
Every Sunday, churches across the South include the famous hymn “Amazing Grace” in their song selections. While it is not by origin a Southern song, and a Brit wrote it, it is a part of the fabric of faith communities all across the South. It is so loved in our part of the world that we may choose to consider it “honorary Southern.” Author Jonathan Aitkin estimates that the song is played over 10 million times each year. The song’s creation and path to the popularity it enjoys today encountered significant challenges. It was written by a man whose life choices were hardly consistent with composing spiritual music and coming about in a time when music in church services had been forbidden. It took many twists of fate to come to light.

Composer John Newton came from humble beginnings. Born in London in 1725, he spent time in a boarding school before taking to the sea at age eleven. When he was eighteen, he was captured and pressed into naval service by the Royal Navy, becoming a midshipman aboard the HMS Harwich. He tried to escape but was captured and flogged in front of the ship’s crew, and his rank was reduced to a seaman. He considered murdering the captain for revenge then taking his own life but thought better of it.
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He soon had transferred to the Pegasus, a slave ship bound for Africa. He was extremely profane, creating obscene poems and songs about the captain, which led to him being shackled for the remainder of the voyage. He was abandoned in West Africa in 1745 and given to a slave trader, who gave Newton to his wife, a Sherbro Princess. He remained in slavery until 1748 when a sea captain located and rescued him at the request of Newton’s father. He returned to Britain on the Greyhound.
It was on that voyage that Newton’s path to salvation began. The ship became caught in a massive storm, lasting for days, and survival seemed impossible. One sailor was swept overboard. Newton and another sailor tied themselves to the ship’s pump to avoid experiencing the same fate. He said, “If this will not do, then Lord have mercy on us.” When it was Newton’s turn to take the wheel and steer the ship, he spent the time pondering faith. He had mocked the faith of others, only to now believe that God had sent him a profound message. When the ship’s pitch caused the cargo to shift and cover a hole in the hull that seemed like it would result in the vessel’s sinking, Newton thought it was a sign from God. His conversion to Christianity did not complete itself then, but that was the beginning.
