Violence, Revolution, and The Cost of Freedom: John Brown and W. E. B. DuBois

Violence, Revolution, and the Cost of Freedom: John Brown and W. E. B. DuBois Author(s): William E.
Cain Reviewed work(s): Source: boundary 2, Vol. 17, No. 1, New Americanists: Revisionist Interventions into the Canon (Spring, 1990), pp. 305-330 Published by: Duke University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/303226 . Accessed: 05/02/2013 09:26
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Violence, Revolution, and the Cost of Freedom: John Brown and W. E. B. DuBois
WilliamE. Cain John Brownand his raidare an epitome,a popular of summary the of and history the UnitedStates betweenthe Missouri Compromise the Gettysburg celebration. a childhas been bornin the country Not since his death to whomJohn Brown does not symbolizethe thing that happenedto the heartand brainof the American people between 1820and 1865. He is as bigas a myth,andthe storyof himis an immortal legend-perhaps the onlyone in our history.- John Jay Chapman1 John Brown was right.-W. E. B. DuBois2 W. E. B. DuBoisonce referred his biographical to study of John Brownas his "favorite" and, in his amongall the bookshe had produced,
1. John Jay Chapman,"Doctor in and Howe," Learning OtherEssays (New York: Moffat, Yard,and Co., 1910), pp. 89-145, at p. 131. 2. W. E. B. DuBois,John Brown(1909; rev.ed. 1962; Millwood: Kraus-Thomson, 1973), in p. 338. Futurepage referencesto this bookwillbe given parenthetically the text. 2 Press.CCC 0190-3659/90/$1.50. boundary 17:1,1990.Copyright 1990byDukeUniversity ?
2 1990 306 boundary / Spring he of autobiography, termedit "one of the best written" them.3But literhave apparently sharedDuBois'sesteem for not ary criticsand historians the book and have neverpaidit muchattention. Indeed,no sooner was it inthe fallof 1909thanit beganto fade fromviewamidthe buildpublished for studyof Brownby Oswald up and extensiveadvertising the mammoth the of Garrison ownerof The and Garrison Villard, grandson William Lloyd volumereceivedenthusiastic acclaim whenitappearedin Nation.Thisrival DuBois'sbookas competition. eliminated October1910, and it effectively sold Between 1909 and 1916, DuBois'sbiography fewerthan seven hunof dredcopies, and itgarnered onlya smallnumber noticesand reviews. on To latercommentators DuBois's career,the bookon Brownhas in hardlyseemed to countat all. FrancisL. Broderick, his 1959 biography, than a dismisses itas "more partof DuBois's propaganda his scholarship," in a 1960 biography, does not even mentionit.4Nor and ElliottRudwick, does the bookenjoyhighstandingamongscholarsexpertin John Brown War and pre-Civil studies.StephenB. Oates, ina recentassessment, conof indictment slavery cedes that DuBois'sbiography providesa "scathing but as and an impassioneddefense of Brown a revolutionary symbol," he and for scholarly stresses that it exhibits"a cheerfuldisregard accuracy" into hence excludes itfromthe rosterof "serious" inquiries its subject.5 have appraisedthe Marable Arnold and Both Manning Rampersad has Marable commendedits "artistry" more favorably. Brownbiography has of Brown's and Rampersad and "powerful life; interpretation" political conon DuBois's of to attention the influence Hippolyte Taine keenlydrawn of workandtracedthe implications Brown's unyielding ceptionof historical to dedication justice(andcourageousacceptanceof the need forsacrifice) still But forDuBois'ssense of his ownpolitical vocation.6 the bookis, Ithink,
of of AnnotatedBibliography the PublishedWritings W.E. B. DuBois 3. Herbert Aptheker, of 553. See also TheAutobiography W.E B. DuBois Kraus-Thomson, 1973),p. (Millwood: International Publishers,1982), p. 259. (1968; New York: W. 4. Francis L. Broderick, E. B. DuBois:Negro Leaderin a Timeof Crisis (Stanford: W. StanfordUniv. Press, 1959), p. 82, and Elliott Rudwick, E. B. DuBois: Voice of the Univ.of Illinois Black Protest Movement(1960; rev.ed., Urbana: Press, 1982). AbrahamLincoln, 5. Stephen B. Oates, "JohnBrownand HisJudges,"in OurFieryTrial: Univ.of MassachusettsPress, 1979), pp. John Brown,and the CivilWarEra(Amherst: 22-42, at p. 23. 6. ManningMarable,W. E. B. DuBois: Black Radical Democrat (Boston: G. K. Hall, of Rampersad,TheArtand Imagination W.E. B. DuBois (Cam1986), p. 66, and Arnold Univ.Press, 1976), pp. 110-15. Harvard bridge:
