Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B000PMFTJA | Format: PDF
Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery Description
Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce's extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament.
At the center of this heroic life was a passionate 20-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.
Metaxas discovers in this unsung hero a man of whom it can truly be said, "He changed the world." Before Wilberforce, few thought slavery was wrong. After Wilberforce, most societies in the world came to see it as a great moral wrong.
This account of Wilberforce's life will help many to become acquainted with an exceptional man who was a hero to Abraham Lincoln and an inspiration to the anti-slavery movement in America.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 10 hours and 3 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Tantor Audio
- Audible.com Release Date: April 20, 2007
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B000PMFTJA
Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas is the New York Times bestseller about the life of William Wilberforce. The subtitle describes the theme: The heroic campaign to end slavery.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Metaxas's book because he so obviously liked and admired his subject. In the epilogue he writes, "I confess that while writing this book I sometimes had the happy sense that Wilberforce was present, or on the verge of it, twinkling with delight at my elbow, wearing that rosebud smile of his, head quizzically cocked."
However, it is Mr. Metaxas's sharp wit and skill with words - not his admiration - that brings Mr. Wilberforce to life and illuminates the dark underbelly of the Georgian era that arose from the unfeeling and unquestioning pursuit of the enlightenment. I sputtered in startled amusement when Mr. Metaxas described the public ox roast that William Wilberforce hosted when he stood for Parliament the first time, an event that had occurred in
"1809 to celebrate to Golden Jubilee of King George III, and another was held in 1887 to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Victoria. And here now, in Hull in 1780, an ox roast was held to celebrate the twenty-first birthday of the grandson of the late Alderman, the scion of the great Wilberforce family, a tiny, brilliant, and exceedingly ambitious young man who happened to be standing for Parliament in the general election just two weeks away . . . .
It was duly noted that the newly minted twenty-one-year-old had won exactly as many votes as his two opponents combined, which gave him a nice little push as he entered parliament--the ox had not twirled in vain."
Mr. Metaxas writes with empathy as well as with a sharp wit.
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