How Sweet the Sound
There’s a new movie coming out featuring the life and work of English churchman John Newton (1725-1807), author of the hymn “Amazing Grace.” As a young man, Newton served on slave trading ships. During a violent storm in 1748, he prayed for salvation and converted to evangelical Christianity. He dedicated the latter part of his life to the abolition of the slave trade, and 2007 marks the bicentennial of both Newton’s death and the end of slavery in the British Empire. Adam Hochschild’s Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves is a good book about the subject, but also try iConn’s History Reference Center database for more information about the 18th-century slave trade.