Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America

I really do not recall how this book got on my "to read" list, but thankfully it did. John Brown had been treated as a psychotic for his raid on Harper's Ferry by many historians, a madman because he was a white abolitionist who sacrificed the lives of his family and himself for the America's ultimate sin: slavery. He befriended the likes of Fredrick Douglas and Harriet Tubman.I found this book timely as we currently live in divisive times that sometimes feel we can not overcome. "Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America", though revealing about a dark time in America, reminds me that maybe even this most divisive time can be overcome.At a time when white supremacists march to retain statues of heros of the confederacy (the real treasonous beings in my opinion),  this book sets the history right. By using first hand interviews and documents, this biography reveals the lifelong motivation of John Brown totally based on his Christian faith. John Brown even rejected southern slave-holding ministers from coming to offer prayers at the eve of his execution. John Brown stayed faithful to his principles; he was void of the hyprocrisy we often see today.John Brown and his Harper's Ferry raid was the flash point leading to the civil war.  After Harper's Ferry, "the south now found itself driven by a powerful psychological motive and impetus to secede.""It had reminded whites, north and south, that their fates were bound up with the fates of slaves, and it had forced them to imagine themselves in the circumstances of others, and others in their own, across the divide of race.""For Thoreau, the most spiritually corrosive life is lived by relatively privileged members of democratic societies who know in their hearts that their elected government is doing great wrong in their names, who derive personal and national benefit from that wrong, and who—out of convenience, conformity, cynicism, or despair—do nothing to stop or correct it."I end with John Brown's  own words, “I want you to understand that I respect the rights of the poorest and weakest of colored people, oppressed by the slave system, just as much as I do those of the most wealthy and powerful. That is the idea that has moved me, and that alone. We expect no reward, except the satisfaction of endeavoring to do for those in distress and greatly oppressed, as we would be done by.”Truly an emotional read and highly recommended for history buffs.

A very well done bio on John Brown that fills in much of his life that other bios gloss over. This one is less on the actual raid in Harper's Ferry and more into the other periods of his life. He was rated as the leading expert on wool. I was not aware of this, but he was sought out in New York and New England for his expertise in wool, including being sent to Europe to sell wool. He took full advantage of his business network to build his abolitionist network which raised money and munitions to bring to Kansas and then Virginia. Well done book.

Carton not only documents and recreates the acting principles of John Brown, he also puts him in context to his time and culture. To this day I think many are confused or uncertain about the reasons for the Civil War, after reading this book the reader gets a clearer understanding of the many conflicting views held by the people of that time.Carton begins the book by saying that historians have marginalized and labeled John Brown a madman. Certainly John Brown's influence on events should not be portrayed as small, but as a man who acted under ideals that we hold today as true - All men, including Negroes, are created equal - but were at odds with what most people thought in his day, he might indeed be thought a crank outlier.As we read about this conflict between the idealistic John Brown and a society that accepted or even embraced inequality because it was economically, socially or even morally supported we wonder where we would fall in these events.

This is the first book that I've read about John Brown and I'm glad that I waited. Brown's story is a simply amazing one and Carton is the master of every detail. He writes very well, is excellent at telling a story, and, most significantly for me, he is well-versed in the historical period. He has deep knowledge about pre-Civil-War politics, intellectual life and social relations. And he integrates what he knows brilliantly into John Brown's story. Brown emerges as more than the leader of the raid at Harper's Ferry; in this book we come to understand his Christianity, his early life, his family, his values and most particularly his relations with black people, which were perhaps without precedent in America. The book is very moving, though quietly so: Carton doesn't shy away from being critical of John Brown, but eventually his esteem for Brown comes through and it's tough not to be sympathetic. The book was a great pleasure and I felt that I learned a lot from it about race relations past--and present, too.

Patriotic Treason John Brown and the Soul of America by Evan Carton is particularly good for understanding the relationships between John Brown and his children as they struggled to stand up to slavery. Therefore as many of the prior reviews point out, not only was John Brown not a mad man or fanatic, but he and his family and compatriots were incredibly brave and principled. This book shares the human side of this family and friends.This book's approach can help counter the propaganda of the U.S. government and our school system, which since those days has painted John Brown as "mad" in order to dissuade all those who might admire Brown and want to stand up to slavery or its descendent oppressions.Empire's official histories have long tried to convince us that rebels are all misguided nuts.I so enjoyed this book that I bought many copies to give to friends who I thought might read it.See [...]Also [...]