The Surprising Story of "Amazing Grace"

If you've ever seen a movie featuring an English or Scottish funeral, chances are you've heard the song "Amazing Grace" played on the bagpipes. "Amazing Grace" is one of the most famous religious hymns today, but its history and origins are deeply intertwined with the abolition of the slave trade. And its message is one for all people, regardless of their faith.

"Amazing Grace" was written by a man named John Newton, who began his career as slave trader in England in the early part of the 18th century. For years he earned a living selling human beings kidnapped and lured from Africa to colonial plantations in the Caribbean and to Europe. Several years into his career, he and his crew managed to live through a particularly nasty storm, which set in motion a deep religious conversion for Newton. Over the course of the next couple years, he gave up profanity and drinking, and then eventually the slave trade. He became an Anglican priest and in the course of his work, wrote several popular hymns, including "Amazing Grace." Newton also mentored a young man named William Wilberforce, a British politician and devout Christian as well, who led the campaign for Parliament to abolish the slave trade in the British Empire, culminating in the Slave Trade Act 1807.

Many scholars have suggested that "Amazing Grace's" message of forgiveness and redemption is a result of John Newton's regret that he was involved in slavery. In the first verse, "I once was lost but now am found/ Was blind but now I see" could easily Newton's hindsight perception of his the  business of slavery as evil. The song was used several years later in the American anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, and later became a popular spiritual during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Even this year it was sung in unison in over 60 languages to set a Guinness World Record, demonstrating unity in diversity. John Newton may not have intended to write a song about abolition and freedom, but that's how many oppressed people have taken "Amazing Grace."

While "Amazing Grace" is decidedly a Christian song, its central message is much broader. The song is a story of redemption. It reminds us that no matter how terrible things have been, no matter how many mistakes you have made, there is always hope for the future. It's a song we as modern-day abolitionists can learn from. Now matter how much we as a society have neglected slavery, there is hope we can change that. No matter how much we as a country have overlooked and ignored slavery, there is hope we can change that. And no matter how much we as individuals have bought the products of slavery, there is hope we can change that.

After all, if John Newton went from trading in human beings to writing one of the most powerful songs about freedom and redemption ever, there is certainly hope for all of us.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons