The Storm That Washed a Slaver Clean

On March 21, 1748, a violent storm nearly swallowed the merchant ship Greyhound in the North Atlantic. John Newton, a twenty-three-year-old slave trader hardened by years of cruelty and blasphemy, found himself lashed to the helm for eleven desperate hours as waves crashed over the deck and the hull splintered around him. Seawater poured into the hold faster than the crew could pump it out.…