Review, Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War

One of the most misunderstood figures in American history is the subject of Tony Horwitz' just-released Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War.

John Brown of course was the New England-born abolitionist who led the failed raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in 1859 in what he hoped would be the first battle in a successful slavery insurrection.

In history textbooks, Brown is given a paragraph or two of attention; he is generally portrayed as an uncompromising radical. Which is, I guess, correct--but there was a lot more to Brown, as Horwitz explains.

The author rightly portrays Brown as anachronistic, but not in a manner you would suspect. Someone with even cursory knowledge of Brown call him a 19th century Old Testament prophet. Brown would have agreed with that assessment. For instance, before leaving to fight in "Bleeding Kansas," Brown formed an organization in Massachusetts to fight slave-catchers and gave it what Horwitz calls "a telling name," the United States League of Gileadites. The Gileadites were allies of Gideon, yes, an Old Testament prophet, who attacked enemies of Israel in the Book of Judges.

"Tragic Prelude," John Brown in center

Was Brown a Gideon? "No single passage of Scripture defined Brown," Horwitz writes, "in the course of his life, he took inspiration from a multitude of biblical figures."

But let's move forward. Brown, unlike even nearly all abolitionists of his time, believed in full equality for blacks. Some Kansas Free Soilers opposed slavery, Buffalo Bill Cody's father, Isaac, was one such man, but he also wanted an all-white Kansas. In the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln favored settling freed slaves in Africa or various Caribbean nations--Lincoln only supported blocking the expansion of slavery--he wasn't an abolitionist a that time. In 1861 Lincoln replaced General John C. Frémont, his party's nominee for president in 1856, after he declared the slaves of Confederate-sympathising Missourians free, although Lincoln was likely correct in his stand that such an action could compel Missouri and the other border states to secede.

Interestingly, Brown wasn't even unconditionally opposed to interracial marriage. While in jail awaiting execution, Horwitz recounts Brown telling a Baltimore reporter "that he was not opposed to [intermarriage], yet he would much prefer a son or daughter of his to marry an industrious and honest negro than an indolent and dishonest white man." Remember, this was 1859.

Horwitz details Brown's early life as a child in frontier Ohio, his numerous financial setbacks as a farmer, and his decision to fight, not just metaphorically, slavery. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Act pushed him, but the armed attacks on anti-slavery Kansans by Missouri "pukes" brought Brown to Kansas Territory to fire back.

Marathon Pundit at Vicksburg

The raid on Harpers Ferry is criticized by Horwitz for its tactical foolishness--he is not alone in beliefs. Frederick Douglass called the town a "trap of steel." I've been to Harpers Ferry, which lies at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers; it's in a deep valley, easy to get into, but hard to escape when armed townspeople and Marines--led by US Army Colonel Robert E. Lee, no less--hold the heights. Brown, who never served in the military, possessed bizarre theories of warfare, such as believing that occupying lowlands gave an advantage to defenders.

Brown may have been wrong about the Harper Ferry raid, but he became a martyr for many northerners. Southerners knew it and were terrified.

Oh, there is an audio book version. Click here for a sample.

Flint Hills, Kansas

"A longtime southern suspicion was now hardening into conviction," Horwitz writes, "The North, at heart, was abolitionist, and its leaders could not be trusted to uphold the constitutional protections afforded slavery."

Before he was hanged, Brown handed a note to one of his guards that read: "I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood."

The Civil War began 16 months later.

Brown's life is certainly worth more than a few paragraphs in a textbook. Which is why I recommend Midnight Rising.

Related post:

Review, Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever