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John Brown the Legend and The JOHN BROWN--THE LEGEND AND THE MAN by CLAIRE LARSON BEfcTCU B. S., Mankato State Teachers College Mankato, Minnesota, 1950 A THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree 41 ASTER OF SCIENCE Department of English KANSAS STATE COLLI GE OF AGRICULTURE AND APPLIED SCIENCE 1954 ) L.D J -TO. "' C.Z. TABLE OF CONTENTS FRONTISPIECE iv INTRODUCTION 1 THE NORTHERN LEGEN D (BROW. MASS IFIED 3 While Brown Lived 3 After His Execution 4 BROWN'S INFLUENCE IN NEW ENGLAND AND THE LEGEND 19 Emerson 21 Thoreau 25 Aloott 32 Parker 36 Phillips 43 Beecher 50 THE LEGEND AND JOHN BROWN IX LITERATURE 56 THE SOUTHERN LEGEND ( AN ATTACK Oii BROWN ) 65 The Southern Legend 67 An Impartial View 72 An Attack on Brown 73 Did Brown Defend and Aid Kansas? 77 Did He Lead Raids Against Pro-slavery Men? 91 Was Harper's Ferry Impetus to Civil War? 92 Was Brown Willing to Risk His Life? 93 THE MAN WITH ASPIRATIONS AND WEAKNESSES 100 THE MAN AND TliE LEGEND 108 The Actor 108 The Man Magnified 109 ill The Man Magnified Into a Hero and a Legend. 113 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 117 LITERATURE CITED 118 INTRODUCTION The excitement, realism, romance, and hardship of the Civil War become vicarious experiences through Paul Gregor's unique production of John Brown ' 3 Body on the stage. Reading Stephen Vincent Benet 's volume of narrative verse, from which the stage show was taken, made the historical and fictional characters be- come real people like the neighbor down the street and the new political figure in Washington, D. C. Because Benet used John Brown as the unifying theme of his poem, more should be known about this figure vaguely connected with Harper's Perry and Kansas. Sanborn's biography and Hubbard's novel revealed a terrible saint who fought by the command of the Holy Word, a martyr who died for the freedom of slaves and a hero who hastened the conflict over slavery—the Civil War. However, the rose-tinted view faded somewhat before Allen Tate's disparaging review of John Brown ' 3 Body . Although Tate was a member of the so-called Agrarian Group of Southern writers and political theorists and admittedly is partial to the Southern viewpoint, his comments cannot be disregarded: The symbol of John Brown becomes an incentive to some misty writing, and... Mr. Benet sees that the meaning of the war is related to meaning of Brown; yet what is the meaning of Brown? The presentation of Brown as a character is in- teresting, but it is neither here nor there to say, symbol- ically, that he is a "stone'' or, at the end, that the 1P. B. Sanborn, Life and Letters of John Brown; Elbert Hubbard, Time and Chance , A Romance and a History : Being the Story of the Life of a iian. < machine-age grows out of his body. The phrase Hie is a stone 1 appears in Benot in Books I and VIII: He was a stone, this man who lies so still, A stone flung from a sling against a wall, A sacrificial instrument of kill. The comparison to the machine age is found in Book VIII: Out of his body grows revolving steel, Out of his body grows the spinning wheel Made up of wheels, the mechanic birth. 5 Why question the symbol of John Brown as Tate does? Why not accept the popularly-accepted folk legend of John Brown's spirit? Everyone knows the old, familiar refrain sung to "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave..." Poets and writers in general seem to have recognized John Brown as a heroic figure, almost a prophet of the Civil War; lienet built his entire narrative around this symbol. In this thesis the symbol of John Brown and the Legend built around his name by the North will be shown. Because John Brown's personality and oratory greatly swayed many prominent men of the East—writers, preachers, politicians, inventors, philanthropists —his influence on certain literary figures of New England will be investigated, and some examples from the vast amount of literature written around the John Brown theme will be given. An attempt will be made to show why the Legend should not be accepted as history by disclosing documentary evidence to the contrary. Out of extreme attacks upon the man the Southern Legend developed, to which some ^-Allen Tate, "The Irrepressible Conflict," The liatlon , September 19, 1928, 127:274. ^Stephen Vincent Benet, John brown's Body , p. 334. 3 Ibid. , p. 335. 