Scott Gac

Singing for Freedom, a book by Scott Gac

“Gac’s book is a rare work of cultural history that is a joy to read and that sheds enormous light on the era, suggesting the texture and feel of the time.”

—John Stauffer, Harvard University

“In Singing for Freedom Scott Gac offers readers a remarkable look at the music of America's first great age of reform. The Hutchinson Family Singers gave voice to the popular movement for radical change not unlike the anti-war and pro-Civil Rights musicians of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. But in Gac's artful hands, the family's history reveals much more, showing us the nexus between religion and reform, individualism and the search for community, and the entrepreneurial spirit and moral impulse that defined the era. No one hoping to understand the culture of the 19th century can afford to overlook this book.”

—Carol Berkin, author of Revolutionary Mothers:
Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence

“Scott Gac is a splendid narrative craftsman, schooled in history and musicology. His Singing for Freedom is a unique and compelling book—the first work to carefully uncover the busy, fascinating intersection of music, popular culture, commerce, celebrity, and abolitionism. Behold: a time long before Bob Dylan when lyrics really mattered, and singing abolitionists were rock stars with political clout.”

—David W. Blight, Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition, Yale University

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