This film is a story that needs to be told... and talked about. However, we should recognize that the film is fictionalized. According to a historian interviewed on National Public Radio, the original words to the hymn "Amazing Grace" were written while the songwriter John Newton was still profiting from the slave trade.

According to Wikipedia (at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace), emphasis mine:

[Amazing Grace" has also become known as a favorite with supporters of freedom and human rights, both Christian and non-Christian, in part because many assume it to be his testimony about his slave trading past. But there is nothing in the hymn or related sermon notes about slavery, and Newton did not actively speak against the slave trade until several years after the hymn was written.

Granted, Wikipedia is not a definitive source, and I have not conducted extensive research myself. Also, one can argue that the song Amazing Grace is not defined by the original lyricist but rather by the many ways the lovely hymn has been used to promote justice since then.

But I do think we should be careful not to make a hero of someone who wasn't. The abolitionist movement in England was heroic--but John Newton himself may not have been.

This all ties into how we teach.  I think that reading novels and seeing movies are wonderful ways to get a more vivid picture of history. But most fictionalized stories, whether in print or in film, do take liberties with the truth. It is important that we help students--whether adults or children--understand that virtually any movie about a historical event does not accurately represent what really happened. Sometimes the invented bits are trivial, but sometimes the movie misleads viewers about important actual events. This doesn't mean the movie should be avoided--it just means we should all walk into (and out of) the movie theater with our eyes open!

Betsy Rubin
Literacy Works
Chicago
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Carole Bos 
  To: familyliteracy at nifl.gov 
  Sent: Friday, February 23, 2007 10:04 AM
  Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 557] Amazing Grace and the End of Slave Trading


  February 23rd is the 200th anniversary of Parliament's vote to repeal
  the slave-trade law.  The film, "Amazing Grace," is being released today
  to commemorate that event.  

  This web site
  http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/amazing_grace/amazing_grace_ch1.htm
  provides background, with hundreds of primary sources, about:  Africa
  (before European slave-trading), triangle trade and its middle passage,
  leading abolitionists in Britain, slave auctions, Wilberforce's
  parliamentary speech, the public-relations campaign to change the law,
  the events of 23 February 1807, and creation of the song "Amazing
  Grace."  (It was first used as a chant, not a song.)

  The site is free for all schools, libraries and educators.  Just request
  group access with this form. 
  https://www.awesomestories.com/signup.php?ua=group_signup   It is also
  free, through March, for students, their parents, library patrons and
  members of the general public.  Select an individual password with this
  form.  https://www.awesomestories.com/signup.php?ua=individual_signup

  Carole Bos
  Dean's Advisory Board
  Grand Valley State University
  bosc at gvsu.edu




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