'Slavery Would Have Died of That Music': The Hutchinson Family Singers and the Rise of Popular-Culture Abolitionism in Early Antebellum-Era America, 1842-1850.

The Hutchinsons were abolitionists and they were extremely popular at a time when the movement challenged traditions of American slaver and racism. Slavery was viewed as traditional, and radicalism had no place in America. Perhaps the last place one would expect to find abolitionism would be at the heart of American popular culture. Their story argues for a new approach to abolitionism, one that places it not on the 'radical' margins of American politics or society but at the very center of American popular culture.