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December 02, 2009
John Brown's Body
I have a theory that John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry is the central turning point for all of American history. There’s nothing implicit in our country—race, power, religion, violence, democracy and its limits—that isn’t contained in his raid or his execution. The tensions inherent in the Constitution, the Civil War, the reforms of the New Deal, and the election of Barack Obama are all inextricably tied to the essential problems of our national identity, and nowhere did those problems burn as brightly as they did in West Virginia 150 years ago.
I’m impressed and grateful that the New York Times saw fit to give the anniversary of his death so much space today. It isn’t often that the sesquicentennial of anything gets much mainstream media attention. But I don’t find either of the pieces particularly convincing.
First off, I don’t see much reason to give Brown a pardon—it wouldn’t accomplish anything. It can’t change the impact of his actions, and more importantly I don’t think any nod from an elected official can change our relationship to his life and what it represents. Brown’s existence, in many ways, was pitted against and above the government of the United States. His opposition was thoroughly moral, and a pardon would be too trite a response to the indictment Brown presented of the government’s support of a fiercely immoral a system of chattel slavery.
But it’s equally facile to lump Brown in with “Terrorists” and banish him to the fringes of the national story. Most obviously, it’s insulting to equate murdering thousands of innocent victims as commentary on ones hatred of America with waging a war to free hundreds of thousands of African Americans from involuntary servitude. The war to free the slaves was just. The war to destroy the “great Satan” of America is not. That is not a close question. It’s a shallow understanding of what tactics imply. Yes, Brown wanted to win through intimidation and fear of non-combatants, but so did the Sons of Liberty. That doesn’t make the Founding Fathers equivalent to Al Qaeda.
What makes John Brown important is that his story is bigger than an op-ed. He could see justice that wasn't limited by law or even by death, and the power of that vision spills over into any story that you can tell about this country. It's no coincidence that the song commemorating his death led Union troops into battle and became The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Brown didn't sing "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free," but he might as well have. His mission was as holy as American missions could be, and the passage of time oughtn't minimize that.
Ultimately, the question isn't what we should think about John Brown: it's what John Brown would think of us.
Posted by Drew at December 2, 2009 11:08 PM