American Mission

A sermon was preached once. A hymn was sung again and again: in the meetinghouse, at the singing school, around the table at home.

In this episode of American Mission, "Songs of a Free People: The Hymn Writers Who Carried the Founding Faith," we follow the singers of the founding era, from the Pilgrims' psalter and the Bay Psalm Book to Isaac Watts, William Billings and his anthem "Chester," and Richard Allen and Phillis Wheatley. Most of what early Americans sang was simply praise to Almighty God. But some of their songs taught a free people the source of their liberty, and even the boldest of them gave the victory back to God.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open: "Chester" on the road

00:55 Intro

02:11 "The sweetest melody"

06:09 Isaac Watts in America

11:47 Billings and "Chester"

18:26 "Translated to America"

24:46 Richard Allen and Phillis Wheatley

28:39 So, why did they sing?

31:29 Reflection

34:11 Outro

SELECTED SOURCES

- Edward Winslow, Hypocrisie Unmasked (London, 1646)

- Henry Ainsworth, The Book of Psalmes: Englished both in Prose and Metre (Amsterdam, 1612)

- The Whole Booke of Psalmes (the Bay Psalm Book, Cambridge, 1640)

- Jose (often given as Joseph) Glover, as he signed his 1638 will.

- Isaac Watts, The Psalms of David Imitated; letters of Samuel Davies

- William Billings, The Singing Master's Assistant (Boston, 1778)

- Elihu Mycall's 1781 and Joel Barlow's 1785 American editions of Watts

- Richard Allen's hymnal and writings; poems of Phillis Wheatley

FREE TO READ ONLINE

- The Bay Psalm Book (1640), Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/71002405/

- Isaac Watts, The Psalms of David Imitated (London, 1719): https://archive.org/details/staaaimi00watt

- Elihu Mycall's American edition of Watts (Newburyport, 1781): https://archive.org/details/psalmappliedchriswatt

- Joel Barlow's American edition of Watts (Hartford, 1785): https://archive.org/details/doctorwatts00watt

- The Complete Works of William Billings, Vol. II (The Singing Master's Assistant, 1778), Colonial Society of Massachusetts: https://www.colonialsociety.org/publications/3333/complete-works-william-billings-volume-ii

- Richard Allen's autobiography, Documenting the American South (UNC): https://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/allen/allen.html

VOICES

Narration and historical readings are AI-generated voices (Kokoro and ElevenLabs text-to-speech). Every quoted word comes from a documented hymn, letter or record, and where a story has only been handed down, we say so.

Music: "Chester" (William Billings), U.S. Marine Band and Opus33, public domain; psalm melodies synthesized for the show.

Cover photo: Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe, Pa., HABS (Jack E. Boucher, 1994), Library of Congress.

Questions or corrections: [email protected]

American Mission: Faith, freedom, and the founding of America.

Four men from four different churches, and one revolution that pulled every one of them in. John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian college president, signed the Declaration of Independence. John Peter Muhlenberg, a Shenandoah Valley pastor, became a Continental Army general. Isaac Backus, a Baptist, fought for liberty of conscience and sat in the convention that ratified the Constitution. Francis Asbury, a Methodist preacher sent by John Wesley, stayed in America through the war and helped build a new American church.

In this first episode of American Mission, "Out of the Pulpit: Four Pastors and the Founding," we tell their stories side by side, in their own words, along with George Washington, Elizabeth Backus and the army surgeon James Thacher. Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist and Methodist: four churches, side by side. We close with a reflection and an invitation to open the same Bible they opened.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open: four pastors

02:42 Welcome: out of the pulpit

04:07 John Witherspoon: the signer

08:02 Peter Muhlenberg: the parson-general

14:52 Isaac Backus: conscience

20:50 Francis Asbury: the shepherd who stayed

27:10 What faithfulness required (reflection)

29:34 Outro and further reading

SELECTED SOURCES

- John Witherspoon, The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men (1776)

- James Thacher, Military Journal (1823); Henry A. Muhlenberg's 1849 biography of Peter Muhlenberg

- Isaac Backus, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty (1773), his diary, and his speech in the Massachusetts ratifying convention (1788)

- Francis Asbury, Journal

- George Washington to the Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, New York, [29 May] 1789. The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 2, ed. Dorothy Twohig (1987), pp. 411–412; the bishops' address is in note 1. Founders Online: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-02-02-0297.

VOICES

Narration and historical readings are AI-generated voices (Kokoro text-to-speech; George Washington by ElevenLabs). Every quoted word comes from a documented sermon, letter, journal or record, and where a story has only been handed down, we say so. It's their story, told from the journals, letters and records they left behind.

Music: "Chester" (William Billings), U.S. Marine Band and Opus33, public domain; J. S. Bach, performed by Kimiko Ishizaka (CC0) and the U.S. Air Force Strings (public domain).

Cover photo: Augustus Lutheran Church, Trappe, Pa., HABS (Jack E. Boucher, 1994), Library of Congress.

Questions or corrections: [email protected]