062 --> 01:33:11,596
and I want to propose it as a strategy.
1017
01:33:13,233 --> 01:33:14,974
<i>Nosus Decipio.</i>
1018
01:33:16,319 --> 01:33:18,185
It's Latin.
1019
01:33:18,363 --> 01:33:21,439
Loosely translated, it means...
1020
01:33:23,493 --> 01:33:24,640
..."we cheat".
1021
01:34:01,906 --> 01:34:03,522
Oh, God.
1022
01:34:09,747 --> 01:34:12,448
I don't care how important this is.
1023
01:34:12,625 --> 01:34:15,159
I'll finish my shot.
1024
01:34:21,175 --> 01:34:22,917
Oh, for God's sakes, what is it?
1025
01:34:23,094 --> 01:34:24,960
- We've decided...
- We think...
1026
01:34:27,515 --> 01:34:30,341
We've decided not to bring forward an abolition bill.
1027
01:34:30,518 --> 01:34:33,260
- No?
- Indeed not.
1028
01:34:33,438 --> 01:34:37,890
We're going to address the issue of
the use of neutral flags on cargo ships.
1029
01:34:38,067 --> 01:34:41,060
- How unutterably dull.
- Exactly.
1030
01:34:41,237 --> 01:34:44,021
We're going to suggest that French cargo ships
1031
01:34:44,198 --> 01:34:46,649
sailing under the American flag of convenience
1032
01:34:46,826 --> 01:34:48,651
be liable to seizure by privateers.
1033
01:34:48,828 --> 01:34:52,071
Part of the war effort.
1034
01:34:52,248 --> 01:34:54,699
Patriotism, all that.
1035
01:34:54,876 --> 01:34:59,620
Since when have you been interested in the war effort,
patriotism and all that?
1036
01:35:02,175 --> 01:35:03,322
I'm not.
1037
01:35:05,053 --> 01:35:08,994
So... I'll continue with my game?
1038
01:35:14,812 --> 01:35:17,763
You don't see anything sinister in that measure?
1039
01:35:19,359 --> 01:35:20,766
No.
1040
01:35:22,528 --> 01:35:25,646
- Then neither will they.
- What the hell are you talking about?
1041
01:35:27,575 --> 01:35:30,443
80 percent of all slave ships sailing to the Indies
1042
01:35:30,620 --> 01:35:32,778
are flying the neutral American flag
1043
01:35:32,956 --> 01:35:36,407
to prevent them from being boarded by privateers.
1044
01:35:36,584 --> 01:35:39,452
If we pass a law removing that protection,
1045
01:35:39,629 --> 01:35:42,371
no ship owner will allow his vessel
to make the journey.
1046
01:35:42,548 --> 01:35:45,875
This will only apply to French ships,
not British.
1047
01:35:46,052 --> 01:35:47,376
That's the beauty of it.
1048
01:35:47,553 --> 01:35:52,548
Once any ship raises the American flag,
by law it is neither French nor British.
1049
01:35:52,725 --> 01:35:56,260
So our slave ships will be just
as liable to seizure as French ones.
1050
01:35:56,437 --> 01:35:59,513
The privateers won't care whose
booty they're taking,
1051
01:35:59,691 --> 01:36:02,172
as long as they're operating within the law.
1052
01:36:02,360 --> 01:36:05,811
Without the protection of neutral flags,
1053
01:36:05,989 --> 01:36:10,274
80 percent of the British slave
trade will be finished overnight.
1054
01:36:10,451 --> 01:36:12,067
Dear God.
1055
01:36:12,245 --> 01:36:15,821
But Prime Minister, we need to...
1056
01:36:15,999 --> 01:36:19,690
...tuck this bill away somewhere.
1057
01:36:20,628 --> 01:36:23,662
Disguise it. Oh.
1058
01:36:24,924 --> 01:36:27,593
I won't even get on my feet in the House.
1059
01:36:27,760 --> 01:36:30,461
This would still fall short of abolition.
1060
01:36:30,638 --> 01:36:35,091
With their profits cut,
half the slavers will be bankrupt in two years.
1061
01:36:35,268 --> 01:36:38,677
Then we'll pick off their MPs in the House one by one.
1062
01:36:38,855 --> 01:36:40,721
Whose idea was this?
1063
01:36:42,483 --> 01:36:44,183
A lawyer.
1064
01:36:46,279 --> 01:36:51,482
Anti-French bill which is also anti-slavery.
1065
01:36:54,162 --> 01:36:57,530
Don't know why I didn't think of this any sooner.
1066
01:37:01,377 --> 01:37:02,868
Oh...
1067
01:37:03,046 --> 01:37:06,080
But we can't let anyone know
that we're behind this.
1068
01:37:06,257 --> 01:37:09,917
Instruct someone to put this
bill forward who's seen as a patriot.
1069
01:37:10,094 --> 01:37:11,502
We don't want any fuss.
1070
01:37:11,679 --> 01:37:16,966
We just need someone really,
really... boring.
1071
01:37:20,104 --> 01:37:23,962
Typically, a French ship will change its registration
1072
01:37:24,150 --> 01:37:29,770
to raise the American flag and
pick up a cargo of sugar in Havana.
