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The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights
Alfred A. Knopf
April 2005
592 pages
ISBN: 0375411887
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Few historical figures are as intriguing as John Brown, the
controversial Abolitionist who used terrorist tactics
against slavery and single-handedly changed the course of
American history. This brilliant biography of Brown (1800—
1859) by the prize-winning critic and cultural biographer
David S. Reynolds brings to life the Puritan warrior who
gripped slavery by the throat and triggered the Civil War. When does principled resistance become anarchic brutality?
How can a murderer be viewed as a heroic freedom fighter?
The case of John Brown opens windows on these timely
issues. Was Brown an insane criminal or a Christ-like
martyr? A forerunner of Osama bin Laden or of Martin Luther
King, Jr.? David Reynolds sorts through the tangled
evidence and makes some surprising findings. Reynolds demonstrates that Brown’s most violent acts–his
slaughter of unarmed citizens in Kansas, his liberation of
slaves in Missouri, and his dramatic raid, in October 1859,
on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia–were
inspired by the slave revolts, guerilla warfare, and
revolutionary Christianity of the day. He shows us how
Brown seized the nation’s attention, creating sudden unity
in the North, where the Transcendentalists led the way in
sanctifying Brown, and infuriating the South, where
proslavery fire-eaters exploited the Harpers Ferry raid to
whip up a secessionist frenzy. In fascinating detail,
Reynolds recounts how Brown permeated politics and popular
culture during the Civil War and beyond. He reveals the
true depth of Brown’s achievement: not only did Brown spark
the war that ended slavery, but he planted the seeds of the
civil rights movement by making a pioneering demand for
complete social and political equality for America’s ethnic
minorities. A deeply researched and vividly written cultural biography–
a revelation of John Brown and his meaning for America.
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