The True Story Behind Amazing Grace
February 1st, 2009
Connecting the Dots
by Glynn Wilson
William Wilberforce, the British politician and philanthropist who is credited with ending the slave trade in Great Britain, spent his entire adult life dedicated to “creating a better world,” according to his biographies and the movie Amazing Grace. So his story is important to know for anyone with similar ambitions.
Wilberforce was inspired in part by the preacher of his youth, John Newton, who had been the captain of a merchant slave ship until he underwent a dramatic religious conversion while steering his vessel through a violent storm on the way from Africa to Jamaica. Because of his experiences, it was Newton who wrote one of the most beloved Christian hymns of all time, Amazing Grace.
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| A medallion created as part of the anti-slavery campaign by Josiah Wedgwood, 1795 |
Growing up in a devout Baptist home on the outskirts of Birmingham, Alabama, I’ve heard many renditions of this song over the years. Even though I long ago abandoned the life of “faith” for a life in pursuit of scientific and literary truth, there are times when I have been moved upon hearing the inspiring melody.
I remember hearing my grandfather on my father’s side of the family sing it with the twang of a country accent as he led the choir at the Greensport Baptist Church in St. Clair, Alabama, near Asheville, with my part Cherokee grandmother playing it on an old pump organ. I can still hear in my head the way it sounded as this good man, who fought in World War I and was exposed to mustard gas, whistled the tune as he puttered around his small farm or his wood shop.
It was my own father’s favorite hymn, and while he only dabbled at playing the piano, that’s the one song he knew well enough to play all the way through. He would sing it too, although way down on the bass end of the registry where it’s not so pretty.
But never in all my years of hearing that song, until I saw the movie last night, did I know its history and true meaning. I have no doubt my relatives from the racist city of Birmingham have no idea what the song means when they sing it still in the white churches of the South. I wonder if the black congregations even know.
It is a song of repentance for Newton’s regrets at the misery he had inflicted on the thousands of human cargo dragged in chains across the sea to work themselves to death in the sugar cane fields and processing operations for nothing, so that British lords and ladies could enjoy refined sugar in their afternoon cups of tea.
The fact that they sing it still, not knowing its meaning, is one of those great ironies of a life born of ignorance, where little children are still led to believe they are better than someone else because of the color of their skin.
Over the past few months, and again over the past couple of days, I have been assaulted with hate-filled e-mail messages from a white man who claims to be a Christian. He just can’t stand the idea that America just elected its first African-American president. A few days before the election, after I had endorsed the candidacy of Barack Obama again, he told me that my “liberal journalist” ass would “get the first bullet” if McCain-Palin didn’t win.
Three weeks before the election, this so-called “gentleman” and “Christian” who has a wedding chapel on his property not far from here, amassed a large list of e-mail addresses and began sending out conservative propaganda thinking he could help stop Obama’s election. It was all the usual suspects, the lie that Obama is a Muslim and associates with “terrorists,” blah, blah, blah, even though even the candidate he supported repudiated the false rumors in public on TV, even on Fox News.
But this “gentleman” didn’t know how to hide his recipient list, so I grabbed it and cleaned the bad addresses out of it and sent a message back to the list with my links, hoping to bring some solid information to at least some of the readers to counter the lies. It pretty much worked, getting this man screamed at by a select portion of the list members, with a number of them demanding to be taken off the list. I figured it was just one more conservative propaganda list destroyed. I’ve done the same thing to five or six others since moving back to Alabama four years ago. I call it blog-jacking and it usually gets me a few regular readers, in addition to destroying the credibility of the original sender.
You see I also have the goal in life to work at creating a better world. I figure if only I could just get some good and true information in front of people, perhaps they will finally listen and change their ways. Most won’t. But now and then, one will.
Wilberforce, a spiritual man, fought for the abolition of slavery for the prime 46 years of his life, from 1787 until the Slavery Abolition Act finally passed the British Parliament in 1833. It would take another 30 years for that change to come to the United States, founded on the principle that “all men are created equal.”
It took another 100 years for “colored people” to get the right to vote in America, and it took another 43 years for a black man to become president.
