A new exhibition commemorating 250 years of one of the world’s best loved hymns, Amazing Grace, is now on display at Hull’s Wilberforce House Museum.
As the former home of the city’s anti-slavery campaigner William Wilberforce, the free-to-enter museum is a fitting venue for the new touring exhibition, which is now on display until 5 November.
Telling the story of Amazing Grace, written by the Rev John Newton, and its links with the anti-slavery movement, the exhibition also features a specially commissioned film showcasing Hull choirs, singers and musicians performing the hymn ().
Former slave ship captain turned curate-in-charge at St Peter & St Paul’s church in Olney, Buckinghamshire, Newton sailed and worked on five voyages trafficking people from Africa to the Caribbean before converting to the abolitionist cause.
He used his personal experiences to support the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and he became an associate of MP William Wilberforce, who led the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade in Parliament.
Composed by Newton in the weeks leading up to his New Year’s Day service on 1 January 1773, the hymn in various musical styles has gone on to inspire countless people and has even become known in America as the nation’s “spiritual anthem”.
While the lyrics do not explicitly refer to slavery, its themes of personal redemption, hope and overcoming adversity have seen it adopted by the civil rights movement, and the exhibition explores those links, alongside Newton’s conversion to the anti-slavery cause.
Wilberforce House is one of the world’s oldest slavery museums. It was first opened in 1906, before being refurbished and re-opened with new displays in 2007 – the bicentenary year of the abolition of the British slave trade.
The 17th century former merchant’s home re-opened to visitors earlier this year for the first time since it closed due to the Covid pandemic in 2020, and after undergoing conservation work and maintenance, as well as gallery redevelopment.
Among the permanent displays are journals and items that belonged to Wilberforce, as well as many significant items linked to slavery and the campaign that eventually led to its abolition, while new features include a gallery examining the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.
Hull also commemorates the life and work of the campaigner and the city’s historic links to the cause of freedom at Hull’s flagship cultural event, the annual Freedom Festival, while the Wilberforce Way is a 60-mile walking route from Hull to York, linking nearby Beverley and the Yorkshire Wolds village of Pocklington, where he went to school.
More information about the Museum is available at www.hullmuseums.co.uk/wilberforce-house-museum
For all other tourism information about Hull, see www.visithull.org