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Marley's Reviews > John Brown
John Brown
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I've always been intrested in John Brown and the Raid on Harper's Ferry. I have ancestors who were involved with Brown (though not the raid) and my parents are buried across from Edwin Coppoc who was executed for taking part in it. My gguncle brought Coppoc's body back to Salem, Ohio. I've also not read a lot of W E B DuBois, and as a trained historian I should. So I took this opportunity to catch up a bit.
From all reports, this is not one of DuBois's best books. He wrote it over a long period of time and it is not typical of his work apparently That's OK. I see the flaws, including his emotional attachment to Brown, but still it's a good read. Being influenced by Raymond Massey as John Brown in the movies, I had no idea that Brown has been so "respectable" and well-to-do (except during Panics) most of is life and that he was certainly not crazy. Obsessed with ending slavery--yes. (Frederick Douglass declared that when Brown stayed with him a few weeks he became a total bore unable to talk about anything else but freeing slaves). But crazy? No. I also found it surprising that almost Mansonlike (sorry!) he claimed never to have killed anyone; only taught others how to do it. Well, we'll let that one. I need to read more on Brown, but he sure played is part in Kansas. Brown's bio is full of surprises, the bigget that so many people, many of them prominent such as Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith knew all about the plans for raid (Smith financialy supported Brown to the tune of $1000 and Douglass thought the plan was pure folly), but that nothing happened to any of these people afterwards. Today our Homeland Security thugs would have hauled everyone to the slammer. I was also surprised to read that Brown was apparently a very kind man who loved children and animals.
It's hard to say if the raid could have succeeded if some of Brown's own men hadn't dawddled the day away (and it wasn't crackbrained as we sometmies hear), but it certainly set the stage for the War Between the States (my favored term for the Civil War, since civil wars are something a bit different).
The last few chapters of the book are riveting and elegant (unfortunatley DuBois sets a rather flowering tone through most of the book) and the last chapter, which Debois added decades later, places John Brown in the context of contemporary movements and politics.
Brown was certainly corrrect at the end believing that his execution would bring about what the raid never did.
From all reports, this is not one of DuBois's best books. He wrote it over a long period of time and it is not typical of his work apparently That's OK. I see the flaws, including his emotional attachment to Brown, but still it's a good read. Being influenced by Raymond Massey as John Brown in the movies, I had no idea that Brown has been so "respectable" and well-to-do (except during Panics) most of is life and that he was certainly not crazy. Obsessed with ending slavery--yes. (Frederick Douglass declared that when Brown stayed with him a few weeks he became a total bore unable to talk about anything else but freeing slaves). But crazy? No. I also found it surprising that almost Mansonlike (sorry!) he claimed never to have killed anyone; only taught others how to do it. Well, we'll let that one. I need to read more on Brown, but he sure played is part in Kansas. Brown's bio is full of surprises, the bigget that so many people, many of them prominent such as Frederick Douglass and Gerrit Smith knew all about the plans for raid (Smith financialy supported Brown to the tune of $1000 and Douglass thought the plan was pure folly), but that nothing happened to any of these people afterwards. Today our Homeland Security thugs would have hauled everyone to the slammer. I was also surprised to read that Brown was apparently a very kind man who loved children and animals.
It's hard to say if the raid could have succeeded if some of Brown's own men hadn't dawddled the day away (and it wasn't crackbrained as we sometmies hear), but it certainly set the stage for the War Between the States (my favored term for the Civil War, since civil wars are something a bit different).
The last few chapters of the book are riveting and elegant (unfortunatley DuBois sets a rather flowering tone through most of the book) and the last chapter, which Debois added decades later, places John Brown in the context of contemporary movements and politics.
Brown was certainly corrrect at the end believing that his execution would bring about what the raid never did.
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Reading Progress
January 5, 2016
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Started Reading
January 5, 2016
– Shelved
January 13, 2016
–
Finished Reading
