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What is the relation of the life and sacrifice of John Brown to the present
freeing of slaves and his consequent death in the attempt, resonate in the
at all by the Community at large, does his life carry an import to the
century and a half after his death, John Brown remains one of the most
was hanged.
the American civil rights movement, what is the memory of John Brown’s
slavery in the entire nation? Is there any recollection of his events at all
spirit among Black peoples that still exists—in particular with the insurrection
today of a black man as President? “Last week, the Pew Research Center
1
Americans polled felt that ‘blacks today can no longer be thought of as single
Has his life and adventures been purloined only to fabricate and manufacture
investigate, and come up with conclusions that show the need to look at the
African American attitude today and its relevant icon John Brown. Or as David
S. Reynolds writes in the subtitle to his book: “John Brown, Abolitionist: The
Man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded Civil Rights.”2
1
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. 18 November 2007. The New York Times. “Dispatches from the
Editor in Chief” Oxford African American Studies Center; The online authority on the
African American experience. New York Times, 18 November 2007. Reprinted with
permission. Archived:4/23/2009, at:
http://www.oxfordaasc.com/public/letters/letter_2.jsp/
2
Reynolds, David S. 2005. John Brown, Abolitionist. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. Title page.
2
Malcolm X and the black liberation movement: “by any means
necessary”
“We are not here at this [Harlem] rally because we have already gained
freedom. No!!!
We are gathered here rallying for the freedom which we have long been
promised, but have as yet not received.”3 The radicalism that Malcolm X
same radical element that forged John Brown and hit raid on Harpers Ferry,
VA., in 1859. The same limitations and possibilities of the Negro situation in
the 1800s that John Brown viewed were similar to those that Malcolm X saw
in the 1900s. Malcolm was a key figure in the change from civil rights to
black power4 John believed that similar circumstances obtained in the 1850s.
Freedom for black Americans in the first-half of the 19th century had several
3
Black Liberation Movement, in, We Are Not What We Seem, by Rod Bush. NY & London:
1999. p. 212.
4
Racial Formation in the United State: From the 1960s to the 1990s. (1994) 2nd ed., Omi,
Michael and Howard Winant. Routledge: NY & London. p. 103.
5
Garrison was also a pacifist and involved in other reform movements. He was deeply
convinced that slavery had to be abolished by moral force.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761559647/William_Lloyd_Garrison.html
3
could be termed a quiet and gradual one to the emancipation of Negro
slaves at the time. Garrison’s approach was of a pacifist nature to free the
Negro. But even for him he was dissatisfied with the lack of momentum of
emancipation of all enslaved African Americans. ‘Moral force’ would not solve
Brown, who had consulted with Garrison on several occasions, could see that
fast enough for John Brown. Garrison, himself was discouraged with the slow
demands today or in the 1960s, John Brown called civil rights for all peoples
God‘s demands for justice and equality. His letters and his pronouncements
upon the issue of slavery show his anger and impatience at the continuing
was God-given to him personally. For Brown, Emanicipation was more than a
political vision—to see the States united—and even more than a moral force
6
His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid.
(1995).Finkelman, Paul (Ed). Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia. p.23.
4
along with townspeople of Concord, fell at his feet when listening declaims
purposes for violent overthrow of the institution of slavery, all helped turn
the country into two camps—one free, the other enslaved. He accepted his
trial and eventual execution as more favorable sign for the elimination of
slavery: “I am worth now infinitely more to die than to live” he had told his
brother.7
The moral force of abolitionism did not carry the day for long. Even William
contemplate a more violent approach to rid the nation of slavery. The violent
approach had rid the Kansas-Missouri territories of the free-states vs. the
in fact he had little contact with African Americans.8 But this is not the
7
Finkelman, op. cit .p 45.
8
Finkelman, p. 301.
9
Soul on Ice (1968). Eldridge Cleaverp.82-83, As Quoted in Blacks on John Brown (1972)
Benjamin Quarles (Ed) Chicago: Univ. of Illinois press, p. 107.
5
Among other African Americans who praised John Brown was Malcolm X,
whom in January 1965
Said:
I don’t go for any nonviolent white liberals…If you are for me and
my problems—
When I say me I mean us, our people—then you have to b e
willing to do as old John Brown did10
What is the revolutionary posture necessary to beget equal rights for all
Americans? Nor is the
Harpers Ferry raid, he (Lincoln) could joke about the disastrous Raid. On
their threats into execution we will hang them as they have hanged old John
today.” 13
10
Malcolm X Speaks, (1965). George Breitman, (ed.) p. 241, As Quoted in Blacks on John
Brown (1972) Benjamin Quarles (Ed) Chicago: Univ. of Illinois press, p. 107.
11
Ransom, Reverdy C. (1906). The Voice of the Negro (Atlanta), October 1906, p. 417. As
quoted in Quarles, (op. cit.), p. 83.
12
Burlingame, Michael. (2008). Abraham Lincoln: A Life. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
University press. vol. 1, p. 576.
13
Burlingame, (idem.) As quoted from: Reminiscences Senator John Ingalls, Washington
Post, 29 June 1890, and from, John James Ingalls, “A Forgotten Chapter of History: Abraham
Lincoln in Kansas in 1859,” New York Sun, 31 May 1891.
6
Lincoln went on to calibrate the questionable value of John Brown’s sacrifice.
Old John Brown has just been executed for treason against a
state. We cannot
object, even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong.
That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could
avail him nothing that he might think himself right. So if
constitutionally we elect a [Republican] President, and therefore
you undertake to destroy the Union, it will be our duty to deal
with you as old John Brown has been dealt with. We shall try to
do our duty. We hope and believe that in no section will a
majority so act as to render such extreme measures necessary.14
14
Burlingame, (idem.) As quoted from CWL, 3:502; i.e., Roy P. Basler et al., eds., Collected
Works of Abraham Lincoln ( 8 vols. Plus index; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University press,
1953-1955)
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the greatest and only virtue”15
What characterizes the Black Power Movement of the 1960s, or the Civil
rights Movements of the Raid and the African Americans of the 1960s? Does
one influence the other sociological and politic happening? How and Why
and Should it have done so? We must ask: What was the nature of John
can tell us something about the Raid that went awry. Brown went to Harpers
Ferry for the sole purpose of waging a successful war. God, who had lead
[sic] him through the blood and fire of Kansas, told him to ‘carry the war into
Africa.’17
The founding of the Black Liberation Movement of the 1960s has its anchor in
racism. 18
Furthermore, it is no accident that the Black Rebellion of the [19]
15
Nudelman, Franny. “The Blood of Millions”: John Brown’s Body, Public Violence, and
Political Community.
American Literary History, Volume 13, Number 4, Winter 2001, pp. 639-670 (Article)
© 2001 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS. p. 639.
16
Milhouse, Phil. (1959). A Footnote to John Brown’s Raid. The Virginia Magazine of History
and Biography, v. 67, no. 4 (Oct. 1959), 396-398. p. 396.
17
Milhouse, Phil. (op. cit.) p. 397.
18
Bennett, Lerone Jr. (1972). The Challenge of Blackness. Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.
p. 149-150 (passim).
19
Bennett, Lerone Jr. (op.cit. p.148.
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