In 1749, he was offered the opportunity to captain a ship by a friend of his father’s - Joseph Manesty’s slave ship. Surviving a terrible storm at sea, Newton eventually arrived broke in Liverpool determined not to return to Africa. Newton was chained, beaten, and generally mistreated.Īlthough he considered himself a slave and described himself in later writings as “depressed to the lowest degree of human wretchedness”, he did eventually find his way back to England on the slave ship Greyhound after having been lured aboard with the news that an inheritance awaited him in England. Working as a middleman between African slave dealers and European slave ship captains, Newton’s new boss had little patience with Newton’s independent thinking. Newton first went to work for a white trader in Africa, but his poor people skills resulted in problems ashore as well as aboard ship. After getting into trouble on that ship as well, Newton deserted once again on Plantain Island off the coast of Sierra Leone. To avoid the punishment of a longer voyage at a reduced rank, Newton volunteered to be exchanged to a slave ship. He worked his way up the ranks as expected, but eventually deserted only to be caught and punished. His father was a sea captain and had apprenticed Newton out at age eleven as was customary. Although “bred to the sea”, according to Marcus Rediker’s, The Slave Ship: A Human History, Newton demonstrated a definite rebellious streak. John Newton made four slave-trading voyages between 17, and served as captain on three of them. John Newton’s Life Before “Amazing Grace” Profiting nicely from the trade during his prime, he spoke out against slavery later in life. Rebellious in his youth, he experienced first-hand what it meant to be a slave only to become a slave-ship captain upon his deliverance. Perhaps the best-known slave-ship captain in history is John Newton, the man who wrote “Amazing Grace”. The man who wrote the hymn “Amazing Grace” led a colorful life before penning his famous hymn lyrics.
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