(warm anticipatory music)
(anticipatory fanfare music)
(anticipatory music)
(bell ringing) (rumbling)
- Why you!
(frolicking music)
Hey, have you seen a little boy, with height like this
with an apple?
- Yeah, over there lad.
- Wait here, ah!
There you are you little blimer!
(anticipatory music)
- Hold on a moment, what is going on here?
- Much obliged Pastor Newton, now if you'll just hold him,
I'll give him the caning he deserves.
- As a point of personal privilege sir, no one shall
be whipped in my presence.
- Then you deal with him.
- What has he done wrong?
- Sir, fighting with the other boys, disobedience,
swearing, he tipped over me stall.
Oh sir, he's a bad seed.
- These are serious charges.
- I'm serious sir, please stand back and let me give
him the caning he deserves.
- Not in my presence Mr. Chapman.
- Fine, he's your problem, you deal with him!
(mumbling), ha.
- Thank you sir.
- Fighting eh, swearing, these are serious charges.
You're Ms. Watson's oldest aren't you?
- Aye, she's me stepmom.
- Hmm, well I was about to go inside for a spot of tea,
would you like to join me.
- Might there be any biscuits?
- Well there might be, let's go see.
(calming music)
So, fighting and swearing.
- You wouldn't understand.
- [Newton] No?
- How could you, you're the parson and all.
- I think I might understand much better than you think.
I was once a little boy myself.
And I think by the time I was your age I had been expelled
from two different schools for fighting and swearing.
- You, never!
- Hmm, yes I wasn't always a church parson you know.
In fact I've been a great many different things in life.
I've probably done things far worse than fighting
and swearing.
- Like what?
- Well I was a cabin boy on a ship, I was a ship's captain
later on, I was even a slave for a while.
- Nah sir, you're leading me on!
- No I'm not, would you like to hear a little of my story?
- Well, are there more biscuits?
- Hah, there might be, yes, and more tea as well.
Of course it was all a very long time ago you understand,
but, I don't think that little boys have really changed
that much do you?
I remember my dear mother as if it were only
a few weeks ago.
She taught me to pray, she taught me to read
by reading me the Scriptures.
She died when I was only six.
My father was a merchant seaman, a captain.
While I'm sure that he loved me in his own way,
I don't recall ever feeling loved by him.
He soon remarried a beautiful young woman
who bore him other children.
She wasn't terribly interested in me and so
he was away at sea and I ended up in boarding school,
it wasn't long before I was expelled from that school
for the same sort of trouble you've been in.
- Do you mean fighting?
- Aye and general disobedience.
When I was young I had this hot core of anger inside of me
that burned all the time, and it was out of control,
I couldn't control my actions always.
- Aye?
- You do understand, don't you?
It wasn't long before I was expelled from the next school
for the same thing and my father decided that the only
thing to be done was to take me to sea and so I went
on a ship with him when I was 11.
(anticipatory music)
We served as cabin boys, carrying and cleaning
and doing whatever any grownup sailor wanted done.
But that burning core of anger was still inside me,
and when it would burn, I would always end up in trouble.
- There, suck on that young master Newton,
maybe you'll think twice about slinging blasphemies
around in me galley.
- [Newton] I took my anger out on the other boys, the ones
who were smaller than I, and ended up in trouble again.
But in spite of the trouble I got into,
I grew into a man aboard merchant ships, and I became
an able-bodied seaman.
- Ship leaves next Wednesday for Jamaica, we can use you
if you'll sign on.
- Aye sir, I will, I'll be visiting in Kent for a few days
but I can be back for Wednesday.
Little did I know how those few days in Kent
would affect the rest of my life, for it was there,
staying with friends of my mother, that I met
the love of my life, my Polly.
Her name was Mary, Mary Catlett, and almost from
the first time I saw her, my heart was a captive.
My secret nickname for her was Polly.
My dear Polly, my beloved.
She was a little younger than I, and her beautiful smile
melted my heart and made a permanent mark upon my soul.
- Mr. Newton, I shall speak plainly, we loved your
dear mother and held her in the highest regard,
Mary is too young yet for any decision, but her father
and I do not object to an understanding provided--
- Yes?
- Provided that when you return from your voyages
we will see some signs of stability and of prospect.
- Prospect?
