The Civil War News & Views Open Discussion Forum

"O Holy Night" - Antebellum Christmas Song

Here's a link to this controversial Christmas song composed in France in 1847.
http://www.erasofelegance.com/arts/music/oholynight.html

In this paragraph, the song's English translation was produced by John S. Dwight of Massachusetts, who, among other things, was an ardent abolistionist.

By 1855, the carol had been published in London, and has been translated into many languages. The best known English translation is "O Holy Night" authored by John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893), a Unitarian minister, an American music critic and journalist who made his home at the Transcendentalist community of Brook Farm, Massachusetts. Dwight felt that this wonderful Christmas song needed to be introduced to America, and he saw something else in the song that moved him beyond the story of the birth of Christ. An ardent abolitionist, Dwight strongly identified with the lines of the third verse: "Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease." The text supported Dwight's own view of slavery in the South. Published in his magazine, Journal of Music, Dwight's English translation of "O Holy Night" quickly found favor in America, especially in the North during the Civil War. By coincidence, Christmas became a legal holiday in Massachusetts the same year as Dwight published his translation.

For those interested in hearing (and singing) Christmas music popular 150 years ago, I ask permission to provide a link to Bobby Horton's "Homespun Songs of the Christmas Season." It's completely instrumental and performed by Bobby in his "homespun" home studio.

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