In 1779, John Newton was like a soul without a compass; he didn’t believe in God, nor anything relating to a church. He was determined to build a large enough amount of money so that he could marry his fiance., by whatever corrupt and violent means necessary. When his Negro overseer was mortally wounded in a storm on the Atlantic Ocean, John came face to face with his unrighteous beliefs. As the overseer lay dying, he said, “I am a man. Am I not your brother?”
John realized that he needed to stop bringing African slaves to the New World. He began to read the Bible his fiance gave him and soon knew that even as a slave ship captain, he could be forgiven by God for his sins. As he continued to read through the night, he realized he was loved, and he needed to have faith to hold unto God, even if it meant he couldn’t offer his fiance a financial future.
Change this scene of forgiveness and love to Robert who witnessed the brutality of Newton’s ship. He had been caught with his mother by slave traders, and he watched as she drifted away in death on the typhus ship. He watched her body being thrown overboard; eating after that situation was nearly impossible. The overseer finally got Robert to eat his gruel by singing a “home song” to him. Slowly, Robert improved, and John offered him a bed in his own quarters. When the ship reached Charleston, South Carolina, John gave Robert his officer’s jacket so he wouldn’t feel so naked on the seller’s block.
Seventy years later, Robert’s great grandson, Nate, wanted to help his family run away from the White plantation where they were enslaved. It’s hard to imagine being a slave and not having any freedoms, only being allowed to do what the master wanted you to do, and witnessing the rapes of many African women by their masters. Hope can be found even in the darkest of places; with a great deal of fear, Nate took his family through many dangerous situations on the Underground Railroad to a final destination of Canada.
The White masters often sent vicious trappers after the runaways; they either returned the slaves alive or dead. One of the trappers that the master sent after Nate’s family almost killed him, but he was saved by one of the other trappers, who had come to the realization that slavery was evil. As Nate was about to kill that trapper with his own gun, Nate’s wife cried out to him. “You’ll never be free if you kill him.” As the trapper was dying from a wound to his stomach, he gave Nate the money he would have kept if he had taken the family back to the master. Struggling to stay alive, the trapper said to Nate, “Make a life for yourself and remember to love God.”
Nate picked up the Bible his mother had left him and read the inside cover of the book. His mother said, “Have faith and hold onto God.” He walked across the creek to his family and continued onto the final destination. He realized that every freedom has a consequence and every consequence is a responsibility to follow through on. Forgiveness is God’s true freedom and one that we need to be thankful for.
This was the story of the song entitled “Amazing Grace.” John Newton wrote it in the midst of a violent storm on the Atlantic Ocean, where his faith was born out of love for his Negro overseer and a young boy named Robert who lost his best friend, his mother. From our strength, determination, and perseverance will come wonderful things, the greatest of these being love for our fellowman and another a faith strong enough to withstand the greatest storms.
Move forward to January 20, 2021, Inauguration Day for Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris. “Amazing Grace” was heard again, sung by a country singer, Garth Brooks, whose only request was that we sing it together, united as one nation. There were no hostilities on this special day, and our nation could breathe in the freedom and love of a new administration. The sweet sound of a beautiful legend saved America. We have been lost for far too long, but we are beginning to find our way. We have been blind to all of the evils of the world, but now we see God’s abiding love for us as a nation. As we come together as One Nation under God, let us never take for-granted the freedoms that He gave us and the grace to know right from wrong.
Anna Hartt