- Prospect for a living Mr. Newton is of great importance.
- Yes, I shall keep that in mind Mrs. Catlett,
and I shall return.
(frolicking music)
Now I went back to sea with a goal in mind,
to make my way, to find advancement, to make my fortune,
so that I could return and marry my dear Polly.
(bell ringing)
The beautiful memory of her smile, of her sweet face,
got me through many long watches and lonely nights at sea.
But even the memory of her smile could not
keep me from trouble, that hot anger burned inside me still
and would boil over at times.
(anticipatory music) (groaning)
- Send him to the surgery.
And you, you're on report, reduced rations for a week.
- [Newton] And of course I was a seaman at sea, no different
from any other, when it poured I joined heartily
in the sins that waited any sailor.
- Oh! (chattering)
- [Newton] But not all temptations were in port.
- Ah you're a fool if you believe all that blatter.
All of this can be explained by reason and science.
Ah there's no God up there, the rationalists have it right.
- Is that what you do when you're off duty,
read philosophers?
- Aye, there's lots of hours at sea, John.
Lots of time to think, Hobbes, Voltaire.
They make more sense than a pack of priests mumbling Latin.
Ah, nothing but superstition to control the rest of us.
You should read Hobbes, I'll loan you his book, Leviathan.
- [John] And so I too became a sailor-philosopher of sorts.
Spinoza and Hobbes, often made quite a deal of sense.
And just as often made me doubt the simple faith
of my childhood.
One night, at sea, I fell asleep over a book,
and I had the strangest dream, one that would come back
to me again and again throughout my life.
(mysterious calming music)
- As long as you preserve this ring, you will be successful
and happy, but should you lose it or part of it,
you must only expect sorrow and distress.
- You believe that ring is magic?
- As long as I preserve and keep it,
I should be happy and successful.
- Are you knocky boy?
What a simpleton, you believe anything you're told don't ya?
- It seemed right.
- What's right about it, some stranger hands you a ring,
tells you it's magic, it's a talisman, and you believe him?
What a (mumbling)!
Seriously John, how can you buy such claptrap?
You ascribe magical powers to a wee piece of metal,
shaped in a circle.
I'd be ashamed to admit such superstitions to another man.
Don't you understand that by subscribing to
such superstitions it saps your own human powers of reason?
Throw it away.
Go on, throw it away, create your own faith,
take control of your own destiny, go on, throw it away,
go on, go on, show you're a man!
Aye.
(anticipatory music)
(water splashing)
(laughs)
Oh you are a fool, what a (mumbling), believe anything
you're told, but now you're lost, for that ring
contained in it all the mercy (mumbling).
And now it's gone, at your own hand.
(fire crackling)
(moves into sad music)
- [Hooded Man] What did you do with it?
- I threw it away.
(weeping)
I threw it away!
- Where did you throw it?
(water splashing)
I brought it back for you.
No.
If you're to be entrusted with this ring again,
you will soon bring yourself to the same distress,
you're not able to keep it, but, I will preserve it for
you, and whenever it is needful, I will produce it
on your behalf.
- [John] It wasn't long before that voyage was nearing
its end and I would be able to return to Kent
to visit my Polly, as the ship turned home, all my thoughts
had turned to her and the prospect of again seeing
her sweet face.
But it was not to be.
Less than five miles from her house, I encountered
a press gang, these were the days of an impeding war
with France, and the Navy needed fresh men all the time.
Press gangs roamed the country authorized to virtually
kidnap a likely young lad, and press him into
the service of His Majesty's Navy.
- Run, it's a press gang!
(anticipatory music)
(loud thudding)
(ship creaking)
- Aye, he's awake.
Welcome to His Majesty's Navy, what's your name son?
- Ah, John Newton.
We're at sea?
- Aye, a day out of Liverpool, you was the last
conscript brought on board, here drink something,
it'll help you feel better.
- What's the ship?
- HMS Eridge, newly commissioned man-of-war.
Under the command of Captain Carteret.
We're on our way to France to defend King and Country.
We're always fighting with France or Spain,
ever since Eve bit that apple.
- I was on my ways to propose to my beloved.
- Ah that's a shame, four years we'll be out I expect.
- Four years? - Aye.
- Oh...
(foreboding music)
Captured, carried away from my love against my will.
