John Newton
John Newton was born on July 24, 1725, in Wapping, London, England, to a shipmaster father and a devout Nonconformist mother. After his mother died when he was almost seven, Newton began accompanying his father on sea voyages at the age of 11. In 1743, he was forcibly recruited into the Royal Navy, where he served as a midshipman. Following a failed desertion attempt, he was demoted and later transferred to a slave ship.
Newton worked in the Atlantic slave trade, eventually becoming the captain of several slave ships. In 1748, during a severe storm at sea, he experienced a profound religious conversion, which he commemorated annually. Despite this conversion, he continued in the slave trade until poor health forced him to retire in 1754.
In 1764, Newton became an ordained Anglican cleric, serving as a parish priest in Olney, Buckinghamshire, where he wrote hymns, including the famous "Amazing Grace." He later moved to St. Mary Woolnoth in London in 1780. As his faith deepened, Newton became a vocal abolitionist, collaborating with figures like William Wilberforce to end the slave trade. He helped found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade in 1787.
Newton died on December 21, 1807, in London, having witnessed the British Empire's abolition of the African slave trade earlier that year. His life journey from a slave trader to a devout Christian and abolitionist remains influential, particularly through his hymns and his role in the abolition movement.
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