The Abolitionist History of ‘O Holy Night’
By 1855, it had become increasingly clear that the long series of compromises that preserved slavery in the South was untenable. Dwight himself was an ardent abolitionist. He wrote publicly about his horror that “three or four millions of our human brethren [are] in slavery” and believed that the United States was committing “moral suicide,” according to his biographer, Bill F. Fawcett. Dwight’s translation confronted listeners with the truth that Christ came to free humanity from sin, and therefore aligned the Christian witness with the abolitionist cause that sought to eliminate the evil of chattel slavery. It is thus unsurprising that “O Holy Night” gained fast favor among Northerners during the Civil War.
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