1073
01:37:29,947 --> 01:37:33,566
It will then sail to Carolina
1074
01:37:33,743 --> 01:37:38,153
or Virginia or Florida
1075
01:37:38,331 --> 01:37:43,158
or New York City or even Boston.
1076
01:37:43,336 --> 01:37:47,413
The cargo will then be unloaded onto a second ship
1077
01:37:47,590 --> 01:37:51,959
carrying the American flag and set sail for France.
1078
01:37:53,012 --> 01:37:58,549
As things stand,
neither the Royal Navy nor licensed privateers
1079
01:37:58,726 --> 01:38:02,344
have power to seize such a ship.
1080
01:38:03,189 --> 01:38:04,597
My proposition is
1081
01:38:04,774 --> 01:38:09,560
that all the ships flying the American flag
1082
01:38:09,737 --> 01:38:12,104
be liable to search and seizure
1083
01:38:12,281 --> 01:38:15,065
to put an end to this lamentable deceit
1084
01:38:15,243 --> 01:38:17,318
on the part of the French
1085
01:38:17,495 --> 01:38:19,820
and their Dutch and Spanish allies.
1086
01:38:19,997 --> 01:38:24,241
Mr Speaker! I believe the abolitionists
are coming at us at a side wind.
1087
01:38:24,418 --> 01:38:28,454
A side wind? What kind of side wind?
1088
01:38:28,631 --> 01:38:33,167
I'm not sure what kind of side wind.
I just know there's something going on.
1089
01:38:33,344 --> 01:38:37,630
- The Jacobites are in.
- The Jacobites?
1090
01:38:37,807 --> 01:38:42,426
Really, I do think you might update
your invective to reflect changing times.
1091
01:38:42,603 --> 01:38:45,304
Am I too late to call for an adjournment?
1092
01:38:52,864 --> 01:38:54,021
Of course you are.
1093
01:38:56,951 --> 01:39:00,809
Now, will you let the honourable gentleman proceed?
1094
01:39:00,997 --> 01:39:02,863
As I was saying...
1095
01:39:04,709 --> 01:39:10,621
...my proposition is that all ships
flying the American flag
1096
01:39:10,798 --> 01:39:15,209
be liable to search and seizure to
put an end to this lamentable deceit
1097
01:39:15,386 --> 01:39:17,586
on the part of the French, Dutch and Spanish.
1098
01:39:26,606 --> 01:39:29,087
- Jackson, get into the chamber.
- Right, sir.
1099
01:39:29,275 --> 01:39:32,309
Camber, chamber! Move your arse!
1100
01:39:32,486 --> 01:39:36,647
- What's going on?
- Just do it!
1101
01:40:06,479 --> 01:40:08,345
Where the hell is everyone?
1102
01:40:08,522 --> 01:40:12,464
Everybody's at the races in Epsom.
They were given free tickets.
1103
01:40:13,402 --> 01:40:17,438
I saved one for you.
A free gift from William Wilberforce.
1104
01:40:26,999 --> 01:40:28,146
Wilby?
1105
01:40:31,921 --> 01:40:35,456
What on earth is happening?
The poor maids are terrified.
1106
01:40:37,009 --> 01:40:40,044
- I'll bring your laudanum.
- No! No!
1107
01:40:40,221 --> 01:40:43,797
I've poured it all away this morning.
Every drop.
1108
01:40:43,975 --> 01:40:48,427
- Then I'll fetch more.
- No. I'm finished with it.
1109
01:40:48,604 --> 01:40:51,597
I can't even feel the joy of this victory.
1110
01:40:53,734 --> 01:40:56,477
This new baby will find me as myself.
1111
01:40:58,614 --> 01:41:01,065
- What will be his name?
- Who says it's a boy?
1112
01:41:01,242 --> 01:41:04,068
Just tell me some names.
Please, just keep talking.
1113
01:41:04,245 --> 01:41:07,738
William, if it's a boy.
Emma, if it's a girl.
1114
01:41:07,915 --> 01:41:10,866
It's... it's a boy. I'm sure of it.
1115
01:41:11,043 --> 01:41:12,576
- How will he look?
- Sweet.
1116
01:41:16,382 --> 01:41:20,918
He will be strong with curly hair,
but dark, like yours.
1117
01:41:21,095 --> 01:41:25,506
- He's inside you now.
- Yes, yes, he's inside.
1118
01:41:25,683 --> 01:41:28,634
I can almost hear him.
He's singing to us.
1119
01:41:28,811 --> 01:41:31,095
Yes, he will have a fine voice like you.
1120
01:41:31,272 --> 01:41:33,472
Yes, yes, a strong voice.
1121
01:41:33,649 --> 01:41:36,850
And you will play with him in the garden every morning.
1122
01:41:37,028 --> 01:41:40,646
- Yes.
- And soon we'll have a girl and a boy.
1123
01:41:40,823 --> 01:41:44,483
And a girl and a boy and...
1124
01:41:57,256 --> 01:41:59,331
Wilby!
1125
01:42:01,427 --> 01:42:03,669
Come quickly!