Imprisoned at sea.
Each day on the ocean took me further from Polly,
and increased my resentment.
- Hey Johnny, Johnny, you got to get along with
the other sailors, we've all got our crosses to bear.
- Leave me alone!
The smoldering anger that had always burned in me
was now a fire of resentment.
I obeyed orders, I did my job, but I did so with a solemn
attitude, in my mind God himself had cheated me.
Why did you do this to me?
Am I such a sinner that you just singled me out
for special punishment?
I've nothing to do with you.
(anticipatory music)
But I was no fool, I soon perceived that I had a greater
chance of liberty if I was promoted and so I began to focus
all my rage into hard work and efforts to please
the officers, not because I had any true respect for them,
but because I saw it as my opportunity for a change.
So I started to work hard.
Aye sir!
And I showed officers great respect.
- Newton.
- [John] Aye sir?
- Good job seaman.
- Thank you sir.
At least to their faces.
Fool.
You wish to see me sir?
- Aye, Mr. Newton.
Your father's a merchant captain.
- Aye sir.
- I've heard good things of him, he's written me
asking that I consider you for advancement.
I've spoken to the mate and he says that you have
been an exemplary seaman.
- I try my best sir.
- That's the attitude, what would you say to being promoted
to midshipman?
- Aye sir, I would like that very much.
- Didn't think you'd refuse, so be it, you are promoted
to midshipman.
(warm calming music)
- Being a midshipman meant that I was a sort of apprentice
officer and I was set over my former mates.
Come on you sluggards, get to work!
Do that mopping, I want that cleaned up, (mumbling).
Aye sir, set the topsail, belay the shrouds!
Sails mended, seamen.
While I behaved with perfect form to my superiors,
the rage inside me often was taken out on the sailors
who were now under me, much as I had once bullied smaller
children.
You call that a knot, seaman?
- Aye sir, figure-of-eight.
- It's a throbbing mess!
Take it apart and start again.
- Aye sir...
- Talk back and there'll be no rations for you tonight.
- Aye, sir.
- [John] After some months at sea patrolling the Channel,
and even fighting skirmishes with French ships,
(cannons firing)
(cannonball exploding)
we had to put back into Plymouth for repairs,
and then it was that I had my chance.
- Mr. Newton, while we have repairs I'm going to permit
a rotational shore leave for the seamen.
I'm assigning you to go ashore with them and supervise
to make sure none of desert.
- Aye sir.
It was as if the master had left the cat to guard the cream.
I'll be back at sunset, anyone not here and ready to
return to the ship shall be counted as deserting,
and you'll feel the lash.
- [Seamen] Aye sir!
- All right off with you!
(laughing) (chattering)
Here at last was my chance to go see my Polly.
I wasn't much on thinking things through in those days
and it didn't really occur to me
that desertion would catch up with me.
(anticipatory music)
- John Henry Newton!
I have a warrant for your arrest for the desertion
from His Majesty's Navy!
- Mr. John Newton, charged with desertion from
His Majesty's Royal Navy, a charge punishable
by death when found guilty by court-martial.
Or lesser punishment by a ship's captain
as defined by Article 16 of the Article of War.
Captain, what shall be the punishment?
- He shall be demoted from his present position
and stripped of all rank.
He shall be tied to the main mast and administered
12 lashes with the cat.
Let each of you witness what happen to those who desert
from His Majesty's service.
(drum banging) (whip cracking)
(groaning)
No one shall speak a word to Mr. Newton for seven days.
No one shall show him favor, no one shall share
any ration with him, other than the bread and water
assigned by the galley master.
Are these instructions clear?
- [Seamen] Aye sir!
- You got your own now don't you Mr. High and Mighty?
You got nothing more than what you deserve.
Enjoy your meal, sir.
(foreboding music)
- It's healing up, you can sleep in the hammock from now on.
We'll have you up swabbing the deck in no time.
(sad music)
- Mr. Jensen.
- Master word to Mr. Jensen.
- Mr. Smythe.
- Master word to Mr. Smythe.
- And Mr. Newton.
- But captain, sir?
- I said Mr. Newton, sir.
- Master word to Mr. Newton.
- [John] The captain had conscripted two gunners from
a passing ship, maritime law required that he replaced them
with able-bodied seamen, so that the civilian ship
would not be shorthanded.
