I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

The allusions to “cannon thundering” (Line 15) and “the South” (Line 17), along with its date of composition, show that “Christmas Bells” clearly has the American Civil War as its backdrop. The American Civil War lasted from 1861-1865 as the Union, or the North, battled those states called the Confederacy, the majority of which were in the South. The war came out of a political disagreement about whether newly acquired territories gained in United States expansion would allow slavery. Many Northern abolitionists opposed slavery as an oppressive practice on moral grounds, calling for its dissolution, while the Confederacy felt it was a necessary practice to assure economic viability. When Northerners succeeded in curbing slavery, spurred on by Abraham Lincoln’s presidential election win, Southern states seceded from the Union, elected Jefferson Davis as their president, and set up their own government. The two sides fought intensely from 1861 to 1865. The combat was brutal, with approximately 1 million soldiers losing their lives. Longfellow, along with several other prominent New England authors—Henry David Thoreau, Julia Ward Howe, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Harriet Beecher Stowe—wrote work with firm abolitionist messages.

In 1863, when Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, giving freedom to 4 million enslaved people, Longfellow marked it as “a great day” (Raffa, Guy. “Longfellow’s Great Liberators: Abraham Lincoln and Dante Alighieri.” Not Even Past, 2017). He went on to clearly articulate his views on African American rights a year later: “Until the black man is put upon the same footing as the white, in the recognition of his rights, we shall not succeed, and what is worse, we shall not deserve success” (Raffa), a sentiment echoed in the concluding stanza of “Christmas Bells.” Yet, Longfellow also had overall sympathy for civilians affected by the war, stating: “Every shell from the cannon’s mouth bursts not only on the battle-field, but in far-away homes, North or South, carrying Dismay and death. What an infernal thing war is!” (Raffa). Interestingly, Longfellow’s poem was written while the war was still occurring, so he did not foresee its conclusion and consequences.