Singing for freedom

"In the two decades before the Civil War, the Hutchinson Family Singers of New Hampshire became America's most popular musical act. From a Baptist revival upbringing, John, Asa, Judson, and Abby Hutchinson transformed themselves in the 1840s into national icons, taking up the reform issues of their age and singing out especially for temperance and antislavery reform. This book is the first to tell the full story of the Hutchinsons, how they contributed to the transformation of American culture, and how they originated the marketable American protest song."--Jacket.