How A Christmas Carol Sparked Radio History And Challenged Slavery

A single carol carried poetry into pulpits, courage into public life, and music into the air for the first time. We follow the unlikely journey of O Holy Night from an 1847 commission in France to a midnight mass debut, where a poet who wasn’t especially devout and a composer of Jewish heritage created a hymn that felt both intimate and immense. Its next chapter belongs to John Sullivan Dwight, the translator who championed the third verse’s fierce moral vision—love as law, peace as gospel, chains broken, oppression ending—turning a Christmas song into an abolitionist banner during a country’s darkest struggle.
Across the episode, we unpack the song’s roots, its lyrical theology, its abolitionist power, and its role in early radio. We reflect on why it remains among the most recorded spirituals and how modern performances—like the a cappella rendition we recommend—spotlight the message at its core: love that liberates. If this story deepens your appreciation for the music you hear every December, share it with a friend, subscribe for more five-minute history dives, and leave a review to tell us which line of the carol speaks to you most.

Here is the link to Oh Holy Night

https://youtu.be/CO6OZIY-lYw?si=bOyD026C58xML2LH

Chapters

• 0:04 Welcome And Morning Setup
• 0:21 The Birth Of O Holy Night
• 1:24 Abolitionist Meaning And U.S. Adoption
• 2:14 1906 Radio Breakthrough And First Broadcast
• 3:43 Lasting Legacy And Listening Recommendation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:04

Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mack. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax, and let me help you start your day right. Today's episode is about O Holy Night. The story of this song is really quite interesting, and it all began back in 1847 when a parish priest in France decided he wanted a new poem for Christmas Mass. So he asked the best poet that he knew. It was a man by the name of Placide Capo, who was not particularly a church going man, but he agreed to the project. The next day, Placide had to go to Paris, and so while riding in the coach, he penned the words for Cantique de Noel. Placide, looking at the words, decided that this was really too good to just stay in poetry form, so he decided to get some music written for it as well. He approached his friend, fellow by the name Adolphe Charles Adams for some help. Adolphy was a man of Jewish heritage, and the words of Cantique de Noel represented a time and a person that he didn't particularly believe in or understand, and yet he quickly went to work and provided a score that went with these words absolutely beautifully. The entire hymn was finished, ready to perform just three weeks later at the midnight mass on Christmas Eve. A few years later the song was translated into English, and John Sullivan White heard it. He decided that he wanted to introduce it to America, and wasn't just because it was about Christmas. You see, John Dwight was an ardent abolitionist, and he strongly identified with the lines of the third verse that said, Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love, and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name all oppression shall cease. This portion of the song really supported Dwight's own view about slavery in the South, so he published O Holy Night in his own magazine, not only to celebrate Christmas, but also to share his beliefs about the evils of slavery. The song immediately was widely celebrated and accepted, especially in the North during the Civil War. And then one of the truly amazing things about the song took place in 1906. A man by the name of Reginald Fezenden, who was a thirty-three-year-old university professor and who had worked extensively with Thomas Edison, did something that many people for a long time had believed to be impossible. He had produced a new type of generator, and when Fezden spoke into a microphone, for the first time in history, a man's voice was broadcast live over the airwaves. And for this auspicious occasion, Reginald chose to read these words. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. He spoke with a clear and strong voice, hoping that it would help this signal to get carried out as far as possible. There were shocked radio operators on ships and astonished wireless operators at newspapers who would normally sit and listen to the Morris Code messages. Instead now, they heard over their tiny speakers the professor reading these words from the Gospel of Luke. Pheasanton was probably unaware of the sensation he was causing on ships and in offices. He couldn't possibly have known that men and women were rushing to their wireless units to catch this Christmas Eve miracle. But after his recitation of the birth of Christ, Phezenton picked up his violin and played O Holy Night, which became the very first piece of music ever to be sent by a radio wave. When the carol ended, so did the broadcast. But not before music had found a new medium that would take it around the world. Since that first time when O Holy Night was sung at Christmas Mass in 1847, it has been sung millions of times in churches in every part of the world. And from that very first musical broadcast by Radio Waves, the Carol has become one of the entertainment industries most recorded and played spiritual songs. It is an absolutely wonderful Christmas hymn. And I'm going to leave you with a version of it that I really like. This one is sung by the a cappella group Home Free. And I have the YouTube link for it there in your show notes today, so you can listen to Home Free singing this on YouTube. I I think you will really enjoy it. Here's O Holy Night. Have a great day, my friends. We'll talk again tomorrow.