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B. DuBois 307 and or have sugricherand moresignificant than eitherMarable Rampersad and occurred a crucial at in juncture DuBois's gested. Itswriting publication T. the of life,whilehe was contesting formidable authority Booker Washingin ton, laboring mightily the Niagaramovement(1905-1909), and helping to foundthe NAACP-and as he was also preparing take the momento tous step of exchanginghis academicposition Atlanta at (where University he had taughtsince 1897)fora full-time inthe fledgling NAACP office post in New York. Inchoosingto writeaboutJohnBrown, DuBoisentereda ferventdebate and controversy. Brown was a resounding symbol,ifforverydifferent and reasons,to people in boththe North the South.Todeal withhimmeant the task of rightly undertaking immenselychallenging gauginghis significance and, furthermore, to termswiththe violenceand murderous coming revoltthat he unleashed.Less a biographer an interpreter charged than of of symbols, DuBoisprobesthe natureof effectiveprotest,the imperative revolution the tragicappeal of violence,and, above all perhaps,the and basis in blackexperiencefor the heroismthatthe whitecrusaderBrown displayed.InJohn Brown,DuBoismeditatesuponhis subjectand reinterthanwhiteachievement. study The pretsitso thatitsymbolizesblackrather of John Brownbecomes, in DuBois'shands,an inquiry the souls of into blacksand a rich,ifalso disquieting, celebration the revolutionary of action that braveblackpeople defined. 1 Likethe bloody uprisingin San Domingoand the insurrection of messianicNatTurner, whose namestood as "asymbolof wildretribution," John Brown'saction at Harper's Ferryin 1859 quickly acquiredextraorTo in dinarysymbolicpower.7 abolitionists the North,John Jay Chapman of observed, Brown"wasthe livingembodiment" "theidea of atonement, of vicarioussuffering,a man who had sacrificedhis life for the cause of freedomand justice."8 those in the South, however,Brownembodied To the perversion highidealsandthe desecration God'sword.During of of the CivilWarperiodand afterwards, manysoutherners exasperatingly judged
7. Thomas Wentworth A and Higginson,Black Rebellion: Selection fromTravellers Outlaws (1888; rpt.New York: Arno,1969), p. 326. 8. Chapman,p. 133.
308 boundary / Spring 2 1990 that no one seemed able to grasp the real natureof the crimes he had and sought to inspire.RobertPenn Warren intimated this committed just was a cipher,a symbol" pointin 1929 when he stated that "JohnBrown in argumentsthat had "little concernone way or anotherwithwhatsort of fellowhe reallywas."9 the Brownhimself,it is clear,perceivedand heightened symbolism treasonousrevolt, of his abolitionist trial,and execution.During campaign, himself severaltimes, the fatefulspan of his lifein the 1850s, he recreated changingfroma man who had failedat variousbusiness enterprisesto swordagainstthe apostate God'sflaming an avengingangel brandishing and of the Kansasterritory, thento a militant prophet-warrior slavemongers to incursion into an directly the South,and, finally, a launching inter-racial valor.By his finalyears, at devoutsoul suffering the gallowswithChrist-like to Brownhad in fact come frequently situatehimselfin symbolicscenes, and Warren, so manyothers have fashioningthe legacy that Chapman, the Thiswas particularly case duringhis final or eitherapproved disputed. George HenryStearns, meetings in Bostonin the springof 1859. Visiting who one of the Northerners fundedhim,Brown presentedStearnswitha foe a Bowieknifehe hadseized from pro-slavery at the battle pearl-handled territories. of BlackJack when waging war in the Kansas and Missouri meet again wouldprobably Brownreflectedthat the two of them "never and of the in this world"; knifewas a "token his gratitude" would,Brown Even historic for value."1O possess in the future Stearnssome "little hoped, Russell and his Browncalledon the abolitionist more fatalistically, Judge whomhe heldbalto wife and was especiallyattentive theirbabydaughter whenyou are a youngladyand I anced on his palms,sayingto her,"Now am hanged,you can say thatyou stoodon the handof OldBrown.""11 Brown'searlierlife containsmany similarmoments,equallyresocrafted.In 1837, nantin theirsymbolism, thoughperhapsless deliberately Brownand his fatherattendeda meetingto commemorate for example, mob from editormurdered a pro-slavery an by ElijahLovejoy, anti-slavery
