The movie "Amazing Grace" is based on the life of which British anti-slavery pioneer?

The movie Amazing Grace is based on the life of British anti-slavery pioneer William Wilberforce. The 2006 biographical drama follows his long campaign in Parliament to end Britain's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade.

Wilberforce entered Parliament as a young politician and became closely associated with the abolitionist movement. He worked with figures including Thomas Clarkson, Hannah More, Olaudah Equiano, and his friend William Pitt the Younger. After years of defeats and political resistance, Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, ending Britain's legal slave trade, although slavery itself continued in the British Empire until 1833.

The film also features John Newton, a former slave-ship captain who later became an Anglican clergyman and wrote the words associated with the hymn “Amazing Grace.” Newton's remorse and testimony helped expose the brutality of the trade, but he was not the film's central political subject.

The title can cause confusion because the hymn and its author are prominent in the story. The movie's principal historical protagonist, however, is Wilberforce, played by Ioan Gruffudd.