Quotes About John Newton

The recessional of "Amazing Grace" was familiar to all. John Newton had written the hymn, and I wondered how many people in the church knew that he'd been a slave-ship captain before realizing the error of his ways and becoming an abolitionist.

John Newton, the repentant former slaver, preached the gospel in his parish of Olney; created the Eclectic Society, whose members asked questions like "What is the best way of propagating the Gospel in the East Indies?"; and penned the famous lyrics of "Amazing Grace": "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.

Wilberforce said that he revered Newton "as a parent when I was a child." The weak-eyed, sickly, extremely nimble-minded boy must have been utterly captivated by the former slaver who at age eleven—William's age when they met—had gone off to sea for a picaresque adventure unimaginable to the wealthy and pampered merchant's son.

AMAZING GRACE is about the man who wrote "Amazing Grace," John Newton. It's a really great show - I have been workshopping it for a while now, actually.