PRINCETON UMC
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound...
It’s one of the most popular and recognizable hymns of all time; the text has been set to over 20 melodies and recorded thousands of times. The song “Amazing Grace” is many things to many people. It’s just as likely to be linked to freedom and salvation for some as the rise of Christian nationalism for others. The history of the song, and the man who wrote it, is in many ways as nuanced and complicated as the legacy that lives on.
...that saved a wretch like me.
On the surface, it’s an inspiring story: a man involved in the Atlantic slave trade almost died in a horrible storm, resulting in his conversion to Christianity and eventual work in the abolition movement. While this is all true, it’s an oversimplification of John Newton’s life. After all, humans rarely fit into convenient anecdotes. In reality, Newton’s conversion wasn’t immediate. His brush with death occurred during a violent storm at sea in 1748 when he desperately cried out for God to save him. His survival did lead to his conversion to Christianity but he continued to be an active part in the kidnapping and enslavement of African people for six or seven years after that.
I once was lost but now am found...
It wasn’t until 1773 that Newton, who went on to become an ordained curate, wrote “Amazing Grace” with poet William Cowper to illustrate a sermon. Newton didn’t publicly condemn slavery until 1788 in his pamphlet Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade, after which he became an ally in the effort to abolish slavery in Britain. While in some ways his story reads like an epic poem, the song he wrote outgrew him. That is often the way of art, after all.
...Was blind but now I see.
“Amazing Grace” debuted on paper in Newton and Cowper’s Olney Hymns in 1779. While it found minor success in Britain, it was a bigger hit in America, particularly among Christian evangelists. It was an American composer, William Walker, who in 1835 set the song to the melody we most commonly sing today, referred to as the “New Britain” version. Since then, the song has been deeply intertwined with American history. Westward settlers and Civil War soldiers both took comfort in the lyrics that promised hope amidst suffering. The hymn was translated into the Cherokee language by Samuel Worcester and was sung by Cherokee people on the Trail of Tears. It was part of civil rights marches, war protests, and even Woodstock in 1969. It is undeniable that “Amazing Grace” is woven through the fabric of the American story and has been deeply personal to a wide variety of people.
Perhaps the greatest lesson of “Amazing Grace” is in the power of art and legacy. John Newton died in 1807 but over 200 years later, his words are instantly recognizable all over the world. A man complicit in one of the greatest atrocities of human history wrote lyrics that brought comfort to the desperate and oppressed for centuries. There is grace in that fact alone. We are all more than what we’ve done but we are, in many ways, what we leave behind. May we all leave behind love and grace that reverberates generations beyond us.
When we’ve been here ten thousand years Bright, shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise Than when we first begun
Source: “Amazing Grace” Wikipedia page, references can be found here.