I can’t force the racists who think they are Christians to read this. But if this man does, perhaps it may dawn on him at some point that his hate for me and what I do, and for our new president, pretty much disqualifies him from a place in heaven — if there is such a place. There is no way in heaven or on earth that Jesus would side with him in this dispute.
If he does bother to read it, perhaps the next time he hears the song Amazing Grace he will have a new appreciation for what it means. And just maybe, somewhere down in the deep recesses of his heart, he will begin to change too.
For the lyrics of the song, hit the jump…
The Lyrics of the Amazing Grace
Amazing Grace (How sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
‘Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ’d!
Thro’ many dangers, toils and snare,
I have already come;
‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me.
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall profess, within the vail,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
Comments
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February 1st, 2009 at 6:57 am
It’s ok to have a comment.
February 1st, 2009 at 9:21 am
Glynn, I just read here of your response to the hatemonger fallen off the edge, and I applaud. Haven’t heard as much nasty stuff or crazy stuff since election as I expected to, actually.
February 1st, 2009 at 4:22 pm
How would you hear it? In what media?
Just watched the interview with Obama in the Super Bowl pre-game show. Great interview, except for the technical glitches : (
How could anyone not like this guy? He can talk sports and economics as well as law and politics. He’s a winner, unlike his predecessor.
February 1st, 2009 at 6:53 pm
Thank you for reminding me of the composition of “Amazing Grace” and the end of slavery. I have used this true story often in my preaching.
John Newton shipped out as a cabin boy on slave ships, so he had heard from childhood the cries and moans and weeping of the captive slaves chained to the decks and in the holds of the ships. That, I think, is the sound we hear in the music of the song, the sound of the voices of those slaves.
I have heard liberals who do not like the words “a wretch like me” in the song. They certainly don’t feel like wretches. But think about Newton.
He had destroyed thousands of lives, heard them moan without hope, and saw them die, nothing but products for profit. He didn’t do this because he hated them, but because he wanted a job, and his culture there in Liverpool made this job available. He didn’t hate them when he attained his own ship, his business; they were just a way to make a living in his culture.
When it finally hit him, he tells us that he felt like the most lowly human being on earth, a wretch. He sold the ship and went into the ministry, not the first person to go into the ministry to find salvation or relief for himself, to find forgiveness.
In his sleep that night he awakened to write the hymn, he must have been dreaming of those victims, and heard in his heart their moans. This time he didn’t hide from it. He listened, and wrote down their music, and as he did, he found release from the wretchedness that had torn at his soul. And there he found grace. He found forgiveness and celebrated it in the song.
I can’t help but remember Governor George Wallace who became a famous racist to get elected. He had been a moderate, or “national democrat.” He was a delegate to the Democratic Convention in 1948, when much of the Southern delegates, led by Bull Connor, walked out over Truman’s integration of the military. But he stayed, as did Senator Lister Hill, opposing the racism that was the disease of the South. He ran for Governor in 1958 as a “liberal,” or “moderate,” opposing the hate of the white majority of the state. And he lost, as Governor John Patterson, Jr. ‘out-niggered’ him, in Wallace’s words.
Wallace was not himself a racist, as Newton was not also. But he did it to get the job, the position.
After he was out of office, crippled by a bullet from a right-wing assassination, he finally apologized to the black people of the state, and in truly amazing grace, they accepted it and forgave him.
I knew George Wallace. As Executive Director of the National Democratic Party of Alabama, I had been party to an affidavit, over two days, by Wallace given to us, forced by the courts. He did not confess then, and we went on to elect, in 1968, the first blacks to office in Alabama since Reconstruction.
I had taken a different route. I am a descendant of Stonewall Jackson, white, and knew very well the heritage I was expected to live out. But I found that Amazing Grace in the Civil Rights movement, beginning in 1956. I was arrested, beaten, fired from the ministry — a lot of stuff that caused suffering. But I knew the amazing grace, and never had a single doubt.
I took the route of freedom early, but I understand and celebrate the grace of those like Newton and Wallace who were the wretches who were lost and found, and I still preach it.
February 1st, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Wow! Thanks Rev. Zylman and Glynn for getting this in the Cyber rag Locust Fork.
