Amazing Grace

Set to the hymn-tune New Britain, Amazing Grace is possibly the best known and best loved of all hymns. It was written by John Newton, who had a conversion experience during a dangerous moment at sea while engaging in the slave trade. Contrary to some beliefs, though, this did not prompt him to give up the slave trade. It was several years later, after he became an ordained clergyman that he became an abolitionist and worked with Wilbur Wilberforce and others to have the slave trade abolished.