By Shelley Gollust
Broadcast: February 27, 2005
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VOICE ONE:
I'm Ray Freeman.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Shirley Griffith with the Special English program, PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Every week we tell about a person important in the history of the United States.
Today, we tell about Julia Ward Howe. She wrote one of the great songs of the American Civil War, the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
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VOICE ONE:
Marching soldiers ... no end to the lines of soldiers marching across the land. They came from the northern states fighting to keep the Union together. And they came from the southern states fighting for a separate Confederate government that would protect their right to have slaves. In summer and winter, the fighting continued. The sun burned like fire. The soldiers marched on. The cold winter winds blew snow in their faces. The soldiers marched on.
The United States was a nation cut in two by a bitter struggle over slavery and a state's right to leave the Union. America's Civil War lasted four years. It destroyed the land. And it destroyed the young men of the nation.
VOICE TWO:
Many stories have been told about the soldiers of the Civil War. They have told of the soldiers’ fear and terror. . .their great and heroic acts. . .how they suffered and died. . .and how they sang before and after battle. One song, more than any other, caught the spirit of the Union soldiers of the North. The song is the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." Here is the first part of the song, sung by Odetta:
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VOICE ONE:
The words are religious. They are like a hymn, a song of praise to God. This is the story of the woman who wrote the song.
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VOICE TWO:
The place was Washington, D.C. The year was eighteen sixty-one. It was a wet winter night. There were thousands of soldiers in the city. The hospitals were full. The field of battle was just across the Potomac River in the southern state of Virginia.
A woman lay asleep in her hotel room. She had had a long, hard day. She had come to Washington to visit the Union troops. The sight and sounds of the soldiers gave her no rest. Even in her sleep she seemed to hear them. She heard their sad voices as they sat beside their fires. She heard them singing. They sang a marching song she knew. It was a song about John Brown, an activist against slavery. The song told about how his body turned to earth in the grave. It told about how his spirit lived on.
VOICE ONE:
The woman's name was Julia Ward Howe. She was a writer and social reformer. She was born in New York City in eighteen nineteen. Her father was a wealthy banker. Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. He was a reformer and teacher of the blind. Julia and Samuel Howe moved to Boston. Missus Howe raised five children. And she published several books of poetry.
VOICE TWO:
Julia Ward Howe and Samuel Gridley Howe were leaders in the movement in America to end slavery. They published an anti-slavery newspaper called the "Commonwealth."
Missus Howe had met John Brown. Like him, she was an anti-slavery activist. She opposed those Americans who used black people as slaves. Unlike him, she did not approve of using violence to end slavery.
In eighteen fifty-nine, John Brown tried to start a revolt of slaves. He led an attack on Harper's Ferry, a town in what was then the state of Virginia. [Editor's note: That area did not become the state of West Virginia until 1863.] The town had a factory that made guns for the army. It also had a storage center for military equipment. The attack on Harper's Ferry failed. John Brown was put on trial for treason. He was found guilty and was executed.