I’m passing it on to a couple of ministers here in Billings, and Helena Montana.
February 1st, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Thanks for stopping in…
We’re always looking for ways to “educate” the public as opposed to the kind of fake objectivity practiced by most corporate newspapers. They say it’s up the schools and parents to educate. They say they just inform and let the people decide. But they have played it safe so long they lost their audience.
Of course, as one rare liberal who works for Alabama Power told me yesterday, most conservatives would never read a newspaper anyway, because only “liberals” read “liberal” newspapers. Is it any wonder the newspapers are dying? They have been trying for years to hold onto conservative readers and letting the liberals go, you know, people who actually read and are interested in facts like science stories…
In Alabama, a science story in a Newhouse or Gannet paper is either about the latest health craze or “economic development.” Boring…
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 am
Hi Glynn — I also knew George Wallace well. I covered his campaigns in ’58 and ’62 as a reporter, and as Jack points out, he was “liberal” on race until Patterson beat him in the Dem primary of ’58. He went psycho.
But we need to warn Rev. Jack Zylman to be careful about letting people know he’s descended from Stonewall Jackson. I’m not by any means a Civil War buff, but anybody who has read a book or two about the Shenandoah Valley campaigns knows Jackson was nuttier than the proverbial fruit cake. He may have been a military genius, I don’t know, but he was a military weirdo, for sure.
Since we need Jack to continue to have validity as he participates in the “arguments” of our time, I would urge him to refrain from letting the enemies of truth know who he’s descended from : )
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
Funny, Ivan, but I think Jack will be fine : )
I covered Wallace’s last campaign in 1982 and his final term as governor and used to piss him off some myself. But there wasn’t much left of him by then.
But Wallace is sort of beside the point. I did this column to demonstrate something about how we may be able to change public attitudes on race over time if we would just get facts in people’s faces. The newspapers could still decide to try that as a way to survive. If they did, the TV news stations might find some guts as well.
Now that the Netroots has shown that we have the national numbers and can elect a liberal black man as president, it is time to turn to changing Alabama. Artur Davis seems to want to be that change agent, but according to almost everybody involved in the Democratic Party, he is NOT the right person for the job and so far, he is certainly not going about it the right way.
He is flailing away like a desperate soul who has lost his way in the wilderness and doesn’t know how to find his way back. The last thing we need is just another politician who will kiss up to the moneyed interests. Since that’s his only hope of getting elected governor, that’s what we are seeing so far in his campaign.
If there is another Democrat — or Republican — out there who can bring some technological savvy and populist, progressive reform into this campaign, we can change things with the power of the Internet and the Web — with or without the newspapers. We have already demonstrated that numerous times. Our power is only going to grow.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:09 am
I can’t agree about hiding one’s lineage. Rev. Zylman can point to the atrocities of his forbears as a sign that righteousness is not visited upon one culture by another, it must arrive from within. It is too easy for bigots to pretend that progress arrives as an invasion from afar, rather than admit those number of their very own who have seen the light.
I too am a “Son of the South” who has alienated themselves from friends and family in affirming equality for all people in all nations. My forebears fought alongside Nathan Bedford Forrest, some were members of the KKK, but finally one dark day they went too far, and arrogance and hatred turned to shame, leaving a stain only grace can remove.
We must tell this tale so it is never forgotten, until freedom and justice comes to every man, woman and child on this earth. And to do that we must always tell the truth.
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:37 am
Well said!
February 2nd, 2009 at 9:39 pm
Just came up with a great line, and since there’s no place else to use it for now, I’ll use it here.
Let’s say a religious person gets offended by something on this blog and had the courage to ask why I would publish it?
My response: Well, mam, it’s like this. You might say I am a fundamentalist when it comes to the Constitution. I capitalize it here just as you might capitalize the Bible.
I believe every word of the First Amendment. You have every right under the part about freedom of religion to worship however you choose. And I have every right under the parts about freedom of speech and press to publish and say what I do.
I think people should respect that. Quite often, they don’t. They only believe in part of it, the part that serves their biases.
February 4th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I remember hearing my grandparents sing Amazing Grace back in the 40s during WWII. I had 5 uncles in service at the time, 2 of them were in Germany when the war ended.
