Amazing Grace might be the ultimate song of redemption, steeped in two centuries of black history, but its writer had also been a slave ship captain. There is no shortage of versions of Amazing Grace.

Amazing Grace. By James Walvin ... offers a cultural history of the song. Its origins explain its power. The author—the “wretch” of the first verse—was John Newton, an Englishman and ...

Amazing Grace might be the ultimate song of redemption, steeped in two centuries of black history, but its writer had also been a slave ship captain. Amazing Grace was the perfect choice.