Who is William Wilberforce? Moviegoers can now discover the man who led the fight to abolish slavery in the British Empire. Wilberforce inspired Abraham Lincoln and the anti-slavery movement, making him instrumental in ending slavery in the entire English-speaking world. See his story on the big screen in Amazing Grace, or get the rest of the story through Eric Metaxas’ new book Amazing Grace – William Wilberforce & the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery.

Why Amazing Grace? If you’ve ever sung the hymn Amazing Grace, you’ve sung the words of the man who was Wilberforce’s mentor, John Newton.  In the words of Wilberforce’s biographer, Eric Metaxas, in an interview with National Review Online’s Katharine Jean Lopez:

…Newton’s greatest achievement — greater than writing that world-famous hymn — may have been when he advised the newly converted Wilberforce not to leave politics, but to stay there so that God could use him there. It’s to his endless credit that Newton advised Wilberforce that way at such a crucial moment. One might say that it changed the world — and I do.

Watch it. Read it. Do it.