This gave Captain Carteret the perfect opportunity
to get rid of some troublemakers.
- Able-Bodied seamen my arse, two here with scurvy
and one barely recovered from the scourge.
Well I can tell ya, you'll feel the cat again
you disobey on this ship.
- [Seamen] Aye sir.
- This is a slave ship, we'll be 18 months on the Triangle.
Serve well and you'll be rewarded, serve poorly
and you'll be punished, understood?
- [Seamen] Aye sir.
- Dismissed!
(anticipatory music)
- [John] I came to like many of the sailors of the Levant.
But the old rage still burned inside me.
But now it was directed all at the captain.
- That's a sloppy bit of work there Mr. Newton.
If that's the way you worked on the Eridge,
no wonder you got flogged.
- Aye listen up mates, I've come up with a little song
about old Mr. Phelps up here.
♫ Did you ever see the lines since you been to sea
♫ Let the good ship rock
♫ A benty-leggy captain with a bent back knee
♫ Wobbling down the dock
♫ Let the good ship roll and rock
♫ Better call a coward, or cower up the wall
♫ Wobbling down the dock
♫ Let the good ship roll and rock
♫ Better call a coward, or cower up the wall
♫ Wobbling down the dock
(anticipatory music)
- We'll anchor at the Banana Islands in Sierra Leone
tomorrow, I'll need a crew of three to row me in
to meet with the trader.
Harkness, Smythe and Newton.
The following day we'll sail to (mumbling) Bay
where we'll load the cargo.
- I like that.
(mumbling) staying here (mumbling).
- You like what you see then?
- Do I, I bet the young trader there lives like a king.
What's not to like.
What do you think Newton?
- Ah you both are daft.
It might be nice for a while.
I wanna get back to England,
and I wanna see my Polly.
- Smythe, Harkness, make ready the boat.
Newton, you stay here with me.
Mr. Campbell, this is Mr. Newton, the young man
I was telling you about.
- It's a pleasure to meet you Mr--
(groaning) (anticipatory music)
- You won't be so pleased once you understand the deal.
I've traded you Mr. Newton, you're gonna stay here
as a servant, how do you like them apples Mr. Funnyman?
- So you've met the lash?
You'll meet again soon enough if you don't serve well.
You're my property now Newton, and there's no way
off this island without me knowledge or me permission.
So don't you go be getting any bright ideas.
You have to be a servant for me wife, serve her well,
do as your told, and your life will be much easier.
But you buck against, and you'll find out just how
hard a life can be.
You guards, take him to Peyai.
She's always wanted to have a white man as a slave.
And now she's got one.
(foreboding music)
- He is not much to look at, is he?
Give him a mat, and chain him behind the house.
First we must break him.
- [John] My defiance, my sins, had all caught up with me.
I was a slave.
They gave me only a little to eat for days,
just enough to drink to keep me alive.
(foreboding music)
- We take the chains off today, you are Peyai's slave.
Do you understand?
You must do exactly as she bids.
If you try to run away, we will hunt you
and chain you, if you disobey you will be whipped.
If you try to run away twice, we will kill you,
slowly, in a way that will make you wish for death to come.
Do you understand?
- Yes.
- [Head Guard] Now go and serve your mistress.
- Ah my little white man.
Oh you must be so terribly hungry, how could you
have treated my little white man so badly?
Here, let me give you some food.
You would like something to eat, wouldn't you?
I'm sure you would, I'm sure you are starving.
The food will taste so good.
(laughing)
- [John] She worked me like a mule.
She seemed to take particular delight in watching me suffer.
Often making me do chores that were simply pointless.
- Ah, very good, now that you have placed the logs here,
put them back and place them exactly where you found them.
(laughing) (ominous music)
Newton, Newton, I want some fresh coconut milk.
Go bring me some.
(monkey screeching)
Newton, Newton!
Newton!
(anticipatory music)
Where is my coconut milk, Newton?
I want my coconut milk now.
Where is he?
- You are useless, even as a slave.
- [John] For a long time I felt nothing but hunger
and despair, I could never forget that I was the lowest
form of life on the island, even the native slaves
had thatched huts to live in.
While I had to sleep on the ground under the stars.
