Description
Book SynopsisThis biography offers fresh insight into the life and actions of this renowned figure in American history.
Trade ReviewDecaro sets out to establish Brown’s legacy as one grounded in an alternative evangelical tradition that decried pacifism, developed a doctrine of holy war, and called any church that did not actively work for abolition anti-Christian. He places Brown in his religious milieu, reforming the legacy of this religious extremist. * Library Journal *
A welcome addition to the literature on John Brown's life and legacy. One of the book's strongest features is its detailed description of Brown's longstanding contacts and friendships with black Americans. But DeCaros most important achievement is to have explored in greater depth and more sympathetically than any previous scholar the precise nature of the religious convictions that shaped Brown's career as a freedom fighter. -- Gerald W. McFarland,author of A Scattered People: An American Family Moves West
Skillfully contextualizes John Brown's religious and abolitionist development within his Calvinist background and the evangelical movement of ninteenth-century America. -- Jean Libby,editor of John Brown Mysteries
Traces the religious and political trajectory of John Brown not as the fanatic bent on waging war against the United States, but as a religious revolutionary, like Malcolm X, following a biblical command that places justice before peace. Louis DeCaros fresh interpretation of Brown and his time does more than rescue a maligned figure in U.S. history from an army of scholarly foes. He offers a deeply nuanced character profile of Brown and his family, a charismatic abolitionist who took his Bible seriously, and shook his country the better to shake slavery out of it. No future study of John Brown can ignore this book. -- William Loren Katz,author of Eyewitness: A Living Documentary of the African American Contribution to American History
A welcome addition to the literature of John Brown. * Publishers Weekly *
Table of ContentsI A Power above Ourselves1 "And They Had No Comforter": John Brown and the "Everlasting Negro" Question 2 John Brown's Heritage 3 Revival, Resistance, and Abolition in the Time of John Brown II A Good Cause and a Sovereign God 4 The Early Years: Autobiography and History5 Millennial Hopes, Abolitionist Awakenings 6 "This Path of Life": From Ohio to Pennsylvania III Providence and Principle 7 Citizen Brown's Calvinist Community 8 The Pursuit of Success and the Disappointments of Providence 9 Of Vows and Tears IV In Times of Dif?culty10 Belted Knights and Practical Shepherds11 "We Are Tossing Up and Down" 12 The Practical Shepherd in Spring?eld V Big Dif?culties and Firm Footholds 13 A Cold and Snowy Canaan Land 14 "So We Go": Failed Ventures and Disappointing Outcomes15 "All the Encouragement in My Power" VI Enduring Hardness 16 Ohio and Beyond 17 "Kansas the Outpost": An Overview 18 Pottawatomie and the Fatherless VII I Will Raise a Storm 19 "The Language of Providence" 20 "This Spark of Fire" 21 "My Public Murder"
