| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. By David S. Reynolds. (New York: Knopf, 2005. x, 578 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-375-41188-7.)
In this impressive biography of one of America's more famous antislavery figures, David S. Reynolds constructs a John Brown for twenty-first-century readers. Brown, according to Reynolds, was a terrorist, but a terrorist who was right to attack an entrenched slave system impervious to peaceful tactics. In Reynolds's estimation, Brown—in his self-reliance rather than his violence—should be a hero for those today "who identify with the oppressed" in an America that "has become a vast network of institutions that tend to stifle vigorous challenges from individuals" (p. 505).	1
Reynolds analyzes Brown's religion, his strained relationship with the North's emerging market economy, and his tumultuous family life. Reynolds also examines Brown's plan to invade Virginia, free slaves, and create a black republic in the Appalachian Mountains. He convincingly portrays Brown's motives in the 1856 execution of five proslavery Kansas settlers at Pottawatomie Creek. His account of Brown's 1859 Harpers Ferry raid is riveting. He establishes Brown's significance for abolitionists, Transcendentalists, Republicans, southern secessionists, and twentieth-century black leaders.	. . .

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