John Brown

Murderer ? Madman ? Martyr ? In the hundred and ten years since John Brown was hanged at Charlestown, Virginia, for his desperate attack on Harpers Ferry, the controversy and the legend have grown to superhuman proportions. As a symbol of rebellion, liberty, civil war, retributive violence, the voice of the oppressed, John Brown has proved a major force in American thought, an increas¬ingly powerful figure in the cause of popular uprisings and militant justice for whites and blacks. This volume pre-sents the positive impact of the man upon American life. Here, in his own words, is the man behind Harpers Ferry, the man behind the literary heritage of poets and writers his legend inspired-revealing the nature of his mind and character, his beliefs and hopes, through letters to his family, friends, business associates, and other writings. Here too is the evidence of men who knew John Brown or who had the opportunity to observe him closely and learn some important aspect of his life and work. Among them are Brown's children, members of his company on the raid, witnesses at his trial, as well as black leader Frederick Douglass, Abolitionists Theodore Parker and Wendell Phillips, writers Emerson and Thoreau. Today it behooves every responsible citizen to understand the significance of John Brown in his day and his meaning for modern America in a time of great civil discontent; he speaks to a nation at the crossroads of change. His work toward the goal of racial equality and freedom is still unfinished.