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.

If Slavery was better than freedom most of the time for most people; slavery would have been unnecessary, plantations would be overwhelmed with volunteers. John Newton however was not most people however, and he dearly hoped the last few years was not going to be representative of his entire life.

For John Newton the Sherbo liberated him! They would beat him or starve him if he failed to work. Fair enough; that is how the strong always treat the weak whatever skin color the strong or the weak happened to be. But when John was dealing with strong people who were white like him, they would beat and starve him extra for hating them… and how exactly was John supposed to stop hating them when they wouldn’t stop beating him?

John trudged among the mud, listening to the songs sung by his fellow slaves. He had yet to learn enough of their language to write poetry, but he had an instinct for recognizing it. So even as his feet were in mad and his eyes on the rice stalks ahead of him he was living in a world of beauty.

To a Man Who’d never known love,a life free of hate can seem idyllic.

And so days, weeks and months passed. Leaving John less than eager when he was called in from the fields to meet his father.

“Why are you here?” John demanded.

“To rescue you my son from slavery?” John the Elder replied

“Backed up by buttfucking bullshit!  When I was impressed into the Navy you could have freed me with a word and a greased palm but   the size of your caring couldn’t have filled a Bunny’s cunny. WHY. ARE. YOU. HERE?

“Serving in his Majesty's navy is a noble, respectable calling. I thought it would be good for you to do something respectable with your life. I came to save you from being a plantation slave in Africa because you wrote me.”

“Damn Demonshit for brains. I wrote you to tell you I was happier then I was in the world you laid out for me. After I clawed my way up to the level of hell for virtuous pagans you have no right to drag me back down to your circle of traitors and Tyrants!”

“You worthless pile of self pity” the elder began and then caught himself “You’re right. None of my plans for you worked. Polly wasn’t one of my plans. Polly you seduced on your own, against my wishes. She also wants you back home. Will you come with me to see her?”

“Yes damn you” Polly was, his true home. He was now found

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,

And grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!

The Greyhound was struck by a violent storm. John had been hoping to sit back and watch others risk their lives as a paying passenger. A crew member was washed overboard. Another broke a limb.The ship began taking on water faster then it could be bailed out. John could do math. Without more skilled hands the ship would sink and they’d all die.

“Captain cocksucker! The pumps will empty the water faster then the crippled crap cowards you have on bucket brigade!” John cried out.

“The pump is on the most exposed part of the deck! I can’t order any man to work it! Not when it’s uncertain to work” the captain replied.

“If this will not work lord have mercy on us!I volunteer! If one more man has the balls to volunteer, we might get back home to England alive!” John shouted loudly enough for all to hear.

Unfortunately it was his father who responded first “I volunteer as well”

“I’d rather be working with anyone but you” John snarled as they tied themselves to the pump.

“I’m pleased to be working with you. We’re both very good seamen. We might be able to save this ship” the elder replied

“The only good thing that was ever in you was the semen that made me”John snarled back.

They Pumped, they couldn’t tell if they sweated or not due to the rain and seawater they were drenched with. They pumped, the ship heaved and even jumped on the waves.

“Uncle Issac takes his toll!” the elder cried falling

“You’ve been telling that joke my entire life. Before I was 7 I didn’t get it. After I was 8 I was sick of it” John cried as his father got up again and continue pumping.

“You feel I owe you a life my boy?!?” the elder said while pumping

“YES DAMN YOU! YOU MADE A HELL OF THE ONE I HAD!” John replied as he pumped

“Tonight then I will either save all our lives alongside you or die trying! Either way, it would seem that debt is to be paid!”

They Pumped.

“ You doing anything so worthwhile would be a miracle to make me believe in god!” John cried pumping.

A wave hit them full force, John would have been swept out to see had he not been tied to the pump. As he cleared the sea water from his eyes and lungs he noticed his father had kept on pumping.

“Our father who art in heaven” the elder started to pray softly as he pumped.

“HALLOWED BE THE NAME” John Joined in, while pumping.

“THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE” the shouted together praying and pumping until the storm broke.

After the storm John slept. When he awoke he re-wrote the his love letter to Polly, turning it into something the christian he now was could deliver, crossing out profanity and replacing references to obscene sex acts with prayers for marital happiness.

The Lord hath promised good to me,

  His word my hope secures;

He will my shield and portion be

As long as life endures.

John went back into the slave trade. He’d told himself it wasn’t pure evil, after all, he’d been a slave and preferred it to being a free man for a time. It was also quite profitable, the nest egg he was putting away for himself and Polly as a captain was… significant.

But it was hard to ignore that if not pure evil, slavery was 90% evil, ripping people away from communities which loved them and forcing them into work they would never choose.

Some said it was good economics because the cotton or sugar negro’s grew as slaves sold for more on the london markets then what they were making in Africa…. Given that very few of the Handicrafts free negros produced in africa were sold in London, and very little of the sugar or cotton made in the new world was sold in africa, it was hard to get accurate numbers to assess the truth of that claim. But what was wealth if not the ability to buy that which makes you happy, and certainly when people could buy freedom they were willing to pay a lot for it, so slavery would need to be very productive indeed to make up for the wealth it destroyed by taking freedom from people.

Every voyage led to him hating himself more, but he didn’t know how else he could support himself without the slave trade!

He prayed for the courage to quit… And god provided!

A severe stroke left him unable to work aboard ship. By the time he was recovered enough to consider returning to sea, he had found honest(er) work as a tax collector and was finding he enjoyed waking up next to his wife over getting drunk alongside his men. He prayed for the strength to be a better man and the lord sent him the miracle he needed!

It took a few years for him to move his investments out of the slave trade and find work as a minister, but their finally came a day when he was truly good, and truly happy!

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun,

We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise

Than when we first begun.

John earned fame with his hymns, and tried to earn redemption of his previous sins by fighting the evil of slavery.

As he grew older, surrounded by his family and friends, he started to think on mortality and regret his youth. If you have only 80 years to live, that you wasted 27 years living as a foul wretch is a great tragedy. Enough of one to make one doubt eternal salvation, for however he prayed, and however much good he did, would it not be eternally true that in 1743 he was cursing his father, hating his life and being in general an enemy to God himself and his neighbor? And is that not in a sense eternal damnation?

But what if eternal life really is true? Infinity minus 25 or 30 or even 50 is still infinity… so as long as someone learn to love good someday, they will still have an infinite amount of time to be a good person!

Grace truly is Amazing!