This is prob­ab­ly the most po­pu­lar hymn in the Eng­lish lan­guage. Per­haps it is be­cause its words so well des­cribe the au­thor: John New­ton was a slave trad­er be­fore com­ing to Christ. The Am­er­i­can Pub­lic Broad­cast­ing Sys­tem, with nar­rat­or Bill Moy­ers, made a tel­e­vi­sion doc­u­ment­a­ry about Am­az­ing Grace in 1990.

Ironically, the hymn is sung in Har­ri­et Beech­er Stowe’s 1852 nov­el Un­cle Tom’s Ca­bin by the ti­tu­lar Un­cle Tom, a slave him­self. In ad­di­tion to New­ton’s words, Tom sang the final stan­za be­low. Though that stan­za ap­peared in the 1829 Bap­tist Song­ster, Un­cle Tom’s Ca­bin may be the first time the words When we’ve been there ten thou­sand years are used as part of Amaz­ing Grace.

Wethersfield, Con­nec­ti­cut, where the Bap­tist Song­ster was pu­blished, is on­ly a couple of miles from Stowe’s home town of Hart­ford, Con­nec­ti­cut. In­ter­est­ing­ly, there is al­so a town named New Bri­tain just out­side Hart­ford.

This hymn was sung at the fun­er­al of Am­er­i­can pre­si­dent Ron­ald Rea­gan in 2004.