Reviewing Tony Horwitz’s ‘Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War’

Possibly the most misunderstood and controversial character of the Civil War is John Brown. As a child growing up in Virginia, I was taught that Brown was the enemy; a religious fanatic who was bent on violence to stop Virginia’s way of life by any means necessary. It was almost the same way we saw terrorists after 9/11. Yet as I have grown and studied the war more in depth, I have come to understand the complexities of Brown and understand that he was fighting for a righteous cause.

Brown himself said during his trial, “had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, — either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, — and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.” I have come to agree with this statement and after reading Midnight Rising. I now understand even more what Brown was trying to accomplish.

I was first introduced to the author, Tony Horwitz, when I read “Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War,” a truly original and fascinating story about Civil War reenactors and why people in the South so strongly support the memory of the war. While it came out in 1998 and is not current on the discourses of renaming everything that reflects the Confederacy, it is still worth reading if you want to understand “The South.” I was so impressed with Horwitz’s narrative that I wanted to read “Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War.” I am glad I did.

In the lost cause, post-Civil War world, Brown was considered the agitator who set in motion the possible destruction of our nation.

While Horwitz does not disagree with this idea, he puts it into context.

Horwitz doesn’t simply present Brown as a single-minded zealot; instead, he paints him as a man of intense conviction, deeply influenced by both his personal religious beliefs and the injustices of slavery. Brown was willing to use violence as a means to bring about an end to slavery, which, as Horwitz argues, was not uncommon for those who believed slavery was the nation’s greatest sin. Horwitz wrote, “Brown believed he was an instrument of God’s will, that his mission was a righteous one, and that violence was the only way to destroy an evil system that was so entrenched.”

One of the real strengths of the book was the development of Brown. His was not an easy life and his convictions did not make life easy for his family. Brown’s first wife died, and he would marry another. Between the two he had 20 children, nine of which died in childhood and two more would die during his raid on Harper’s Ferry. While Brown loved his family, he struggled to care for them as he saw his greater mission the freeing of slaves and spent a great deal of time and money away from family in pursuit of this cause.

The first half of the book deals with his life story and especially his fighting during Bleeding Kansas.

The second half of the book deals with the planning and implementing of his raid on a small Virginia (now West Virginia) town that housed a federal arsenal. It was not a simple raid, and instead took years of planning.

It required funding from prominent abolitionists in the North as well as the right men to follow him on this dangerous mission. Horwitz spent time on each of these men showing their own convictions and determination to fight along side Brown for his cause. He placed the raid in the broader context of the times, where tensions between the North and South were escalating over the issue of slavery. The raid was, in many ways, the culmination of a long-standing bitter conflict over slavery that had been brewing for decades.

Horwitz wrote, “The raid was not just an attack on a military post; it was a declaration of war against an institution that had shaped the very foundation of America.”

Ultimately the raid failed. The large slave insurrection he hoped for never came to fruition.

Instead, the raiders made one mistake after another until they were in a situation they could not escape. In my classes I have often pointed out some of his mistakes, such as stopping a passenger train then allowing them to proceed after detailing his plans. I had never understood that. Yet, the most intriguing ideas about “Midnight Rising” is without saying so explicitly, Horwitz seems to suggest that Brown had no intention of success; that without ever telling his small army, he knew exactly what would happen, but he also knew the attempt would strike the blow necessary to do exactly what it did, start a war. Brown would use his trial and the days before his hanging to give interviews and write extensively, justifying his actions against the evils of slavery.

Whether Brown intended his raid to succeed is no longer consequential; his final goals were eventually reached. When Brown was led to the gallows, he slipped a paper to the guard that read, “I, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”

He proved to be prophetic.

On a related side note, Harper’s Ferry should be on the bucket list of any history buff.

It is a small, quaint and pretty town surrounded by mountains that has not changed much since the raid. There are some great hikes, places to eat and plenty of history. So, if you get the chance, read the book then visit the site. Both are well worth it.

“Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War,” published by Picador, London, 2011, 311pp., written by Tony Horwitz, is available at Amazon. com.

James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at HistoricallySpeaking1776@gmail.com.