![]() ![]() ![]() Onboard, he became increasingly foul-mouthed and blasphemous, openly mocking anyone who had a Christian faith. The top-seeded Rockets (26-0) used well-timed runs to put away all three sets against St. Treated like a slave and half-starved, he was helped by African slaves who risked severe punishment to share their food with him.Įventually, Newton was offered an escape – passage back to England on a ship called “The Greyhound”. His licentious and tumultuous sailing life included a flogging for attempted desertion from the Royal Navy and captivity by a slave trader in West Africa. He soon regretted the decision when he fell foul of his master’s African mistress. London, 1807) was born into a Christian home, but his godly mother died when he was seven, and he joined his father at sea when he was eleven. Sailing up and down the coast of Sierre Leone in Africa, he collected slaves who had been captured and brought from the interior.Īfter six months, when his ship was set to sail for the Americas, Newton arranged to stay. John Newton (24 July 1725 21 December 1807) was a British slave trader who later became an abolitionist and converted to Christianity. Later Newton arranged a transfer onto a slave ship. Finding the conditions intolerable, he deserted but was caught and dragged back to the ship where he was publicly flogged. In 1744, he was press-ganged into the Navy. He sailed with his father, who was a merchant seaman. “Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me…” is John Newton’s song… and describes his dramatic story! But what is the connection between "Amazing Grace" and Buncrana, County Donegal on the shores of Lough Swilly?īorn in London in 1725, Newton went to sea at the age of 11. He was a slave trader who had no conscience about buying and selling people for profit. Yet years later this man wrote one of the world’s best loved hymns and inspired a young politician to fight for the abolition of slavery. He was a foul-mouthed sailor whose wild behaviour even shocked his less-than-perfect ship-mates. ' Amazing Grace ' is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (17251807). ![]()
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