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Amazing Grace — The Story of John Newton

A Story of Redemption

Amazing Grace

The life of John Newton · 1725–1807

“I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.”

The Life of John Newton

From Bad Man
to Witness

1725 · London, England

Born — Seeds Planted Early

His mother, a devoted Christian, taught him Bible verses and hymns before dying of tuberculosis when John was just six years old.

John Newton was born on July 24, 1725, in London. His father was a merchant ship captain and his mother a devout Christian woman. Though she died when John was only six, she had already planted seeds of faith — teaching him Scripture and hymns that would lie dormant for decades. By age eleven, Newton was at sea with his father, being shaped by a world of violence, profanity, and cruelty.

1740s · West Africa

Sinking as Low as Possible

After being forced into naval service, Newton ended up enslaved by an African slave trader — the ultimate bitter irony for a man who would later transport enslaved people himself.

Newton fell in love with fourteen-year-old Mary Catlett and missed a ship his father had arranged. As punishment, his father had him pressed into Royal Navy service, where he was whipped for desertion. Eventually transferred to a slave ship in Africa, he ended up working for a slave trader whose African wife, Princess Peye, enjoyed tormenting him. Newton became, in his own words, “a servant of slaves in Africa” — chained, starved, forced to eat raw roots to survive. Yet even this brutal experience did not open his eyes to the evil of slavery.

March 10, 1748 · The Atlantic Ocean

The Storm That Changed Everything

A violent Atlantic storm tore apart his ship. As water poured in and a crewman was swept overboard, Newton prayed for the first time in years — carefully, uncertainly, but genuinely.

Aboard the ship Greyhound, Newton had picked up Thomas à Kempis’s The Imitation of Christ, reading it with mockery — until one thought struck him: “What if these things are true?” At 2:00 a.m. on March 10, a violent storm hit with such force that it broke through the rotting wood. As Newton and the crew pumped water for hours, fighting for their lives, he began to pray. Somehow the ship survived and limped to Ireland. Newton walked to the nearest church and, as he wrote later, “engaged to be the Lord’s forever.” For the rest of his life he would mark March 10 as his spiritual birthday.

1750–1754 · The Atlantic Slave Trade

The Uncomfortable Truth: Still a Slave Captain

Newton’s conversion did not immediately change his behavior. He became captain of his own slave ships — a disturbing reminder of how slowly even genuine faith can confront deep evil.

Here Newton’s story becomes uncomfortable. His conversion stopped his swearing and started his Bible reading, but he continued in the slave trade — eventually becoming captain of three slave voyages between 1750 and 1754. He tried to treat enslaved people “humanely,” reducing death rates, but he was still ripping families apart and profiting from human beings. He saw no conflict between his growing faith and his work. This is perhaps the most disturbing part of his story: how easily evil can coexist with sincere religion. Only a medical seizure in 1754 ended his seafaring — not moral conviction.

1764 · Olney, England

Ordained — A Minister Like No Other

After years of self-study and repeated rejection due to his lack of formal education, Newton was finally ordained and became the minister of a poor market town.

During his years as a Liverpool tide surveyor, Newton taught himself Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and came under the influence of George Whitefield and John Wesley. His mind and heart were slowly changing. In 1764, after repeated rejection due to no formal degree, he was ordained as an Anglican clergyman and sent to Olney — a poor town of about 2,000 lacemakers. He preached differently from other ministers. He shared his own shameful story from the pulpit. His mission, he said, was “to break a hard heart and to heal a broken heart.”

January 1, 1773 · Olney

The Hymn is Born

For a New Year’s Day sermon, Newton wrote a poem for his congregation. The first line: “Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound).”

In Olney, Newton befriended William Cowper, a brilliant but deeply troubled poet who had attempted suicide multiple times. Together they wrote hymns for weekly prayer meetings — simple songs for ordinary people. For his New Year’s Day sermon in 1773, based on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17 where King David marvels at God’s undeserved favor, Newton wrote “Faith’s Review and Expectation.” It wasn’t about his storm moment. It was about the slow, patient work of grace over seventeen years — how grace had pursued him through his rebellion, his cruelty, his blindness, even while he was a slave captain.

1788 · London

The Abolitionist — Using His Past as a Weapon

Newton published a devastating account of the horrors he had witnessed and done in the slave trade, and testified before Parliament. His greatest sin became his most powerful testimony.

Newton’s conscience had finally caught up with his conversion. He published Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade — a devastating eyewitness account of the conditions on slave ships — calling it something at which his “heart now shudders.” He mentored William Wilberforce in his campaign to end the slave trade and testified before Parliament. A former slave ship captain speaking against slavery carried enormous weight. In 1807, just months before Newton died at age 82, Parliament passed the Slave Trade Act banning the trade on British ships. Newton lived to see it.

December 21, 1807 · London

The End — Words He Wrote for His Own Grave

Newton died at 82, his memory nearly gone, still able to say two things clearly: “I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.”

In his final years, Newton’s memory failed almost completely. Yet he could still repeat those two sentences. He had written his own gravestone epitaph decades earlier: “John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.” He refused to let anyone soften the words. He wanted his whole story told — the darkness and the grace together.