On the other hand, Campbell and Peyai lived in
a great brick house at the center of the island,
I was seldom allowed in the big house.
And then only to do menial labor.
But as long as I obeyed Peyai's abusive commands,
they fed me a little, and I regained some strength
in mind as well as body.
(foreboding music)
One night I lay looking at the expanse of the heavens.
I began to try and see how many constellations I could
identify, how many stars I could name, this became
a nightly game, that became a private area of freedom
for me, and I began to dream again of my dear Polly,
my beautiful Polly.
I wonder if I will ever see her again.
Then one night it seemed to me that a group of stars
formed a circle, a ring, a constellation I had never seen
before and never since.
It may have been my eyes playing a trick
or perhaps a planet had wandered into an unusual position
visible from this latitude but that night I could indeed
see a ring, a ring like the one in my dream.
- You're not able to keep it.
But I will preserve it for you and whenever it is needful
I will produce it on your behalf.
During the days when Peyai was in a mood,
I would work very hard but then there would be hours
of boredom when there was nothing to do.
One day I found a small lime tree growing near the village,
that seemed much like me.
Beating and starving, despairing of life.
I adopted that little tree as my own
and began to take care of it to water and to fertilize it.
I found other seedlings and planted them in what became
my own little garden.
(calming music)
One day, Campbell had me move heavy crates
into the big house, I was alone for a few moments,
and there I came upon a dusty old geometry book.
I took it and hit it under my mat.
I began in my spare time to work geometry problems.
Scratching diagrams in the sand.
Using the sun and the shadow of my little lime tree,
I calculated the latitude and longitude of the islands
we were on.
Which were commonly called the Banana Islands.
Just like the stars, like the little lime tree, it gave
me something to focus on, a space that was mine
and mine alone.
There was little that I could do with the knowledge,
but the exercise did much to keep my mind occupied
and sharp.
One day when I was tending to my little garden
and passing the time with equations written in the sand,
Mr. Campbell and Peyai walked down the path
and caught sight of what I was doing.
- Newton, what are you doing man?
Are you growing your own limes?
- [John] I was terrified that Peyai, as cruel as she was
would make me destroy my little place of sanity.
- Well who knows, maybe one day before those
trees are full grown you can sail back
to England and you can be the captain of your own boat.
Then you can come back here and enjoy the fruits
of your labor.
- Then again perhaps he will become the King of Poland.
(laughing)
- What is this?
Do you understand the mathematics?
- Yes sir, I taught myself.
- Oh, you might not be a complete waste after all.
(foreboding music)
Here are a set of equations, I'd like for you to solve them.
- What is it, a test?
- Aye if you will, I want to see just how good you are
with these mathematics, sit down, sit down.
(anticipatory music)
I'm in need of a clerk to manage me factory at Kittam.
They don't very many people in Sierra Leone who understand
numbers.
- Factory?
- Aye, it's me slave trading post, it's where
the Bombo bring the slaves from the interior
and make them ready for transport to the West Indies.
My brother runs the factory, but he's in need of someone
who can keep the accounts, you will go there,
you will serve him now.
The guard will take you.
(foreboding music)
- At Kittam my life changed dramatically,
I had new clean clothes to wear, Angus Campbell
treated me well, almost as an equal.
(calming music)
The Bombo treated me with respect,
inviting me to their feasts.
(cheerful drumming) (cheering)
I thought of Polly often, before long I had given up
any hope of ever returning to England.
My circumstance had changed from one
of daily despair to one of comfort,
I had all I needed, food, shelter, clothing, respect.
And even women.
Thoughts of England faded, and my life in Kittam
began to envelop every part of my being.
The other settlers even had an expression for it,
they called it going native.
(applauding)
(anticipatory drumming) (singing foreign language)
What are they saying?
- It means freedom.
(foreboding music)
- [John] But then came the day when my entire world
would suddenly change again as if a lightning bolt
had struck.
- Mr. Newton, a man here to see you.
- Mr. Newton, Mr. John Newton.
- Yes.
- I'm Archibald Gother, Captain of the HMS Greyhound,
out of Liverpool.
- Ah, welcome Captain Gother, are you here to pick up
a shipment?
- Not exactly, you see I'm here to take you home.
- Me, what are you talking about?
- Your father commissioned me to find you
and bring you back to England whatever the cost.
