The series was based on the four goals known as the Four Freedoms, which were enunciated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his State of the Union Address on January 6, 1941.

This work was published in the March 13, 1943, issue of The Saturday Evening Post alongside an essay by a prominent thinker of the day, Stephen Vincent Benét.

The painting is generally described as depicting American children being tucked into bed by their parents while the Blitz rages across the Atlantic in the United Kingdom.

Eventually, the series was widely distributed in poster form and became instrumental in the U.S. Government's Second War Bond Drive.

Painted during the bombing of London, it was supposed to say, 'Thank God we can put our children to bed with a feeling of security, knowing they will not be killed in the night.

[12] The United States Department of the Treasury toured Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings around the country after their publication in 1943.

[12] Rockwell's Four Freedoms paintings were also reproduced as commemorative covers for postage stamps sold during the War Bond shows.

[6] Bruce Cole of The Wall Street Journal stated "This reference to the war is so specific that it conveys little about fear or Roosevelt's plan for universal disarmament.