ebooks Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War by Tony Horwitz in History

Review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. John Brown: Hero or Villain? You Decide...By J-DubbA very balanced presentation of John Brown the man and John Brown the activist. Horwitz presents the material and allows you to draw your own conclusions; which is how history SHOULD be presented.My take away is that John Brown the man was very intelligent but also very irresponsible and egotistical. Somewhat of a charlatan when it came to business ventures as he was always in legal troubles. He did not do an adequate job providing for his wife and and very large family. Violent and dogmatic; he was not the type of steadfast; compassionate father figure one would hope have growing up.His one exceptional redeeming quality seemed to be that he regarded Blacks as co-equals deserving the same rights and privileges he had. This sets him apart from so many other abolitionists of the antebellum period; who wished to end slavery not out of compassion; but out of a desire to end the proliferation of the black race in North America (Lincoln being the most famous of those). One need only look at how Blacks were treated in the north; post Civil War or how all their "northern liberators" treated the Native Americans immediately following the war; to understand the overwhelming motivation behind the anti-slavery movement.A fairly quick and worthwhile read.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Balanced perspectiveBy G. BrozeitJohn Brown is among the most enigmatic figures in American History. Horwitz's dispassionate perspective avoids an agenda-driven view of Brown. Here we meet a difficult man whose passionate hatred of slavery and love of humanity (but not necessarily human beings) drive his motivations.I was struck by the devotion of his followers to him and his cause. The closing chapters on the trial and brief period before his and his followers executions are particularly illuminating. Horwitz's analysis about the significance of Brown's raid is as balanced as could be hoped for.I only wish that more had been written on Brown's earlier life and the events that shaped him. I also would have liked to have learned more about his family and his accomplices. Nevertheless; this is a satisfying read and should be valued by anyone interested in pre-Civil War history.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. No mist or haze (4.25*s)By J. GrattanThough; in no way intended to be a comprehensive history of the times or even of John Brown; this fairly quickly read book again confirms the predominance of the slavery issue in mid-19th century America; often driven by men of fanatical; moralistic outlooks with a predisposition for egregious acts of violence in support of or in opposition to slavery. It is indisputable that the institution of slavery and the treatment of African-Americans have cast a pall across almost all of American history; but it was becoming obvious by the 1830s that American social and political institutions would not be able to contain this huge fault line in America. The author makes a strong case that it was John Brown's failed attempt to lead a slave rebellion at Harper's Ferry in Oct; 1859; that propelled the unstable North/South standoff to the point of no return; sparking a four-year conflagration killing and wounding over one million Americans; surely the most horrific; detestable experience in American history.Brown; born in rural Conn in 1800 into meager circumstances; was a tough; imposing; uncompromising abolitionist; who after frequently moving across the old Northwest region and producing a huge family; found himself swept into the ferocious; "bleeding Kansas" conflict in the mid-1850's. There; now seeing himself as a captain in a fearsome crusade; he led a small band of men in several bloody skirmishes inflicting terrible retribution on pro-slavery forces while seeing his own men; including his own sons; paying terrible prices. But Brown was becoming a mesmerizing national figure; admirably known as "Osawatomie Brown;" a darling of Northeastern abolitionists though he had a bounty on his head.Although the author provides some details concerning Brown's movements among wealthy supporters and sympathizers; his fund-raising; buying and staging supplies; trying to recruit conscripts; and the like; the steps that he took to conceive of a plan to foment a slave rebellion within Africa; Brown's term for the South; are actually quite murky. Beyond logistics; the bigger question is what was Brown actually trying to accomplish? His plan was no more than a collection of haphazard bits and pieces that had absolutely no chance of succeeding; yet; it is not obvious that Brown; a driven fanatic; realized this until abject failure stared him in the face. The author describes in fairly careful detail every misstep that Brown and his men took in the days surrounding the capture of the armory at Harper's Ferry and the loss of it within thirty hours to an overwhelming force resulting in the death of most of his men; including two sons.The murky "facts" of Brown's half-baked assault on Harper's Ferry are almost an irrelevancy to the larger story. No one could have possibly anticipated how this audacious moment in time would resonate throughout the nation. However; even so; had John Brown died in the Harper's Ferry incident with his men; it seems likely that the incident would have receded in the public's mind. Or; had he been declared insane and locked away from the public; again; it is likely he would have been largely forgotten. But that is not what happened. Who could have predicted that Brown could literally recast himself as the conscience of the nation?Brown; though badly wounded in the assault by the US military; comported himself with