I've been stopping at every trading post south of
the Canaries searching for you, and finally here you are!
- My father!
- Mr. Newton!
(foreboding music)
- There she is, the Greyhound.
After this, we got two more ports of call.
To pick up ivory and beeswax.
And then we should set sail for Liverpool,
and for you, home.
- Captain Gother, a month ago I would've told you
I had no hope or even dreams of seeing England again.
I was prepared to live out my days here.
Perhaps marry a native, even have my grave right here
in West Africa, if I believed in God I would say
his hand had brought you here.
- Believe it, for who else can it be?
(warm anticipatory music)
- [John] And so I began my journey home.
Not as a crewman but as a passenger on the Greyhound.
Freed of the duties I was used to, I had many hours
at sea to think, to think about my life,
to think about life itself.
(calming music)
It was during these long hours of leisure
that I discovered a book, The Imitation of Christ
by Thomas a Kempis, I began reading it,
not as a meditational work but as a work of fiction
and entertainment to pass the time.
But as I read the involuntary suggestion came to me.
What if these words were true, what if the faith
of this long dead writer was in fact a reality
that I simply did not understand.
I could not bear the inference as it related to myself.
Dimly remembered Scripture verses came unbidden
to my mind, especially fearful passages that speak
of the judgment of those who know the way of truth
but then depart from it.
What if I were one of them?
What if the faith I had abandoned was in fact
the driving reality of the universe?
What if God's hand had in fact been the moving force
that brought me to this point, brought Gother
to Sierra Leone to rescue me.
What if I had turned my back on the very God
who sought to save me?
I was so caught up in my own thoughts and meditation
that I had not even been aware of the storm that
had engulfed us.
(thunder rumbling)
- All hands on deck John!
(anticipatory music)
- Mister, hey, get that canvas down!
(shouting)
- [Sailor] Pilot down, pilot down!
- Get Newton, get Newton! - I know where he is!
(anticipatory music) (storm brooding)
- God save us!
(calming music)
Thank you.
I thought back then on that powerful recurring dream
that had haunted my life.
- I will preserve it for you, and whenever it is needful,
I will produce it on your behalf.
(calming music)
- [John] We had survived the most terrifying storm
of my life at sea.
But more than that I had a glimmer of new hope,
a spark of faith in my heart, in my darkest moment,
I discovered a chance of reconciliation,
with a God that I had long dismissed as mere fiction.
That was March 10th, 1748.
A day that I would mark for the rest of my life
as the day of my conversion.
(calming music)
There is little doubt that our very cargo had saved us.
The beeswax and the (mumbling) we carried
being both lighter than water.
The Greyhound was so swamped with water that we surely
would've sunk if it were not for the flotation
of the cargo itself.
But was God's hand not present even in this detail?
As we limped back toward England, tripled with only a few
sails, I spent most of my time reading the Scriptures.
Meditating and praying to the Lord for mercy
and instruction.
I began to see my life in a different perspective.
The burning anger that had driven me as a younger man
was now faded.
I began to see that my entire life was that as
the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Not in a figurative way, as most people understand it,
but in the most literal reality.
- [Watcher] Land ho!
- [John] We sighted land on April 7th, the Irish island
of Tory, the next day we landed at Swilly.
Finally I was safely home, after misadventures
that seemed like a storybook.
- So did you see your father?
- No.
See God's ways are very strange.
You see the day I arrived in Liverpool
I discovered that my father had shipped out only the day
before for Canada, he'd been appointed
Governor of York's Fort in Hudson Bay Colony.
I never saw him again.
- How sad.
Did he know that you were safe?
- Oh yes we were able to write one another
so he knew the whole story, but he died there
in Canada and was buried there and I never saw him again.
However, God gave me a new father as it were,
Joseph Manastee who owned the ship that
I had returned on, took me under his wing
and treated me as if I were his own son.
He got me a commission as first mate
on a trade ship and I did very well.
Much of the rebellion in my spirit, the burning anger,
had been washed away in Africa and I no longer found
myself always attracted to trouble.
My new station in life secure, I could at long last
go back to Kent, and to my Polly.
My beloved Polly.
After years of remember her face as in a dream,
I was finally able to marry my dear Polly,
the love of my life.
- According to God's holy ordinance, and thereto,
I give you my truth.
