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Story of the Hutchinsons,  Vol. 1:   Introduction,  pp. xv-xviii.

It is no light task to write an introduction to this book of the Hutchinsons. They were a unique and striking family. In personal appearance and in moral and intellectual qualities, they were in the strictest sense, of the best New England mould. More than fifty years ago they were introduced to the country from the granite hills of New Hampshire, through the columns of The Herald of Freedom, by Nathaniel P. Rogers, one of the most brilliant and gifted writers of that day. He was an Abolitionist of the Abolitionists, and in thrilling words and at the very top of his sublime enthusiasm in that cause, he hailed with welcome the Hutchinsons, as did all Abolitionists, regarding them as a splendid acquisition to that then unpopular and persecuted cause.

To write worthily an introduction to this book, the record of their career, one should have, in some measure, the genius of the editor of The Herald of Freedom, for the Hutchinsons should be handed down to future generations in a light no less glorious at the sunset, than that which gilded their sky in the morning of their advent. The Hutchinsons were indeed an acquisition to the anti-slavery cause and to all other good causes. They were, when in England, fittingly called by Mary Howitt, "a band of young apostles." They sang for freedom, for temperance, for peace, for moral and social reform.

"It is no light task to write an introduction to this book":   According to John W. Hutchinson, "A little later in February, Frederick Douglass, who but a few weeks before had written the introduction to this book, died at his home in Washington [Wednesday, February 20, 1895]." [John Hutchinson (1896, 2:228).]

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In their earlier days they were well described as a "nest of brothers with a sister in it." Judson, John, Asa and Abby were their names. They brought to the various causes which they served, the divinest gift that heaven has bestowed upon man, the gift of music  -  the superb talent to touch the hearts and stir the souls of men to noble ends, even when such hearts were encased with the hardest pride and selfishness.

No matter how high, no matter how low, this gift of music has, like the all-pervading love of God, power to reach, melt and fuse the souls of men into a sense of common kinship, common brotherhood and a common destiny. While it is of no language, it is of all languages, and speaks to the souls of men of all nations, kindreds, tongues and peoples, and like the overhanging firmament ever speaks forth the glory of God. To no singers whom I have ever heard was there given a larger measure of this celestial quality. Men and women who, at that early day, heard the Hutchinsons and who had heard other great singers, were compelled to confess that, in all their experience, they had never heard human voices blended into a concord of sounds purer or sweeter than those of this family.

There was something almost miraculous in the singing of these three brothers and one sister. I have heard them, in a time of great excitement on the slavery question, calm to silence and order a turbulent and determined mob when it was in full blast and fiercely bent upon breaking up an anti-slavery meeting. We had, in the old Tabernacle in Broadway, New York, an instance of this power. One of the most furious mobs that I ever saw, confronted the American Anti-Slavery Society and determined that its speakers should not be heard. It stamped, shouted, whistled, howled, hooted and pushed and swayed the multitude to and fro in confusion and dismay. It silenced the

"In their earlier days they were well described":   N. P. Willis first called the Hutchinson Family quartet "a nest of brothers with a sister in it" in the New York Evening Mirror no later than 1845. His phrase was used countless times for years to come.

"I have heard them, in a time of great excitement on the slavery question":   Evidently this was the May 1850 American Antislavery Society anniversary. [John Hutchinson (1896, 1:262-263).]  The mob on that occasion was led by the notorious Isaiah Rynders.

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platform and threatened the speakers with violence; and when neither the prophet-like solemnity of Garrison nor the sublime eloquence of Phillips could silence that tempest of rowdyism and wrath, the voices of this family came down from the gallery of the old Tabernacle, like a message from the sky, and in an instant all was hushed and silent. Every eye was raised and every ear attent. The stillness was like that which comes immediately after the vivid flash of forked lightning and the crash of its thunder.

But the Hutchinsons were not merely a family of singers and sentimental reformers; they were actuated and guided by high moral principle. The world had much for them and courted them. It had wealth and popularity; but neither could seduce them from their steadfast convictions, nor could persecution drive them from the side of unpopular truth. Their fine talent for music could have secured for them wealth and fame; but, like Moses, they preferred to suffer affliction in the cause of justice and liberty than to enjoy the fruits of a concession to slavery. Jesse, the eldest brother, had the gift of verse as well as that of music; and well did he use it. He wrote on the spur of the moment and with surprising facility. He could frame words fitted to the immediate occasion; and these were sung with telling effect by the rest of the family. In answer to pro-slavery threats they sang

While Jesse made no literary pretensions, some of his verses were as apt as any found in the songs of Robert Nichol or of Robert Burns.

"Jesse, the eldest brother, had the gift of verse":   It seems probable that most of the writings of Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., are lost. So the testimonials we have, such as this one, to Jesse's talent for impromptu writing of lyrics are important records of his career. Much of his reputation as a lyricist is based on his ability to capture the moment, at the moment, in verse.

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Those who heard Judson, John and Asa and their angelic sister Abby sing, heard much, but heard nothing in comparison to what I heard in their home. I was permitted to hear the whole "Tribe of Jesse" sing in their old family mansion, where thirteen of the family poured out their souls together in pious song, till it appeared as if the very roof were rising skyward. The scene of that hour has been present to me during all these fifty years, and I still recall it as one of the most sublime and glorious hours I ever experienced.

I saw this family in all the vicissitudes of its career, covering a period of more than half a century. I saw it in times that tried men's souls. I saw it in peace and I saw it in war; but I never saw one of its members falter or flinch before any duty, whether social or patriotic; and it is a source of more satisfaction than I can express, to have lived, as I have now done, to bear this high testimony to the character of the Hutchinsons, especially now that only one of them has survived to write this book in perpetuation of their precious memory.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

"Those who heard Judson, John and Asa and their angelic sister Abby sing":   I wonder whether this might be the June 1843 visit that John W. Hutchinson mentioned in John Hutchinson (1896, 1:89).

Notes by Alan Lewis