10/16/2026
The story behind "Amazing Grace."
John Newton spent years working on slave ships, and for a time he captained them. He later left that life, became a minister in the English village of Olney, and in his later years wrote against the slave trade.
He wrote "Amazing Grace" to go with his sermon on New Year's Day, 1773, and it was printed in 1779. The tune most of us sing it to wasn't paired with the words until the 1830s, here in America.
Where do you remember first hearing it sung?
This page is in Bold and Easy Hymns of Grace, fifty hymns drawn big enough to color, from The Paper Riot Store.