John Brown:The Makingof a Martyr 9. Robert Penn Warren, (New York:Payson and 432. Clarke,1929), p. John Brown, the Secret Six, 10. Cited in Jeffrey Rossbach, Ambivalent Conspirators: Univ.of PennsylvaniaPress, 1982), pp. and a Theoryof Slave Violence(Philadelphia: 204-5. 11. Cited in Stephen B. Oates, To Purge this Land with Blood: A Biographyof John and Brown (1970; rpt.New York: Harper Row,1972), p. 272.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B. DuBois 309 and to listenedto the denunciations Missouri. According eyewitnesses, Brown forces and then,as the meetingended, "suddenly of the pro-slavery stood raisedhis righthand,and vowedthathere,beforeGod,in this church, up, in the presence of these witnesses, he wouldconsecratehis lifeto the dea Twodecades later,during meetingin Bostonwith of struction slavery."12 see the coat that Sumnerhad Senator CharlesSumner,Brownasked to wornwhen he had been brutally beatenby PrestonBrookson the Senate floor.SumnerhandedBrown blood-stiffened and Brown the examined coat, it carefully; "saidnothing," "hislipscompressedand his eyes shone he but likepolishedsteel."13 and testifythat Responses to Brown to the Harper's Ferryincident Northand South alikeviewed Brown boththe inevitable as of by-product and of conditions the symbolicincarnation secperiloussocial and political tional motives,grievances,and purposes.Largely because he wished to fromthe fallout the raid,Abraham Lincoln the Republican of protect party triedto paintBrownas an aberrant leaderof a "peculiar" missionwhose even the slaves-who hadfailedto rally his bannerat Harper's to absurdity But was William Ferry-"plainly" recognized.14 Lincoln inthe minority. Lloyd aside his non-resistant concludedthat Brown Garrison, setting principles, renewedthe "spirit '76"and made men realizethe revolutionary of rightness of takingarms againstoppressors.ForGarrison, Brown's climactic violentactionsignalled"progress, a positivemoralgrowth"; camand the had reacheda stage in which"carnal paign against slavery weapons"no functionedto upholddespotismbut, rather, longer spurredthe cause of southern On Negrofreedomand subverted tyranny.15 the otherside of the issue, Stephen DouglasarguedthatBrown paintedthe connightmarishly had sequences of all that the abolitionist Republicans said and done. "I have no hesitation," Douglasdeclared, in expressing my firmand deliberateconviction that the Harper's crimewas the natural, inevitable resultof the doctrines Ferry logical, and teachingsof the Republican party,as explainedand enforced
12. See Oates, pp. 41-42. 13. Cited in David HerbertDonald,Charles Sumnerand the Comingof the CivilWar (1960; rpt.Chicago:Univ.of ChicagoPress, 1981), p. 350. 14. AbrahamLincoln,"CooperUnionAddress,"cited in RichardWarchand Jonathan Cliffs:PrenticeHall,1973), p. 133. Fanton,eds., John Brown(Englewood 15. William cited in Warchand Fanton,p. 109. "Speechon John Brown," LloydGarrison,
1990 2 310 boundary / Spring in theirplatform, theirpartisan and presses, theirpamphlets books, and especiallyin the speeches of theirleaders in and out of Congress.16