Last May, my wife and I were vacationing in Bavaria. In a small town just outside Nuremburg, I believe it is named Furth, they were having a festival. An all German band named The New Orleans Marching Band was playing “When the Saints Come Marching In.” They sang it first in German then in English. That was great, but then they sang “Amazing Grace” first in German, then in English.
I can’t describe the feelings that rushed through me and brought tears to my old eyes. I had memories of my grandparents as they prayed for the safety of our soldiers in WW II. I had memories of the news reels from the 30s showing Hitler motivating his Nazi base to a lethal frenzy just a few miles and 70 years away. I remembered George Wallace, Al Lingo, and Bull Conner using the same hateful tactics as Hitler had perfected to advance their political goals. But Hitler failed, Wallace, Lingo and Conners failed.
Amazing Grace still lives in Germany and Alabama. There is a reason for that. Love conquers all if given a chance.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
I attended a funeral for a friend’s father out in the sticks a while back. At the end of the service, a rather hefty lady who had been sitting behind the floral arrangements, filing her nails, stood up and, accompanied only by another woman at the piano, sang “Amazing Grace.”
Having grown up in the rural and small-town South, I have heard “Amazing Grace” at least ten thousand times. But never with such power and beauty.
I was struck by the talent of this country woman, who works at some low-wage job and is not a professional singer. She made the uninspired pablum we hear from most rich professional entertainers seem like kids’ playing.
She made the hairs stand up on my soul. It caught me unawares.
“Amazing Grace” is too powerful to be tossed about casually. It should never be allowed to be used in shallow entertainments. Or by any singer who doesn’t understand the message.
Even an old backslid Methodist like me can still tremble at its awesome authority. “Amazing Grace” proves that there is hope for us all. If a “wretch” like John Newton can find salvation, maybe there is hope for us all. Even the racists crackpots who are ruining this country.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Nice story.
But I assume you mean “were” running this country : )
February 4th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
NO. I said ‘ruIning’ the country. At least it was ruining when it left here.
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At long as Rush Limbaugh has more than a telephone booth full of fans, there is danger afoot. We must keep a sharp eye out. Devious does not begin to describe these people.
They are the “wretches” Mr. Newton forsaw in his song.
February 5th, 2009 at 12:35 am
Oh, right. Well they might have already ruined it, but one must hold out some hope.
My redneck “friend” said to keep my squirrel gun handy, because I would need it in six months to get a loaf of bread. Of course he thinks it will then be Obama’s fault. I guess he blames everything done wrong over the past eight years on Bill Clinton.
It couldn’t possibly be Bush’s fault, or Cheney’s or Rumsfeld’s, etc…
They are such fine Christian Republicans. Right : )
February 6th, 2009 at 12:15 am
If Dubya had been the captain of the Titanic, he would have backed up and rammed that iceberg two or three more times, with a smirking Cheney egging him on.
Republican have blamed Bill Clinton for everything but kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. And I’m sure that’s coming.
What I would like to know, since Republican controlled both houses of Congress for many years, as well as the White House, what the heck were they doing all this time?
They are whining like a spoiled baby who’s had his sucker snatched out of his mouth.
February 9th, 2009 at 3:51 am
What have they been doing? Raiding the federal treasury, what else?
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:40 pm
What are some of the things we can teach our children from the ashes of the pain of past wars, crimes, etc? They seemed so wrapped into media jargon of “beauty” (too skinny, crack-eyed models, and plastic beauty) and the immediate gratifications of today, right now. I am concerned with the expansions of the mind that are not being trained, taught or exposed. I believe that religion at a young age (even if they eventually choose another religion or none at all), at least, offers another point of view. It gives a person a chance to broaden their mind. I want my children to be a voice of reason. I want them to digest information AND THEN decern…making their own final decision. There are too many zombies following the pack. It almost always leads to trouble and errors. A belief in any religion (sincere belief, NOT JUST PRACTICE ON SUNDAYS), should be a mind expanding, thought provoking personal change. Those who fail to believe in something other than themselves leave a shallow place in their head and hearts for consideration of others. We are all at risk living in the world full of zombie nations. I try to instill in my children a wider view of life.