Tony Horwitz graduated from Brown University and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. His book, Midnight Rising is presented in a way where from the beginning of his life John Brown was “destined” to lead the raid on the armory. He portrays this by not jumping right into the raid itself, but what actually lead up to the raid. Horowitz’s depiction of Brown is that of someone who stood up for what they believed in.

John Brown was born on May 9th, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut to two very Calvinist parents. From a very young age he was taught that slavery was wrong; something that would fuel his efforts to become an abolitionist later in his life, something many Calvinists during this time believed, “In the eighteenth century, Calvinist Ministers began …show more content…
Or it had to do with John Browns social life, his religion and his upbringing, and how that affected his choices and the aftermath of the raid. The primary sources used were either court documents from the trail or the events thereafter, or were small book written just a few years after the raid. These are the perfect resources because it captures the tone of the time more accurately than a book written 50 years later. The Public Life Of Captain John Brown, by James Redpath, compares to that of Horwitz’s book in that it paints John Brown as a martyr of sorts. With Redpath being an antislavery activist as well this comes at no surprise. Another resource used by Horowitz is A Voice from Harpers Ferry by Osborne Anderson, the only surviving member of the raid. He writes that if John Brown had not been so merciful when it came to the prisoners he took at Harpers Ferry, that they, John Brown and his men, might have been able to get away and free more slaves. (VHF 60) This firsthand account is easily the best resource that Horwitz