yr9_Thomas_Newton

=John Newton=

Here are some details about my life...
My child hood was very muddled up. my father was a slave ship captain wanting me to do the same of course because he knew that it was easy money. I was never able to contradict my dad because he was quite a respected man. My dad often took me on to his ship for the middle passage, giving me a taste of what I am going to do myself.

the time on the ships were hard time. I never wanted to go bellow deck. It scared me how people could be treated in this way. I preferred staying on top of the boat. I saw the black men getting whipped, I even had to whip some my self. I thought to my self, that I will never ever do this kind of thing, I would rather help these people.

I had a miserable start at working. My dad got me a job on another slave ship. I had nothing to say. I was never keen to help on the ship, the degradation came quick. I got degraded to the lowest person on the ship. Shortly after I decided to help the poor men suffering from the slave trade. I turned to William Wilberforce.

I helped to abolish the slave trade in these ways...
In 1787 I wrote a tract supporting the campaign, "//Thoughts Upon the African Slave Trade//." Among my great contributions to history I was encouraging William Wilberforce, a Member of Parliament for Hull, to stay in Parliament and "serve God where he was", rather than enter the ministry. Wilberforce heeded the ex-slaveship captain's advice, and spent the next twenty years successfully working for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. As my father was a slave-ship captain I know a lot about how captains handled situations.

I think my contribution is particularly important because without me..
William Wilberforce is just a leader. He is nothing without his fellow companions. He can’t stop the slave trade alone, he needs help from other men. Men who know the conditions that the slaves lived in. I know the conditions, I worked on a ship. After I got degraded I worked bellow deck where I experienced the sufferance of the young Africans. Without me he can’t right any valid information. I am a key to a door that has been forever locked, I am the only one who can open it. Inside is freedom and equality. I went from disgrace to amazing Grace!