A few months ago I let my readers know that I was reading David Reynolds’ John Brown, Abolitionist : The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights.
I’ve had time to mull on my thoughts about the book. Most importantly, this is a great, important and beautifully written book. I highly recommend it.
The book needs to be understood in context. The South won....
The book needs to be understood in context. The South won the Civil
War. The South rose from the ashes of defeat, gained control of our
political and intellectual institutions and made sure we have all been
taught the Southern version of the Civil War. We were taught that the
South was brave, honorable, defeated by a more populous and
economically overpowering industrial North, reeking havoc and sending
in Carpetbaggers to destroy what was left. One hundred percent wrong.
Reynolds book is a sign that the North is slowly regaining the ability to tell the history from the winner’s side. John Brown was a great hero, an incredibly brave, bold and brilliant man. A great man in American history, worthy of monuments and his own day of memory, when the North is finally able to regain the right to tell the history of the Civil War.
Brown broke with his pacifist allies and his earlier beliefs. He
realized that pacifism had failed to free the slaves and that only
militant action had a chance. Brown used violence because that was the
only way four million slaves would be freed. The South was never going
to change, the Southerners were bullies, belligerent and intransigent.
Brown was right and fortunately for him and the black slaves of
America, Henry David Thoreau recognized Brown’s genius, character and
insight. Thoreau made Brown a hero and a martyr in his day in the
North and the Great Satan of Southern propaganda.
It’s a good book, worth every minute of your time.