3 attention will be given. Finally, a possible explanation for John Brown the man and the Legend will be advanced. THE NORTHERN LfcOEND (BROWK MAGNIFIED) First of all, what is the Northern Legend or myth that has enveloped John Brown and is generally recognized by the average layman today? It is the Legend of John Brown as the hero of Kansas —and especially Osawatomie, the liberator of slaves, and the martyr of the Abolitionists. While Brown Lived Even before Brown's execution b; the state of Virginia on December 2, 1859, the eulogizing of Brown had begun. It was found among the contemporary philosophers and writers who ordinarily stayed out of the political spotlight. Ralph Waldo Emerson, who met Brown twice at Concord, spoke of him on November 8 as "the saint whose life yet hangs in the balance, but whose martyrdom, if it shall be perfected, will make the gallows glorious like the cross." The New York Daily Tribune quoted this lecture on "Cour- age" as it was first given in Boston. 1 The above quotation does not appear in Emerson's complete works. Another literary person- age, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, entered this in his diary on the day of execution, December 2: This will be a great day In our history; the date of a new Revolution, --quite as much needed as the old one. Even ^alph L. RuBk, The Life of Ralph Waldo Emerson , p. 402. now as I write, they are leading old John Brown to execution in Virginia for attempting to rescue slaves: This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, which will come soon. After His Execution Various funeral discourses and eulogies enlarged upon the hero, after his death on the gallows. In a fureral sermon preach- ed at Roxbury on December 4, The Rev. Fales Henry Kewhall boldly expounded and Implied die parallelism of John Brown and Christian- ity, as shown in this extraction: The execution of John Brown sets forth in bold, clear relief the moral conflict between Christianity and Auerican Slavery. The smouldering fires carefully trodden down for years and generations, here burst forth in a volcano blaze, that rises as if to "lick the stars." There is a shaking of statesmen and States over all the nation, a throbbing of tele- graphic wires from centre to circumference, a swaying to end fro of vast populations, a rushing of armed squadrons along the national highways, and all to tread down that flame that comes roaring "up from the burning core below. "2 And The Rev. S. Ii. Taft, pastor of the Church of Bartinsburg, New York, further eulogized the hero on December 12 in his sermon. In the following excerpt, he magnified Brown's "notability" to the height of exaggeration: His example of courage and faith is almost without a parallel. His letters, his conversation, and his personal demeanor, bear witness to a moral character so high and grand that common men, compared with him in respect to all noble and moral qualitiea, seem scarcely more than children. Mo man has ever produced upon this nation so profound an im- pression for moral heroism. He made this impression at the first, but every act he performed, and every word he uttered until the day of his execution, only confirmed and increased "Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Vi'adsworth Longfellow iVith Extracts from his Journals and~5orresponuence , Vol. II., P. 396. ^Pales Henry Kev.hall, The Conflict in America , p. 1. 1 the power of hi3 example. He grew greater and greater unto the end. He was greatest at the last, when most men would have been weakest. In Redpath 's Version . The Legend, growing out of this hero- worship, began crystallizing in the first biography of Brown by James Redpath, As a correspondent from the East, Redpath came to Kansas in 1856 to obtain news "copy" to satisfy New England read- ers who had heard rumors about the Kansas Struggle. Having heard much about Brown, the "earnest.. .and devout Christian," Redpath eagerly sought out his camp (as Brown and his band were hiding out after the recent murders at Pottawatomie). 2 The budding journal- ist related in his own words his first meeting with his hero: I shall not sson forget the scene that here opened to my view.... In an open space, amid the shady and lofty woods, there was a gre^t blazing fire.... Old Brown himself stood near the fire, with his shirt-3leeves rolled up.... He was poorly clad, and his toes protruded from his boots. The old man received me with great cordiality.... In this camp no manner of profane language was permitted; no man of immoral character was allowed to stay, excepting as a prisoner of war. Ke made prayers in which all the com- pany ur:ited, every morning and evening and no food was ever tasted by his men until the Divine blessing had been asked on it.... Often, I was told, the old man would retire to the densest solitudes, to wrestle with his God in secret prayer.
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