Amazing Grace song and lyrics
Amazing Grace is a well-known Christian hymn. The words were written around 1772 by Englishman John Newton. They first appeared in print in Newton’s Olney Hymns, 1779 that he worked on with William Cowper. John Newton was a slave trader and slave ship captain. Although he wrote the hymn while on board his slave ship, he spoke out against slavery later in life and became an abolitionist.
Newton wrote up his eyewitness accounts of the appalling conditions in which enslaved Africans were held while on board ships. He shared this evidence with William Wilberforce, human rights activist and British member of Parliament, and encouraged him to use it in his fight to get the slave trade abolished. The 2007 movie “Amazing Grace” was inspired by this story of Newton’s involvement with William Wilberforce.
The song is believed to have been written for New Year’s Day 1773. The song has historically been sung to several different tunes, and the melody popularized today is believed to be Scottish or Irish in origin. It is pentatonic and suggests a bagpipe tune; the hymn is frequently performed on bagpipes and has become associated with that instrument, witnessed by the commercial success of the bagpipe version as performed by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
Amazing Grace has become a symbol of hope and divine grace…