John Brown's War Against Slavery

John Brown's War Against Slavery

Abolitionist John Brown’s aborted “war” to free the 3.8 million slaves in the American South before the Civil War remains one of the most dramatic—and enigmatic—chapters in mid-19th-century American history. In John Brown’s War Against Slavery, historian Robert E. McGlone draws on both new and neglected evidence to both reconstruct and analyze this brazen, and ultimately doomed, act of defiance.

Brown had first gained notoriety when he led the Pottawatomie massacre in the hotbed of “Bleeding Kansas” in 1856, which resulted in the murder of five pro-slavery Southerners. McGlone uses this incident to examine Brown’s obsession with slavery—namely his insistence upon violent action, not peaceful protest—and to set the stage for his legendary raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now modern-day West Virginia), three years later.

McGlone begins with a dramatic account of the raid itself, as Brown and 18 young followers trudged toward Harpers Ferry on the night of October 16, 1859. At first, the raid seemed a success. Brown and his small army seized the armory, intending to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal—but within 36 hours, most of Brown’s men had fled, or been killed or captured. Brown himself was later captured by federal forces and was tried and sentenced to death.

Moving beyond his dramatic narrative of the raid and its aftermath, McGlone embarks on a critical analysis of Brown’s actions, as well as his psyche. He critiques misleading sources that either exalt Brown’s heroism or condemn his “monomania” and tendency toward lawlessness. McGlone explains how critical planning errors on Brown’s part led to his capture at Harpers Ferry, but that he calculated the risks of the raid, and was fully prepared to die. And, he shows us how Brown ultimately rescued his cause by going to the gallows with resolution and outward calm. By embracing martyrdom, Brown helped to spread panic in the South and persuaded Northern sympathizers that failure can be noble and political violence righteous. In this, historians consider Brown’s raid a major factor in the North’s willingness to finally go to war in 1861.

What makes John Brown’s War Against Slavery unique is that McGlone looks beyond Brown’s iconic significance to paint a portrait of a man shaped by a wide variety of factors—from the influence of his abolitionist-minded family to the business failures that drove him forward instead of breaking him to his deep-rooted religious and moral beliefs. In this, John Brown becomes much more than the fanatic—or the hero—of popular imagination. He emerges here as the embodiment of the true potential of the “everyman”—and, ultimately, a powerful symbol of the nation itself as it grappled with its very soul.

Hardcover: 464 pages

Publisher: Cambridge Univ. Press ( June 30, 2009 )

Item #: 03-8379

ISBN: 9780521514439

Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 x 0.0 inches

Product Weight: 28.0 ounces