John Brown, an American Legend

Creating the John Brown Legend: Emerson, Thoreau, Douglass, Child and Higginson in Defense of the Raid on Harpers Ferry 

Janet Kemper Beck
Foreword by Richard T. Gillespie

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-3345-2
30 photos, notes, bibliography, index
214pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2009
Price: $35.00

About the Book
One of the triggering events of the Civil War helped divide a nation but also launched a cannonade of persuasive essays and propaganda. Early press reaction to John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry ranged from indignant horror in the South to stunned disbelief in the North. Brown’s supporters wielded great power with their pens: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Lydia Maria Child. This book explores the moment when literature and history collided and literature rewrote history. This volume features 30 photographs, maps, proclamations and broadsides and a detailed timeline of events surrounding the raid.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Richard T. Gillespie 1
Preface 3

PART I: THE CATALYST: JOHN BROWN AND THE ASSAULT ON HARPERS FERRY
One: History’s Version 9
Two: John Brown 19

PART II: THE PLAYERS
Three: Ralph Waldo Emerson 29
Four: Henry David Thoreau 42
Five: Frederick Douglass 52
Six: Lydia Maria Child 63
Seven: Thomas Wentworth Higginson 81

PART III: THE VERBAL ASSAULT ON HARPERS FERRY
Eight: Literature’s Version 111
Nine: Epilogue 151

Timeline 165
Chapter Notes 173
Bibliography 191
Index 203

About the Author
Janet Kemper Beck teaches English at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, and is a member of the Thoreau Society and the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society.