In Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked The Civil War by Tony Horwitz, not only do we get an action packed adventure story, but it also provides a detailed historical background and very vivid character portrayal. Horwitz is a gifted author who does a magnificent job providing blow-by-blow detail on events as well as bringing to life the fascinating, messianic leader who would push a nation towards civil war with his prophetic words, writing down one last message as he left his cell for his execution. “I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of the guilty land, will never be purged away, but with blood.” (256) However Brown was not always so keen to violence; Brown was born in Connecticut in early 1800 and moved to …show more content…
After spending months in The Kennedy Farm training his recruits Brown finally put his plans in to motion. On the rainy evening of October 16, 1859, he and 18 followers began their march to the federal armory in Harpers Ferry. Brown easily took control of the arsenal while liberating as many slaves in the region and taking a number of slaveholder’s hostage, but brown made the mistake of stalling too long in the town. After a bloody battle first with local residents then with federal troops led by colonel Robert E. Lee, Brown and his men were eventually captured. Brown was tried in a Virginia court and sentenced to hang on December 2, 1859; here is where Brown made an impression. Brown denied all charges and made everyone question their morality by sticking to a higher code “whatsoever I would men should do to me I should do ever so to them” (212) and claiming that slavery was the real abomination. Although he was unable to sway the court and the mission was indeed a failure, Horwitz argues that his ultimate goal, which was to cause panic in the slaveholding South was actually a success. It seems that Brown had come to see himself as a modern day Samson, ready to sacrifice himself as long as the temple of slavery collapsed around him. “Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in the slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel and unjust enactments, I submit. So let it be done!”