Background Music: Amazing Grace (John Newton,
1765)
Sometime between 1760 and 1770, this hymn was written by an
English minister by the name of John Newton. It was part of a hymn in which
he expressed feelings about God's forgiveness of his sinful past.
During the first 30 years of his life, Newton was certainly
a miserable, unhappy, and mean person--in other words, "a
wretch." As a child he was rebellious and constantly in trouble. As a
young man he used profanity, drank excessively, and went through periods of
violent, angry behavior.
When Newton was in his early twenties, he became involved in
the slave trade: living in Africa, hunting down slaves, and managing a
"slave factory" (where the unfortunate captives were held for
sale). Later he was the captain of a slave ship which made three voyages
from Great Britain to Africa (where he loaded a cargo of slaves) and
finally to America to sell them.
Three years earlier, Newton had acknowledged God for the
first time. The ship on which he was serving, traveling in the Atlantic
Ocean to England, was caught in a terrible storm off the coast of
Newfoundland. As they fought the winds and rain, Newton asked God for help
("Lord, have mercy upon us!"), something he had not done since
childhood.
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