1126
01:42:05,348 --> 01:42:06,922
Come on!
1127
01:42:22,406 --> 01:42:24,481
Please leave us now.
1128
01:42:36,670 --> 01:42:39,580
They tell me you're improving, Billy.
1129
01:42:39,757 --> 01:42:41,832
Bull.
1130
01:42:50,518 --> 01:42:52,916
We cracked crowns, didn't we?
1131
01:42:53,104 --> 01:42:57,389
- We left the heads intact.
- Because we're so pathetically English.
1132
01:43:04,573 --> 01:43:09,943
- We have agreed on a succession.
- You're not gone yet.
1133
01:43:10,121 --> 01:43:15,532
I will be replaced by Lord Granville as prime minister,
1134
01:43:15,709 --> 01:43:20,287
and the foreign secretary will be Charles Fox.
1135
01:43:21,674 --> 01:43:23,957
And Wilber,
1136
01:43:24,135 --> 01:43:29,421
Fox has already secured a guarantee from the palace.
1137
01:43:29,598 --> 01:43:33,759
They will remain neutral in the issue of the slave trade.
1138
01:43:36,272 --> 01:43:41,308
Next time you will be pushing at an open door.
1139
01:43:50,911 --> 01:43:52,903
I'm scared, Wilber.
1140
01:43:55,499 --> 01:43:56,990
Of what?
1141
01:43:58,127 --> 01:44:00,796
At this moment, I wish I had your faith.
1142
01:44:08,012 --> 01:44:10,003
No more excuses now, Wilber.
1143
01:44:13,350 --> 01:44:16,301
Finish them off.
1144
01:44:27,281 --> 01:44:30,972
As you know, Equiano, I rarely drink.
1145
01:44:31,160 --> 01:44:33,235
But today's an exception.
1146
01:44:36,248 --> 01:44:38,730
Today we're drinking to victory.
1147
01:44:51,013 --> 01:44:52,713
Wish you were...
1148
01:44:53,724 --> 01:44:58,260
...here to see all this... unfolding.
1149
01:45:01,649 --> 01:45:04,391
Just one more push.
1150
01:45:06,904 --> 01:45:08,979
One more.
1151
01:45:54,910 --> 01:45:58,768
I say to this House that there is now no reason
1152
01:45:58,956 --> 01:46:02,616
why my bill should not be commended to the king.
1153
01:46:03,586 --> 01:46:08,789
And I urge my honourable friends
to vote once and for all
1154
01:46:08,966 --> 01:46:11,635
for the abolition of the slave trade
1155
01:46:11,802 --> 01:46:15,660
throughout His Majesty's empire.
1156
01:46:15,848 --> 01:46:17,923
They're taking the vote!
1157
01:46:31,196 --> 01:46:32,729
Here's the tally.
1158
01:47:14,365 --> 01:47:15,512
Order!
1159
01:47:17,034 --> 01:47:19,734
Order!
1160
01:47:22,498 --> 01:47:27,033
On the Home and Foreign Slave Trade Act,
1161
01:47:27,211 --> 01:47:31,663
the unamended bill calling for
the abolition of the slave trade
1162
01:47:31,840 --> 01:47:35,959
throughout the entire British Empire.
1163
01:47:36,136 --> 01:47:39,421
No's to the left: 16.
1164
01:47:39,598 --> 01:47:44,134
Ayes to the right: 283.
1165
01:47:50,526 --> 01:47:56,605
I declare the bill of abolition
of the slave trade to be passed.
1166
01:48:10,421 --> 01:48:11,661
<i>Noblesse oblige.</i>
1167
01:48:12,756 --> 01:48:14,998
What the bloody hell does that mean?
1168
01:48:15,175 --> 01:48:17,501
It means my nobility obliges me
1169
01:48:17,678 --> 01:48:20,921
to recognise the virtue of an exceptional commoner.
1170
01:48:28,021 --> 01:48:29,721
Order!
1171
01:48:30,524 --> 01:48:32,599
Order!
1172
01:48:46,039 --> 01:48:48,490
When people speak of great men,
1173
01:48:48,667 --> 01:48:52,577
they think of men like Napoleon.
1174
01:48:52,755 --> 01:48:55,539
Men of violence.
1175
01:48:55,716 --> 01:48:58,833
Rarely do they think of peaceful men.
1176
01:49:00,929 --> 01:49:03,296
But contrast the reception they'll receive
1177
01:49:03,474 --> 01:49:06,633
when they return home from their battles.
1178
01:49:06,810 --> 01:49:10,637
Napoleon will arrive in pomp and in power.
1179
01:49:10,814 --> 01:49:15,016
A man who's achieved the very summit of earthly ambition.
1180
01:49:15,986 --> 01:49:20,772
Yet his dreams will be haunted by the oppressions of war.
1181
01:49:22,367 --> 01:49:24,150
William Wilberforce, however,
1182
01:49:25,621 --> 01:49:27,612
will return to his family,
1183
01:49:28,791 --> 01:49:31,460
lay his head on his pillow
1184
01:49:31,627 --> 01:49:34,494
and remember
1185
01:49:34,671 --> 01:49:37,914
the slave trade is no more.
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