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, you must know the role the Bible played in shaping our country. Our Founding Fathers, 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: Defining Moments That Shaped Our Enduring Foundation of Faith.

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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
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. We

(02:20):
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

(02:40):
every hour of the day and of the night, 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

(03:01):
the battles of Bunker Hill and Reed's Hill. As 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,

(03:23):
John Quincy, and they hiked to the top 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.

(03:44):
The Patriots were driven back, and it 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. Especially recalled a passage from Psalm sixty
two as she wrote to her husband John in this letter,

(04:08):
the day, perhaps the decisive day, 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

(04:31):
giveth strength and power to his people. 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

(04:54):
to John, saying, Charlestown is laid in ashes. The battle
began upon Aaron True 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,

(05:16):
and be a shield to our dear friends. How many
a fallen. I do not know. The constant rar 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

(05:36):
stood transfixed by the cannons, the gunfire, the charging soldiers,
the dying troops and burning city, and 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,

(06:01):
I saw with my own eyes the fires of Charlestown,
and heard Britannia's thunders in the battle, and 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

(06:22):
the Lord's Prayer every morning before rising from bed in
order to help heal his thoughts. And this was a
practice that he kept for the rest of his life.
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name,
Thy Kingdom.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Come.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
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, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the Power and the
glory forever.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
I'm 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

(07:22):
some of the most perilous times in American history. Here
on our American Stories. Here are in our American Stories,
we bring you inspiring stories of history, sports, business, faith,
and love. Stories from a great and beautiful country that
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(07:44):
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