John Newton is an interesting figure from British history. You’re familiar with his work, I bet, even if you don’t realize that you are. He led an amazing life. Probably the most similar figure I’ve blogged about before would be Bartolome de las Casas. (Read about de las Casas with this link.) Both de las Casas and John Newton lived early lives of dubious morality. But each overcame their misdeeds and contributed something of great value to society.

The John Newton Biography

John Newton came into the world in London in 1725. His parents were an interesting pair. The mother was a devout religious woman. She was a Noncomformist, meaning she was a Protestant but didn’t follow the teachings of the Church of England. John Newton’s father, however, was a ship captain, a profession with a rather unchristian reputation. The mother died when Newton was seven. By age eleven, he went to sea with his father.

The result was predictable. Most of Newton’s teenage years he spent drinking like a sailor. Although a merchant sailor, at age eighteen John Newton was impressed onto a ship in the British Navy. (Impressment of merchant sailors into the British Navy happened at times. It was one of several causes of the War of 1812 between Great Britain and the United States.)

It seems, however, that the discipline of the British Navy was not amenable to Newton. He tried to desert. When caught, he ended up as a crewman on a passing slave vessel. Thus began the second phase of Newton’s wretched early career.

He Once Was Lost

John Newton took to his new life. He described sailing on a slave vessel as an “easy and creditable way of life.” Newton didn’t completely waste these years participating in the death and enslavement of others, at least. He says he taught himself Latin and geometry and became a skilled navigator.

But still, his life revolved around causing pain, misery, and death to Africans. (Again, this is similar to Bartolome de las Casas in his years as an encomendero.) He continued with this life until 1754, captaining three slaving voyages to Africa. In 1754, however, it appears he suffered a stroke. His days at sea were over.

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The Hour He First Believed

Now landbound, Newton needed a new life. Perhaps surprisingly, he gravitated toward a career as a clergyman. In 1748, he’d had a conversion experience when his ship barely survived a powerful storm. By 1764, John Newton was ordained in the Church of England.

The next step in Newton’s transformation came in 1767 when the poet William Cowper settled in Newton’s town of Olney. They became friends and together wrote hundreds of hymns, collected in the Olney Hymns. It appears Newton wrote 280 (!) of the songs, Cowper 68.

John Newton Amazing Grace

The most famous hymn penned by John Newton was “Amazing Grace.” Once you finish with his story, you might review the lyrics—I’ll bet they have an enhanced meaning now that you know more about Newton’s life.

By 1780, John Newton was back in London as a preacher. In 1785 he met William Wilberforce, one of the great figures for the emancipation of slaves in Great Britain. Or, perhaps I should write that they renewed their acquaintance—Wilberforce had been a member of Newton’s church as a child.

But by this time, Wilberforce was a member of Great Britain’s House of Commons. He had clout. In 1787, Wilberforce and Newton helped create the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. (It’s now known by a shorter name—the Anti-Slavery Society.) Wilberforce proved a great opponent of slavery. He spoke in the House of Commons. Wilberforce enlisted powerful friends in the cause such as Edmund Burke and William Pitt. He launched petition drives.

How Sweet the Sound

The efforts of Newton and Wilberforce did not pay off for some years, however. Generally, great reform movements need time to mature and gain a wide following. During the interval, Newton wrote Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade, recounting his own experiences and repenting of his early life transporting enslaved people. “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.”

John Newton also continued his preaching. By the end of his life, however, he went blind. So, it was only figuratively speaking that he lived to see the end of the slave trade in the British Empire. Parliament banned the slave trade (although not existing slavery) in February of 1807. John Newton died nine months later.

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The Legacy

This is why I feel my comparison of Newton to Bartolome de las Casas is a fair one. Both lived early lives that were not to their credit, historically speaking. Although they lived lives that met the moral values of their time, eventually they realized that those moral values were not on the side of justice, humanity, or (in their eyes, given that both were religious men) in accordance with Christian brotherhood.

So, rather than accept injustice as inevitable and “the way it is,” they acted. They reformed themselves, and then they sought to persuade others to reform. So, in their way, they achieved greatness. It was not the greatness of power, force, or wealth. The greatness of men like Newton and de las Casas arose from their desire to use the influence they had for the cause of improving the condition of those around them.

Their greatness came from knowing they had a choice. They could continue with their early lives, enjoying the approval of society at the cost of the degradation of others. Or, they could take the side of the oppressed and work to improve the human condition. Their choices, combined with their fortitude, created the legacy we remember today.

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