vision of the slavery Douglas'slanguageshows the conspiratorial and crisisthatbothNorth Southheldintheirpolarized ways andthatBrown that werecertain Brown's actionsigso dramatically enlarged.Southerners assault against nalled the next stroke of the abolitionist enemy-violent in of the people, property, and institutions the South. Northerners, turn, while mostlyrejecting(and in unmistakable terms)what Brownhad tried and were claimedthat murder insurrection to engineer at Harper's Ferry, to itselfbecause that the punishments the Southwas beginning bring upon of its persistentimmorality. clingingtenaciouslyto slavery,the South By seemed to the Northto be dedicatedto a futureof armedstruggleand, civil eventually, war. Davishas pointed such "conspiraout, Bythe 1850s, as DavidBrion in the political rhetoric of torialimageryhad become a formalized staple both Northand South,appropriated eminentstatesmenand journalists by Davisadds that "theidea of Even moretellingly, as well as by fanatics." for conspiracywas a symbolicmeans of accounting the subtle truththat and abolitionists southernsecessionists often playedmutually supporting to a bewilroles and seemed to be staginga premeditated performance the deredand powerlessaudience." Tomanyinthe North, South'swicked 17 the had plotmaking grownsteadilyevidentthroughout 1850s, as the Combill, promiseof 1850, the FugitiveSlave Law,the Kansas-Nebraska the succeeded one DredScott decision, and effortsto revivethe slave-trade another.To southerners,these facts bore witness to the wisdomof the to the solidified South'sdetermination proand federalgovernment further with abolitionist virulent tect itselfagainstincreasingly irrational, tampering inthat The hallowedrightsand institutions. eventualrevelation Northern and TheodoreParker tellectualsand membersof the "secret six,"including
to 16. Stephen Douglas, "Remarks the U. S. Senate,"cited in Warchand Fanton,p. 131. 17. DavidBrionDavis, The Slave Power Conspiracyand the ParanoidStyle (1969; rpt. Baton Rouge: LouisianaState Univ.Press, 1982), pp. 7, 23. See also Oates, Purge this Private "JohnBrown's 1952, in TheBurden War," Land, pp. 234-37; C. VannWoodward, New AmericanLibrary, of SouthernHistory(rev. ed. New York: 1968), pp. 40-57; and of The MertonL. Dillon,TheAbolitionists: Growth a DissentingMinority (1974; rpt.New York: Norton,1979), pp. 102, 150, 152, 161.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 311 and ThomasWentworth had insurrectionist scheme Higginson, backedBrown's shocked but did not surprisethe South.'18merelyexposed publicly It what the Southalreadybelievedto be trueaboutthe North itallowedsouthand ernersto justifytheirdefense of a way of lifemostof themknewto be discreditedwithstillmorerepressivemeasuresagainstblacksand moderate whites. Browncaused abolitionist rhetoric flamehigherthanever before. to His attackon Harper's trial, Ferry,imprisonment, and executionled eloto and quent northerners spurnthe ruleof "law" to urgeslaves, aided and abetted by whites,to rebelagainst-and, if necessary,to kill-their masters. Celebrating Brownas "atranscendentalist above all, a man of ideas and principles," HenryDavidThoreauaverredthat "thequestion is not about the weapon, but the spiritin whichyou use it."19 WendellPhillips resolvedthat "itis honorable" "break laws, and such lawto bad fiercely loves and God blesses!""Thelesson of the houris insurbreaking History he To severalprinciples couldnow rection," proclaimed.20 Theodore Parker, be clearlyseen as "apartof the PublicKnowledge allenlightened of men": 1. A man,heldagainsthis willas a slave, has a natural to right kill his of every one who seeks to prevent enjoyment liberty. 2. Itmaybe a natural of the slave to developthis natural duty right in a practical and kill manner, actually allthose who seek to prevent his enjoyment liberty. of 3. The freemanhas a natural to right helpthe slaves recovertheir and in that enterprise do forthem all whichthey have a to liberty, rightto do forthemselves. 4. Itmaybe a natural forthe freeman helpthe slaves to the to duty of and, enjoyment theirliberty, as a meansto thatend to aidthemin all freedom.21 killing such as oppose theirnatural Ifa manpossessed "power" "opportunity,"wouldbe obliged and he to act uponthese principles, John Brownhad done. "Itwouldnot suras
18. See George M.Fredrickson, InnerCivilWar: The Northern Intellectuals the Crisis and of the Union(1965; rpt.New York: and Row, 1968), and Rossbach, Ambivalent Harper Conspirators. 19. HenryDavidThoreau,cited in James Redpath,Echoes of Harper'sFerry(Boston: Thayerand Eldridge,1860), pp. 21, 28. 20. WendellPhillips, cited in Redpath,pp. 58, 43. 21. Theodore Parker, cited in Redpath,pp. 74-75.
