The Battle Hymn of the Republic

During a visit to a military camp camp the American Unitarian and slavery reformer Julia Ward Howe wrote The Battle Hymn of the Republic. She scribbled the words at night, in the darkness of her tent, to the melody of "John Brown's Body". It became the marching song for the union forces in the Civil War. The tune includes the line “As he (Christ) died to make men holy, let us die to make men free”, which is an explicit reference to the fight to end slavery.