America - My Country, 'Tis of Thee

by Samuel Francis Smith

America, popularly known as My Country, 'Tis of Thee was written by Smith, Lowell Mason arranged and performed it in public for the first time in Boston on July 4, 1831, at a children's Independence Day celebration. It was first published in The Choir in 1832. The melody is from Muzio Clementi's Symphony No. 3, the same as the United Kingdom's national anthem, God Save the Queen. America was the de facto national anthem of the United States until The Star-Spangled Banner was adopted in 1931.

An illustration for the story America - My Country, 'Tis of Thee by the author Samuel Francis Smith — G.H. Whittemore, America, our national hymn, 1884

1

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From ev'ry mountainside
Let freedom ring!

2

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

3

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

4

Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.

Featured in our collection of American Patriotic Songs. Martin Luther King, Jr. recited the first verse towards the end of his legendary I Have a Dream speech in 1963.

We have included verses 8 - 13, written by abolitionist A.G. Duncan in 1843. Visit our African American Library for more abolitionist literature.