10 Higgins ⦁ Anglo-American Psalmody manuscript collection that appeared in South Carolina.60 It contains unique, folk-like variations of psalm tunes, and a blend of the English style with a newer, Carolinian approach.61 Supply Belcher followed suit and titled his tune book The Harmony of Maine (1794), indicating a preference for the locality of his music.62 Others, such as William Billings, appealed to a broader population. In The New England PsalmSinger (1770), Billings entitled several tunes with patriotic themes, such as “America,”63 and “Liberty,”64 and included semi-political pieces supporting the American Revolution, such as “Chester.”65 One curious note is that Paul Revere illustrated the first page of The New England Psalm-Singer, further proving Billings’s allegiance to the efforts of the Continental Congress, and the “worship wars” became more than just a church-exclusive issue.66 Billings, by including “continental” in his title of The Continental Harmony (1794), seems to proclaim that the unification of America can be declared through a distinct musical character.67 Billings, then, is less of a “milestone” in American music,68 but rather highlights the message that was endearing the colonists of his day. These political messages had to have had some effect on the general population, as Bond highlights one anecdote about the ways psalm books themselves were used in the American War of Independence: [A]t the Battle of Springfield in New Jersey…when one of the patriot companies ran out of wadding for their muskets, Presbyterian pastor, James Caldwell, whose wife had been shot and killed by the British a few weeks before, ran to the Presbyterian church nearby. He returned with his arms loaded with hymnals. “Fill the British with doctrine from the hymnals,” he cried. “Give ‘em Watts, boys! Put Watts into ‘em, boys!”69 In general, these two approaches to psalm book marketing can be seen as complementing the competing ideas of Federalism and Anti- 60 Marini, 171. 61 Marini, 214–215. 62 Belcher, The Harmony of Maine. 63 Billings, The New England Psalm-Singer, 1. 64 Billings, The New England Psalm-Singer, 9. 65 Billings, The New England Psalm-Singer, 91. 66 Macdougall, 47. 67 Billings, The Continental Harmony. 68 Steel and Hulan, 42. 69 Bond, Poetic Wonder, 124–125.
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