- With this ring I give you my heart.
With my body I give you worship.
And with all of my worldly goods, I thee endow.
In the name of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Amen.
Before long my benefactor Joseph Manastee promoted me
to captain, captain of my own ship.
The Duke of Argyll.
The Duke of Argyll was a slaving ship.
So my job as captain was to take the ship
to the West coast of Africa, very close to
where I had been held captive myself, pick up slaves
there, transport them to the West Indies, there to
exchange them for molasses and rum, and return those
to England, that's why we called it the Triangular Trade.
- Wait, you were a captain of a slave ship?
After you were a slave yourself?
How could you do that?
- You're a very astute young man.
No I was infant in the faith, and I really did not
see the evils of the slave trade at the time.
None of us did, it was considered an honorable way
to make a living.
- But you were held captive, how could you do that
to someone else?
- It was all too easy.
You see attitudes are starting to change now,
but 20 years ago, no one questioned the slave trade,
well save the Quakers and a few Moravian missionaries
in St. Thomas.
Everyone in England that had any money at all,
had it invested in the slave trade it was very profitable.
And where profit is concerned we turn a blind eye, don't we?
All I could see at the time was that as a Christian
ship captain, my job was to safely transport the slaves
from one port to the other and treat them as well
as possible, the same as I might do with a load of cattle.
It wasn't an uncommon on slave ships for almost
a third of them to die on that middle passage.
They were kept chained below decks, fed little food.
I prided myself on the fact that only a few had ever died
on my ships.
(anticipatory music)
I devised a routine of regular exercise for the slaves,
so that each day they would see the sunlight and keep
themselves as fit and healthy as possible.
I insisted with Mr. Manastee that we have sufficient
provisions so that the slaves could maintain
proper nourishment, and not arrive starved.
I did the same with the crew, I was proud that my ship
had one of the best records for delivering slaves
in good health.
We only had a few deaths at see, I felt each one personally
and worked harder on each voyage to make sure
that both crew and cargo stayed healthy and fit.
It may not seem like much, but it was far more
than most captains did in those days.
I engaged the crew in regular times of worship.
Ye shall have a song, as in the night
when a holy solemnity is kept,
and gladness of heart, as when one go with a pipe
to come into the mountain of the Lord,
to the mighty one of Israel.
Let us pray.
(warm anticipatory music)
It was on this journey that I had the chance
to return to the Banana Islands,
to my own place of enslavement.
I was even able to find one of the lime trees
that I had planted with my own hands so many years before.
Then came my third voyage, in 1753, as captain
of The African.
We landed in Ghana to pick up a load of 600 slaves
for transport to Jamaica.
(sad music)
(chains clanging) (chanting)
It was on that voyage that I began to first wonder
about the slave trade.
(sad music)
That would be my last voyage.
The weather looks good.
I'm gonna sail the day after tomorrow.
- I shall miss you terribly, I so wish you did not
have to be gone so long.
- Yes I know.
But it is the nature of the trade.
(groaning)
- John?
John, John!
(ceramic shattering)
(sad music)
- I'm afraid he's suffered a stroke.
- [John] I could no longer command a ship.
- [Samuel] How sad.
- It seemed very hard at the time, but we were
later to understand that it was a blessing from God.
- A blessing?
- Yes a blessing, you see when God closes one way
it is often for a reason that we do not know
or understand, Captain Potter, the man who
took over the ship for me, and his entire crew
were killed on that voyage.
- God preserve us!
- Yes he did preserve us.
And it was a deep lesson because what we thought
was a curse at the time, actually was filled
with much grace.
We moved back to Polly's family home in Kent,
for my recuperation.
(calming music)
During this time living in Kent I had many hours
of leisure, which I often spent outdoors, I had hours
and hours for Bible study and for meditation.
I spent many hours discovering the layers of grace
present in our Lord's redeeming work.
Slowly I regained some of my strength.
But I knew I would never again captain a ship.
However, my knowledge of the business enabled me
to obtain a position as tide-surveyor of Liverpool.
A position of great responsibility.
- Ahoy, (mumbling) surveyor, state your cargo.
- 100 barrels of rum and a hundred barrels of molasses
from the island, 75 barrels...
