Abigail Adams and Her 7-Year-Old Son John Quincy Witnessed First-hand The Battle of Bunker Hill: 100 Bible Verses That Made America

On this episode of Our American Stories, if you want to know about the history of America, it is imperative that you know the role that the Bible played in shaping our country. Our Founding Fathers—both Christian and non-Christian—were heavily influenced by the Bible. Here to share another story is Robert Morgan, author of 100 Bible Verses That Made America.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American People.
To search for the Our American Stories podcast, go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. If
you want to know about the history of America, it
is imperative that you know the role that the Bible

(00:31):
played in shaping our country. Our founding fathers, both Christian
and non Christian, were heavily influenced by the Bible. Here
to share another story is Robert Morgan, who's the author
of one hundred Bible verses that made America, defining moments
that shaped our enduring foundation of faith. Let's take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
When the Puritans migrated to America and the early sixteen hundreds,
they established the city of Boston. The first Englishman to
inhabit Boston was a pastor and a chaplain named William Blaxton,
who named the city for his hometown, the city of
Boston in Lincolnshire in England. Over the next one hundred years,

(01:12):
Boston grew into a thriving community that increasingly resented British domination.
It all culminated, as we know, in the famous Boston
Tea Party of seventeen seventy three. After the Boston Tea Party,
the British issued additional punitive measures against Boston, and this
prompted the colonies to convene the First Continental Congress. In

(01:36):
seventeen seventy four, John Adams of Massachusetts traveled to Philadelphia,
leaving his wife, Abigail, and his children in Braintree, near Boston,
which was quickly becoming a battle zoned. British troops began
swarming the area and shots were fired nearby Lexington and Concord.

(01:57):
Abigail was the daughter of a minister, and she was
forced to be reckoned with, but she grew increasingly anxious
for her children's safety. On June fifteenth, she wrote to
her husband, we now expect our seacoast to be ravaged.
Perhaps the very next letter I will write to you
will inform you that I'm driven away from our quiet cottage.

(02:20):
We live in a continual expectation of alarm, courage. We
have an abundance but gunpowder. Where will we get a
sufficient supply? Seven year old John Quincy Adams felt the
strain too. He later wrote, my mother, with her infant
children dwelt every hour of the day and of the night,

(02:43):
liable to be butchered in cold blood, or taken and
carried into Boston as hostages by foraging or marooting detachments
of British soldiers. On June the seventeenth, Abigail and her
children heard the guns, and then that marked the beginning
of the battles of Bunker Hill and Reid's Hill. As

(03:05):
the British started up the slopes, a command passed through
the American lines. Don't shoot until you see the white
of their eyes. When the guns began firing, the sound
travel for miles. Hearing the roar of the cannons and
the sounds of the battle, Abigail took her seven year
old son, John Quincy, and they hiked to the top

(03:26):
of nearby Penn Hill, where they watched the battle unfold.
Across the bay. The Boston neighborhood of Charlestown went up
in flames, and the winds blew the heat and smoke
into their faces. Waves of British soldiers fell while charging
up the hill. The Patriots were driven back, and it

(03:46):
was the bloodiest battle thus far in the war. The
next morning, Abigail wrote to John and in the middle
of her letter, she burst into some of the cherished
Bible verses that were sustaining her. She especially recalled a
passage from Psalm sixty two as she wrote to her
husband John in this letter, the day, perhaps the decisive day,

(04:10):
has come on which the fate of America depends. My
bursting heart must give vent at my pen. I've just
heard that our dear friend, doctor Warren is no more
but fell gloriously fighting. The race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong. But the God of
Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people.

(04:35):
And then she quoted from Psalm sixty two the verse
that she was leaning on for strength and support. Trust
in Him at all times, You people, pour out your
hearts before Him, for God is a refuge for us.
She continued writing to John, saying, Charlestown is laid in ashes.

(04:58):
The battle began upon aaron, true arrangements upon Bunker's Hill
Saturday morning, about three o'clock has not ceased yet. It
is expected they will come out over the neck tonight,
and a dreadful battle must ensue. Almighty God, cover the
heads of our countrymen, and be a shield to our
dear friends, how many a fallen I do not know.

(05:21):
The constant roar of the cannon is so distressing that
we cannot eat, or drink or sleep well. John Quincy
Adams never forgot the carnage that filled his seven year
old eyes as he stood, transfixed by the cannons, the gunfire,
the charging soldiers, the dying troops and burning city, and

(05:44):
the unfolding history. He said it later made an impression
upon his mind that haunted him for the rest of
his life. Even in old age, he can never bring
himself to attend celebrations associated with the events of that day.
He said, I saw with my own eyes the fires
of Charlestown, and heard Britannia's thunders in the battle, and

(06:08):
witnessed the tears of my mother and mingled them with
my own. Abigail finally turned and left the bloody panorama,
leading her son back home, where she made him promise
to repeat the Lord's Prayer every morning before rising from
bed in order to help heal his thoughts. And this

(06:30):
was a practice that he kept for the rest of
his life. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name, Thy Kingdom, Come, Thy will be done on
earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day
our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors, And lead us not at a temptation,

(06:54):
but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever. I'm out.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
And a terrific job by the production, editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hangler, and a special thanks to
Robert Morgan. He's the author of one hundred Bible verses
that made America. The story of Abigail Adams and John
Quincy Adams and how the Bible helped them through some
of the most perilous times in American history. Here on

(07:27):
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(07:47):
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