Singing for Freedom
A Book by Scott Gac
Meet the Hutchinson
Family Singers, John, Abby, Judson, and Asa. These four siblings from a farming family in
New Hampshire took New England by storm when they chose to sing antislavery music in 1843.
Read a more about Singing for Freedom, including a summary, excerpt, and praise for the book.
News and Events
Catch Scott on Antislavery Music in Boston!
On October 23 and 24, 2009:
Come to Boston to hear the music of antislavery, including songs from the Hutchinson Family Singers, William Lloyd Garrison, and black author William Wells Brown.
See Abolitionism in Black and White: The Anti-Slavery Community in Cambridge and Boston for more detail.
Or click here for the list of events: PDF Schedule for Abolitionism in Black and White
Singing for Freedom in Reviews in American History
The Sound of Antebellum Reform
Karl Hagstrom Miller
Scott Gac. Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth- Century Culture of Antebellum Reform. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. 328 pp. Appendix, notes, and index.
When is an abolition song not an abolition song? When it is heard as an ode to familial love or a declaration of American distinctiveness, a crass commercial ploy or an evocation of the Swiss Alps. Scott Gac’s elegant and provocative portrait of the famous antislavery musicians, the Hutchinson Family Singers, reveals both the power and the limitations of music as a political tool within the reform movements of the 1840s. Read the rest of this entry »
Read Paul Harvey on Singing for Freedom!
Freedom Song. Review of Singing for Freedom: The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Nineteenth-Century Culture of Antebellum Reform. By Books & Culture 14.4 (July-August 2008): p19(1).
Prior to reading this book, why did I know nothing, basically, about the Hutchinson family? And, dear reader, why (in all likelihood) don’t you? Read the rest of this entry »
Singing for Freedom in the American Historical Review »
Review by Matthew Osborn, Journal of the Early Republic »
Read the Review! »
About Scott
Scott’s book on the Hutchinson family reflects his frustration with the reality that too few books successfully capture the importance and vitality of music
in society and that too few academics—the people who are most knowledgeable about historical topics—publish readable books.
Read more about Scott »