Tony Horwitz has written a thoroughly researched and eminently readable account of the life of one of history's most complicated and vexing characters. John Brown was a visionary hero ahead of his time. He was also a radical outlaw willing to match violence for violence and even take life in cold blood. He was also a seriously flawed human being whose inflexible nature and single-minded devotion to his cause and utter inability to manage business affairs left his wife and brood of children in near poverty and very likely imperiled his own mission. There is simply no way to reconcile this singularly complex figure into any of the neat packages history has tried to stuff him into - whether hero, madman or villain. Yet this fanatical hero-villain, in the course of a blundered raid, lit the spark that ended slavery and exploded the "Southern Way of Life".
After a brief prologue setting the stage for the raid on Harper's ferry, Horwitz returns to the beginning to trace what is known - and what Brown himself reported - of Brown's childhood and early life. Brown was raised by a strict Calvinist who espoused hard work, piety, strident punishment of sins, and the equality of all people, including blacks - a radical idea at the time, even among abolitionists. John, left motherless at age eight by his mother's death in childbirth, seems to have emulated his father in both temperament and action.
Early in this life, Brown "consecrated" himself to the cause of ending slavery, and he enlisted his wife and sons as a sort of independent army. While his business affairs careened up and down, Brown's passion, determination and independence brought him the attention - and financial support - of wealthy Abolitionist backers from Gerrit Smith to William Lloyd Garrison.
Brown's initial cause was keeping Kansas a free state during the fierce "Bleeding Kansas" period when both pro- and anti-slavery interests were pumping settlers into the new territory. Brown believed, rightly, that there was too little check on the pro-slavery forces who were using violence and intimidation to enforce their way. Brown came to believe that the non-violent response of the anti-slavery movement was inadequate, so in the middle of the night Brown, several of his sons and some allies abducted, killed and apparently mutilated six men believed to be important leaders of the pro-slavery faction. Brown and his allies both denied responsibility and claimed self-defense, but Horwitz dissects these defenses and concludes that the killings were likely carried out to inspire fear and deter future violence. Such an act could justifiably be labeled terrorism, but then, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. But regardless of the effect on Kansas, the effect on Brown's men was devastating. In addition to some physical wounds, some of the participants suffered mental breakdowns and life-long impairment. Brown himself, however, was unscathed and ready to do further battle.
Following the massacre, Brown, now an outlaw and a wanted man, retreated back east where he carried on his crusade in various forms while planning his attack on "Africa", Brown's code word for the slave-holding South. While imploring money from his benefactors and recruiting soldiers to his cause, Brown spoke of raids along the Southern border to free slaves (who would, it was believed, join Brown's band), strike fear into the hearts of slave owners, and make slave holding economically unviable. But little by little, through both coded references and open admission, Brown began to make it clear that something bigger was in the works, although what the something was, and what was the ultimate aim, remained rather muddy even as Brown and his rag-tag band of diverse followers began the march on Harper's Ferry.
Often throughout his life, Brown proclaimed that he received his orders from God. If that were true, then God is a pretty lousy general. Horwitz presents a masterful portrayal of the raid on Harper's Ferry, the bungling involved, the sheer luck that it succeeded as well as it did, and the tragedy along the way. Inadequate men, lack of communication and poor coordination of supplies hampered efforts from the beginning. An early and unintended shooting of a free black man (ironically, by white men seeking to liberate blacks, as Horwitz points out) was an ill omen and aroused the anger of the town. Brown failed to take into account the arrival of a train on the bridge to Harper's Ferry, and he wildly underestimated the support he would receive from both the townsfolk and the freed slaves (what few slaves he actually freed, that is). Furthermore, even once he captured the arsenal, Brown failed to use any of the federal arms or ammunition.
But as big a failure as the raid seemed to be, the aftermath of the raid brought much of the success Brown appeared to be seeking. Brown comported himself with composed dignity and did not flinch at the prospect of death. He willingly, even eagerly, met and spoke with all who sought him out (except his own wife, that is), especially pro-slavery advocates. Through inspired and eloquent speeches, writings and conversations, Brown sought to propound his vision of a just and equal society without the evils of slavery and oppression. He sought to make Southerners see the error of their ways and convert to Abolition. He largely failed on that count, but he did impress his opponents with his courage and conviction. He also appealed to Northern Abolitionists to bring pressure to bear against the iniquity of slavery.
Horwitz speculates - compellingly - that this platform to speak and be heard is what lay beneath the raid all along. Brown could never have expected to hold Harper's Ferry or free very many slaves. And ultimately, despite his violent acts, Brown was too conflicted and ambivalent about using violence to end slavery. Brown claimed not to want to take life, but the one life he could offer was his own. Through his martyrdom, Brown hoped to achieve what he and his meager band of followers could not otherwise achieve. And through is dignity and courage in his final days and his clarion call to the decency of all humans, he did in fact, in many ways, achieve what his violence did not.
Wrestling with the morality of the life of John Brown is no easy task. Is violence ever acceptable, even to end a great injustice? What about the men Brown lured into his fanatical plot without fully informing them of his plans - was it right to make martyrs of them too? What about free black porter Heyward Shepherd and the other innocent victims? And what right did Brown have to make his wife a widow and leave his children fatherless? Furthermore, this wrestling has to take into account the conditions and realities of Brown's time. It's easy now to point to the actual end of slavery as justification, but Brown had no way of knowing when or if slavery might end or how his actions might affect those bound in slavery. Following Brown's raid, life for slaves got a good deal harder, as slave owners became even more fearful of rebellion. Had the Civil War not ended slavery, Brown's actions would have been no favor to blacks bound in that "peculiar institution".
These issues and many more will never be neat and clean, but Horwitz does an excellent job of wrestling with them. Horwitz rules out the madman option, but wavers somewhat between the hero and villain, ultimately landing on the hero side. However, he pulls no punches and makes no attempt to tidy up history or present Brown as an unblemished hero. Horwitz closely examines the historical facts, dissects them this way and that, and paints a painfully honest and detailed portrait of villain-hero John Brown against the ugly backdrop of the times in which he lived. Highly recommended for all adults as well as kids who are mature enough and ready to wrestle with weighty, ambiguous moral issues.