immense dignity after his capture; continuing as he had done while holding hostages in the armory. There is no doubt that Brown recognized immediately that he had been presented with a last chance to get his message to the public. He knew instinctively that his life would not be spared for long. He was patient and accommodating with the press as he forcefully made quite cogent points that slavery could hardly exist in a nation founded on fundamental liberties and stood in sharp contrast to the morality central to religious precepts. His entire approach; as well as the moral force of his arguments; attracted many of leading intellectuals of the day; including Thoreau and Emerson. Resisting efforts at clemency; rescue; or an insanity defense; Brown seemed to sense that accepting his own death with steely resolve would make the greatest and most lasting statement.As the author notes; if there was any doubt in Southern minds of the existence of resolute individuals in the North who would stop at nothing to eradicate the Southern system; Harper's Ferry ended that fantasy. Southerners stiffened their resolve against the North and towards individuals who even hinted at questioning their way of life. Even though Lincoln was a moderate; his election added to the disaffection already at a fever pitch; essentially lighting the match to the powder keg that Harper's Ferry represented.John Brown is a difficult man to pin down. It is almost impossible to understand how a man who led such an erratic life ended up at Harper's Ferry. His single-mindedness; determination; imperturbability; and willingness to endure personal hardship explain to some degree; but there are hints that Brown suffered from some form of insanity. It almost seems inevitable that the highly discordant events of the times would produce "a" John Brown. Yet; it was "the" John Brown who emerged; who became notorious overnight; remaining so 150 years later. It was he; regardless of how inadvertent or unlikely that may have been; who sliced open the festering slavery wound in the body politic; forcing the nation to see that the wound could no longer be bandaged.Perhaps it is best left; as does the author; to let Frederick Douglass have the last words regarding the significance of John Brown. Speaking in 1881 at Storer College; a black teacher's college founded in 1867 in Harper's Ferry; Douglas acknowledged African-Americans' and his immense debt to John Brown: "His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine - it was as the burning sun to my taper light. I could live for the slave; but he could die for him." Brown's message had such moral resonance that; as Douglass says; Southerners "could kill him; but they could not answer him." The South had one last gasp: "they drew the sword of rebellion and thus made her own; and not Brown's; the lost cause of the century."The story of John Brown almost transcends the book. Even though Brown to some extent remains an enigma; the author tells the amazing story of how one man and a raggedy band of twenty men made America realize it was living a lie in regards to liberty and equality for all men. No mist or haze for Brown: "against truth and light; legislative enactments were mere cobwebs - the pompous emptiness of human pride - the pitiful out-breathings of human nothingness;" as so said by Douglass.Addendum:The author does not specifically address the question of whether the John Brown affair launched the Civil War - but it does lurk. He convincingly demonstrates that John Brown loomed large in the nation's consciousness at a time when gasoline did not need to be poured on the fragile North/South standoff. Obviously; Brown did not explicitly kick off the War; because the Southern states did not secede until over a year after Harper's Ferry. But there seems to be considerable evidence that the South ratcheted up its awareness that abolitionists were coming in some manner; either legislatively or militarily. The South's overreaction to Lincoln's election confirms that. Of all of the Republicans; Lincoln may have been less hostile to the South than any of them. Clearly; he had no intention of ending slavery.Northerners were completely wary of the so-called Slave Power - the disproportionate power that the South had at the Federal level. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850; the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the fiasco in Kansas; and the Dred Scott decision - all added to their feelings. But there were no calls to invade the South; or anything like that. On the other hand; the South was already prone to call for seceding conventions and the like long before John Brown. The South had its "fire-eaters." Any dispassionate examination of what started the Civil War would quickly realize that it was the South who wanted a confrontation of some sort with the North over the slavery issue. That is the context in which the John Brown affair must be examined in terms of its relevancy in kicking off the War.John Brown was; if anything; an emotional event. It fed directly into the hypersensitivity - the paranoia - of the Southern mindset. The South basically went into a mode after the Brown affair of looking for that one action or event that would confirm that the abolitionists were coming. And for them; that was the election of Lincoln; even though they misconstrued his intentions. That is what the author suggests. I think he is correct. Brown took the nation and especially the South to a point from which it could not return - to a point where all that could happen was an explicit turn to separation from the North and all that would follow.Of course; the causes to the Civil War were mostly long-term and deeply rooted in American society. But in 1850s there was steady increase in tensions; which seemed to culminate in the John Brown affair.