In his poem ldquo The Witnesses rdquo Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ndash described a sunken slave ship As he wrote of ldquo skeletons in chains rdquo Longfellow mourned slavery rsquo s countless nameless victims The concluding stanza reads ldquo These are the woes of Slaves They glare from the abyss They cry from unknown graves We are the Witnesses rdquo But who do these witnesses speak to Isn rsquo t such silent testimony futile There is a Witness who sees it all When Cain murdered Abel he pretended nothing had happened ldquo Am I my brother rsquo s keeper rdquo he [... more]

On this episode of Our American Stories the recently enslaved people on the last law-defying slave ship to arrive in America would build their own town and give many freed black Americans a gift beyond measure the memories and ways of life of freedom Support the show https www ouramericanstories com donate See omnystudio com listener for privacy information [... more]

It's often been said that God brings us to the breaking point so that we can see our need for Him and that was certainly the case with this slave-trader turned Pastor known as John Newton His beloved and inspired hymn Amazing Grace is merely a personal recounting of his own astonishing conversion [... more]