Written 1772 · Published in Olney Hymns, 1779

Read the Hymn

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
Newton called himself a “wretch” and meant every word. This wasn’t poetic language — it was the honest confession of a man who had captained slave ships and watched families torn apart. The grace that found him was not earned. It was entirely undeserved.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!
Grace did two things for Newton: first it showed him the truth about himself — a frightening thing — and then it relieved the very fear it created. The storm at sea was grace teaching his heart to fear. The prayer he prayed in those desperate hours was grace relieving it.
Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
Newton wasn’t claiming perfection. He was remembering — the naval press gang, the African slavery, the Atlantic storms, the decades of moral blindness. Through all of it, grace had been present even when he couldn’t see it. That same grace, he trusted, would carry him to the end.
The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
A man who had spent his life on the open ocean understood what it meant to need a shield. Newton had seen storms that killed sailors in seconds. The “shield and portion” here is not abstract — it is the language of a man who knew what it felt like to have nothing else to hold on to.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
In his final years, Newton’s body and memory were both failing. Yet he was not afraid. This verse was his confidence — not because he had lived well, but because grace had held him through everything he had done wrong, and grace would carry him through death itself.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
Newton ends not with himself, but with God. Everything else — the sea, the ships, the slave trade, the fame of the hymn — would all dissolve. One thing would not: the God who had called and pursued him from his mother’s knee, through the worst years of his life, to the very end.

Lessons From a Redeemed Life

Why This Still Matters

⚓

Grace Doesn’t Wait for You to Be Good Enough

Newton was still a slave trader when grace began its work in him. No sin is too great for grace to reach. If it could find him, it can find anyone.

🌊

Change Happens Gradually

Newton’s conversion wasn’t a light switch — it was a slow dawn over decades. Most of us grow the same way. Grace doesn’t give up when we can’t immediately see what we need to change.

📜

Face Your Past Without Excuse

Newton never said “everyone was doing it.” He called himself a wretch, published his crimes, and testified before Parliament. He refused to let anyone soften his gravestone epitaph.

🛡️

Safety Comes From Grace, Not From Being Good

“‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Not his own goodness — grace. The same grace that carried him through his worst years could be trusted for the journey ahead.

🕊️

Your Past Can Become Your Most Powerful Testimony

Newton became one of England’s most vocal abolitionists. His greatest regrets became his most powerful witness. A former slave captain speaking against slavery carried weight no one else could.

✍️

A Hymn Written for a Small Town Reached the World

Newton wrote Amazing Grace for a Wednesday prayer meeting in a poor English town. He never imagined it would be sung at civil rights marches, state funerals, and by billions across the world.

An Invitation

Receive Amazing Grace

“What part of your past needs the healing power of amazing grace today?”

Your words are private. They are not sent anywhere.


“Amazing Grace” — Written by John Newton, 1772
Published in Olney Hymns, 1779 · Public Domain

Sources: Newton, An Authentic Narrative (1764) · Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade (1788) · Aitken, John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace (2007)

Note: The famous final verse “When we’ve been there ten thousand years” was added later by an unknown author and was not written by John Newton. This hymn is in the public domain.

Amazing Grace | Reawaken Hymns

Sources and Historical References

Primary Sources:

  • Newton, John. An Authentic Narrative of Some Remarkable and Interesting Particulars in the Life of John Newton. London, 1764.
  • Newton, John. Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade. London, 1788.
  • Newton, John and William Cowper. Olney Hymns: In Three Books. London: W. Oliver, 1779. [Library of Congress, first edition]
  • Newton, John. Sermon notebooks, Lambeth Palace Library.
  • Newton, John. Journals as a slave trader, various collections.

Biographical and Historical Sources:

  • Martin, Bernard. John Newton: A Biography. London: Heinemann, 1950.
  • Aitken, Jonathan. John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace. Crossway, 2007.
  • Phipps, William E. “Amazing Grace in John Newton.” Anglican Theological Review.
  • Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney, Buckinghamshire (www.cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk)
  • The John Newton Project (research and documentation)

Historical Context:

  • Maritime records: SS Greyhound voyage, 1748
  • Royal Navy records: HMS Harwich
  • Slave trade documentation: Newton’s ship logs from Brownlow, Duke of Argyle, and African (1750-1754)
  • Parliamentary records: Testimony to Privy Council on slave trade (1788)
  • Slave Trade Act 1807, British Parliament

Hymn Research:

  • “Amazing Grace” manuscript and first publication in Olney Hymns (1779), Book I, Hymn 41
  • Original title: “Faith’s Review and Expectation” based on 1 Chronicles 17:16-17
  • Tune research: “New Britain” melody (origin uncertain, possibly American folk tune)
  • Hymnology Archive and Library of Congress Exhibition: “The Creation of Amazing Grace”

Additional Resources:

  • The Spafford Children’s Center continues Newton’s humanitarian legacy in Jerusalem
  • Museum displays: Cowper & Newton Museum, Olney, England
  • Film: Amazing Grace (2006), depicting Newton (Albert Finney) and Wilberforce’s abolition campaign

What part of your past needs the healing power of amazing grace today?

Amazing Grace

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