- [John] I worked for the Custom's Office
and was responsible to inspect incoming ships
to make sure the proper import customs were paid
to the government, even with the remaining weakness
from my stroke, I could still discharge the work
with responsibility, and yet have the free time
to study the scriptures as I desired.
Now that we were settled in a house in Liverpool,
I made the most of my free time.
I determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ
and him crucified as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians.
And I resolved to do nothing that would not serve
that main purpose.
I began to learn Greek, enough to allow me to understand
The New Testament and The Septuagint, and then I began
studying Hebrew the following year.
I never attained a critical skill in any of these
languages, but I had no goal but to truly
and faithfully understand the scriptural words
and phrases so that I could judge for myself
the meaning of any particular passage.
Together with this I kept up a course
of reading the best writers of Christian theology
I could find.
Out of this gradually arose a new desire.
My mother's hope when I was a child was that I should
enter the Ministry.
Now for the first time I began to feel a strong calling
in that direction myself, it was not a calling of
which I felt worthy, but I felt in some ways
I was the perfect person to proclaim
the faithful saying from 1 Timothy.
That Jesus Christ came into the world to save the
chief of sinners.
My life had been full of such remarkable turns,
I seemed selected to show what the Lord could do.
My initial enthusiasm was damped by refusal
after refusal to consider me for ordination.
I did not give up easily, but in rapid order
I was turned down by the established church,
by the Dissenters, by the Methodists,
and by the Presbyterians.
Though not yet ordained I began to preach at churches
around Liverpool, and to be well received.
The Lord bestows many blessings upon his people, but unless
he likewise gives 'em a thankful heart,
they lose much of the comfort
they might have in them, and this is not only a blessing
in itself, but in earnest of more.
King David, when he was peacefully settled in
his kingdom, purposed to express his gratitude
by building a place for the arch.
I began to receive more and more invitations to preach
or to speak about my life experiences.
Polly, Polly read this.
- You're to be the pastor of
the Parish Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Olney?
Oh John, it is an answer to our prayers!
(church bells ringing)
- I had to wait over seven long years,
but finally my dream to server as a parish pastor
would become true.
And that Samuel is how I came to be the pastor
of this parish, of course that was a number of years
ago before you were born.
- It is quite a story.
- Yes and let it be a lesson to you.
For the story that God has in mind for you may
be very different from what you have planned.
The great adventure is finding God's will for your life.
- Oh I did not know you had company.
- Yes this is Samuel, we met in the village.
- Ah, aren't you Ms. Watson's oldest?
- Aye she's me stepmom.
- Oh why don't you join us on Tuesday,
John and I have begun a Bible School for the area children.
- Yes, you'll improve your reading skills and at the same
time learn more about the Bible.
- If you're leading it, then I'll come.
- Oh very good. (laughing)
- John please remember that William Cowper is coming
later to work on the poem.
- Yes I do. - Hmm-mm.
- Mr. Cowper and I are working on some spiritual poems
which can be sung to popular tunes like Black-Eyed Susan
or Mad Robin.
- I know them!
- Of course you do. (laughing)
- You must be off now, Mr. Newton and Mr. Cowper
have some very important work to do.
- Mr. Newton?
- [John] Yes?
- Thanks for telling me your story.
- [John] Well thank you for listening Samuel,
and you'll be here on Tuesday.
- Aye, I'll be here on Tuesday.
- Very good, very good. (laughing)
(warm calming music)
(calming violin music)
- Here it is.
- John Newton?
- Yes here, read it.
- John Newton, Clerk.
Once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa
was by the rich mercy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
preserved, restored and pardoned, and appointed to preach
the faith he had long labored to destroy.
- He changed my life.
A few years later he was called to St. Mary Roman Church
in London.
When I was old enough I joined him there.
And through him I met William Wilberforce.
And joined the movement to abolish the slave trade.
It took years, the bill passed Parliament in 1807,
the same year that Mr. Newton died.
And the same year that you were born Alexandria.
But he lived to see the abolition of the slave trade.
- Oh so he did it?
- Well not he alone, but many working together.
He did change the world.
And he changed my life.
The life of a little boy who was hurt and angry
at the world.
He taught me something of gentleness.
And of God's grace.
And I hope you have a chance to learn of that grace as well.
(warm calming music)
(warm violin music)
(warm calming music)
(warm violin music)