THE AMAZING STORY BEHIND ''AMAZING GRACE''
“Amazing Grace” is probably the most beloved hymn of the last two centuries.
President Obama burst into the familiar tune during the memorial service for Reverend Clementa Pinckney, a victim of a heinous church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina.
Ironically, this stirring song, closely associated with the African-American community, was written by a former slave trader, John Newton. But the real story behind the somewhat sentimental musical, told in Newton’s autobiography reveals a more complex and ambiguous history.
Newton was born in 1725 in London to a Puritan mother who died two weeks before his seventh birthday, and a stern sea-captain father who took him to sea at age 11. After many voyages and a reckless youth of drinking, Newton was impressed into the British navy. After attempting to desert, he received eight dozen lashes and was reduced to the rank of common seaman.
While later serving on the Pegasus, a slave ship, Newton did not get along with the crew who left him in West Africa with Amos Clowe, a slave trader. Clowe gave Newton to his wife Princess Peye, an African royal who treated him vilely as she did her other slaves.
The stage version has John’s father leading a rescue party to save his son from the calculating Princess, but in actuality the enterprise was undertaken by a sea captain asked by the senior Newton to look for the missing John.
In the musical, John abjures slavery immediately after his shipboard epiphany and sails to Barbados to search for and buy the freedom of Thomas. After returning to England, Newton and his sweetheart Mary Catlett dramatically confront the Prince of Wales and urge him to abolish the cruel practice. In real life, Newton continued to sell his fellow human beings, making three voyages as the captain of two different slave vessels, The Duke of Argyle and the African.
In 1764, he was ordained as an Anglican priest and wrote 280 hymns to accompany his services. He wrote the words for “Amazing Grace” in 1772 (In 1835, William Walker put the words to the popular tune “New Britain”).
- Someone opinion (which I think is the most appropriate, based on the explanation and the adjustment of history) 🔻
In 1788 he wrote the document. Sometime between 1754 and 1764 he pursued a religious career, culminating in his 1764 ordination as Anglican priest. So the decision to renounce his slave-trading profession happened somewhere in that 30-year time frame. If you understand the nature of guilt at all, it was probably a haunting conviction for a number of years, and not the 'A-ha! Eureka!' moment in 1788 that this article writer suggests. We live in real time, people. Few are the persons who, the very second they recognize a conviction, act on it decisively. We are usually convinced of things over time, gaining courage over time as the conviction takes hold.
Very interesting!
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