The writer of Amazing Grace was involved in the slave trade

Odradek · 2015-06-25 23:08:36

Thank you, I do enjoy ruining everything.

Imipolex G · 2015-06-25 23:39:55

And then became an abolitionist.

Odradek · 2015-06-25 23:45:51

Oh that makes things less horrible then

Imipolex G · 2015-06-26 00:27:21

Not sure if sarcastic, but lighten up, eh?

Alduin · 2015-06-26 15:14:57

Isaac Newton was also involved in the slave trade

Alduin · 2015-06-26 15:15:25

seriously though, fuck the british empire

fuckitfuckitfuckit

Aliroz · 2015-06-26 15:46:24

Yeah, the guy, John Newton, later became an abolitionist (years too late for the slaves he had shipped, though...) and never stopped regretting the horror he had been involved with.

In his Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade (a historically important expose of the conditions of slave ships), he says,

"It will always be a subject
of humiliating reflection to me, that I was once an active instrument in
a business at which my heart now shudders."