2 312 boundary / Spring 1990 stated, "iftherewereotherand well-planned attemptsin prise me,"Parker if Brown other States to do whatCaptain heroically, notsuccessfully,tried in Virginia. Nineout ten mayfail-the tenthwillsucceed."22 themselves As these citationsshow, northerners southerners and the exorbitantly natureof the slaverycrisis as it dramatic, deathly grasped Doubtlessthis helpsto accountforthe frequency climaxedin the 1850s.23 the to of allusionsduring period the death-ridden tragediesof Shakespeare constellation-to violentdeeds of the same literary cultural and and-part full in epic literature the Bible.Thisweb of referenceis extremely and and one wouldexpectfora heroicfigurecloaked in intricate Brown's case, as In in myth,legend, and violentadventure. his 1909 book, DuBoismakes violence overseen (and posa version of this pointabout theatricalized the God when he says that "to[Brown] worldwas a sibly sanctified)by drama.Godwas an actorinthe playandso was JohnBrown" (46).24 mighty whichBrown contextswithin and DuBois'sinsightintothe literary religious accents the symto lived,and according whichhe was interpreted, rightly bolic dimensionof the slaverycrisis of the 1850s. It was a periodwhen destinedroles agentswhoperformed persons saw themselvesas historical events and hugelysignifimomentous turned fatefully to and who naturally to cant charactersin classic texts inorderbetter enrichand emblazontheir conduct. strikeus today as curiouslyakin Brownmay, in fact, occasionally dedicatedsoldierwho banthe to Shakespeare'sCoriolanus, unremittingly of This is especiallyso whenone readsthe transcript ished his banishers. with Wise and otherson the "conversation" Governor memorable Brown's told a he was captured."Ithinkyou are fanatical," bystander Brown. day Brown'sblack To which Brownreplied,"AndI thinkyou are fanatical."25 sometimesintriguingly at supporters, the timeof his deathand afterwards, whiteheroas a means of celeto whenreferring their Hamlet invoked tragic
22. Parker,cited in Redpath,p. 80. 23. See, for example, Elijah Avey, TheCaptureand Executionof John Brown:A Taleof Press, 1969), pp. 15-44. (1906; rpt.Chicago:Afro-Am Martyrdom and of 24. For suggestive accounts of the theatricality violence in ante-bellumliterature politicallife, see two essays by EricJ. Sundquist:"Suspense and Tautologyin Benito Johns HopkinsUniv. Studies (Baltimore: Cereno,"in Glyph 8: Johns Hopkins Textual and the AmericanRenaissance," Press, 1981), pp. 103-26, and "Slavery,Revolution, in The AmericanRenaissance Reconsidered,ed. WalterBenn Michaelsand DonaldE. Johns HopkinsUniv.Press, 1985), pp. 1-33. Pease (Baltimore: 25. Citedin Warchand Fanton,p. 78.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 313 and and bratinghis bravery rebutting chargesthathe was insane.The former slave and pastor of the Joy Street BaptistChurchin Boston, Reverend J. S. Martin, notedat a service on the eveningof Brown's executionthatif Brown"wasmad,"as manyhad said, "hismadness not only had a great deal of 'method' it, buta greatdeal of philosophy religion."26 in and Nearly five decades later,Reverdy Ransom,anotherBostonpastor,somewhat C. said at the observanceof John BrownDay at Harper's differently Ferry that "like ghost of Hamlet's the the of beckons us father, spirit John Brown to arise and seek the recoveryof our rights,whichour enemy, 'withthe witchcraft his wit,withtraitorous of gifts,'has soughtforeverto destroy."27 Informed murder betrayal, and Hamlet the everywhere by foregrounded retributive violence that Thoreau,Phillips, and Parker had avidlydescribed and recommended. allies and Duringthe 1850s and in subsequentdecades, Brown's defenders symbolically linkedhimto Moses, Joshua, Hercules,John the William of Baptist,Spartacus,Peterthe Hermit, Cromwell, Ignatius Loyola, EthanAllen,Coleridge's Orange,the fathersof the American Revolution, ancient mariner, ToussaintL'Ouverture, Denmark Vesey, and Nat Turner. Frederick DouglassproposedSocratesand Jesus, and the eminentblack historian,George Washington Williams, suggested Galileo,Copernicus, and Newton.28 blackas wellas whiteabolitionists, For