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John Newton was born in London and went to sea with his sailor father when he was 11 years old.

He was press ganged into the Royal navy and spent a year aboard HMS Harwich before getting himself transferred onto a slave ship after deciding to try to make his fortune trading slaves off the coast of Guinea.

In March 1748 Newton’s ship was caught in a severe storm in the North Atlantic and Newton later said this was his moment of religious awakening.

Memorial at Pier Head Ferry Terminal

When he returned to England his father’s friend, Liverpool merchant Joseph Manesty, found Newton a post on another slave ship. 

Between 1750 and 1754 he made three further trips as master of slave trading ships from Liverpool to Africa, to the West Indies and back to England.

He kept extensive logs of these trips and wrote a detailed account of life on board the ships.

In 1754 after suffering a convulsive fit he gave up his seafaring life and took a job in Liverpool customs service. He became involved in the evangelical Christian movement and was ordained in 1764.

Her gained a reputation as a preacher and hymn writer and worked with poet William Cowper on a volume of hymns including ‘Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken’ and ‘Amazing Grace’.

In 1788 Newton published a pamphlet called ‘Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade’ which began with an apology for his part in the trade.

He then described what he had witnessed during his time as a slave trader. The first edition sold out  and a copy of the second edition was sent to every MP.

Newton testified at the Privy Council and at parliamentary hearings on slavery. He died at the end of 1807, nine months after parliament voted to abolish the slave trade in the British empire.

Source: BBC History, Abolition of the Slave Trade 1807, The Business of Enslavement By Nigel Pocock and Victoria Cook.

The memorial by artist Stephen Broadbent is located in the Pier Head Ferry Terminal building on Liverpool's World Heritage waterfront.