Brown servedto connect theircause to scripture to the American and Revolution. CharlesH. As Brown's were in perfectharmony "actions Langstonremarked, with,and resultedfromthe teachingof the Bible,of our Revolutionary fathersand of every trueand faithful man and anti-slavery in this country the world."29 A blackmemberof Brown's sketcheda simiband,OsborneP. Anderson, in international scope, when he professedthat larlygrandlineage, notably "thereis an unbroken chainof sentimentand purposefromMoses of the Jews to JohnBrown America; of fromKossuth, the liberators France and of and Italy, the untutored to and the Denmark Gabriel, Veseys, NatTurners and Madison of American States."30Bythe late Washingtons the Southern
26. Citedin Benjamin Univ.of Illinois Quarles,ed., Blackson JohnBrown(Urbana: Press, 1972), p. 29. See HamletII.ii. 206-7. 27. Citedin Quarles,p. 83. See HamletI.v. 43. 28. Quarles, pp. 57, 73. See also Quarles,AlliesforFreedom:Blacks and John Brown OxfordUniversity (New York: Press, 1974). 29. Citedin Quarles,Blacks on John Brown,p. 12. 30. Osborne P. Anderson,A VoicefromHarper'sFerry: Narrative Events (1861; rpt. A of Books for Libraries Freeport: Press, 1972), p. 2.
2 1990 314 boundary / Spring 1850s and even more afterhis assault at Harper's Ferry,Brown"represented revolution itself."31 the for Samson is, however, likely mostcompelling prototype the vioin lent Brown,for he dwells, arrogantly destructively, the sacred Old and seems to Testamenttext that Brown deeply absorbedand trusted.Brown have sewn the Old Testamentinto his tough moralfiber;in an autobiohimself as to Stearns(15July1857),he characterized letter Henry graphical famila a "firm believerinthe Bible," bookwithwhichhe hadbecome "very of iar"and of whichhe "possessed a mostunusual memory its contents."32 in seemed always A manwhomBrown that employed 1820recalled "Brown at to have a textof Scripture histongue'sendthatwouldexactlyapplyto his argumentand strengthenhis positionand I neverknewa manwho could at all times quote a verse of the Biblewithas muchforce and as applicable as he could."33 Samson'serrors,ferociouscareer,and suicidallast to act undertaken purgethe landwithblood-all these fit Brown well;and his the invoked exampleof Samsonto confirm identity he himselfregularly it and monumentalize forothers. Ina letterto Franklin Sanborn February 1858)-one thatDuBois (24 cites at the end of his chapteron Brown's plan"-Brownstates that "great but "Iexpect nothingbutto 'endurehardness'; I expect to effect a mighty a it be likethe last victoryof Samson."34 Writing conquest, even though Samson as monthafterBrown's Douglassalso invoked capture,Frederick had the figurewhose laborsBrown imitated: Hisdaringdeeds maycost himhis life,butpricelessas is the value of thatlife,the blowhe has struck, inthe end, proveto be worth will, its mightycost. LikeSamson, he has laid his hands upon the piland lars of this greatnational templeof cruelty blood,and when he its to falls, that templewillspeedilycrumble its finaldoom, burying denizens in its ruins.35 boththe drawelcomedhis death, knowing Once captured,Brown divisive offerandhowfatefully would that maticpossibilities its preparations
31. Louis Filler,The Crusade against Slavery,1830-1860 (1960; rpt.New York:Harper and Row, 1963), p. 242. (1959; 32. Cited in Louis Ruchames, ed., John Brown:The Makingof a Revolutionary Grosset and Dunlap,1969), p. 47. rpt.New York: 33. Citedin Ruchames, p. 175. 34. Citedin Warchand Fanton,p. 38. of 35. PhilipFoner,ed., TheLifeand Writings Frederick Douglass, (1950; rpt.New York: International Publishers,1975), 2: 460.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 315 and for wouldbe its implications the Northand South.As he stated in a letter (23 November1859), I thinkI feel as happyas Pauldidwhenhe lay in prison.He knewif that him advancethe cause of Christ; was they killed itwouldgreatly the reason he rejoiced On thatsame ground"Ido rejoice,yea, so. and willrejoice." them hang me; I forgivethem, and may God Let forthey knownotwhatthey do.36 forgivethem, Some of Brown's northern ponderedan attemptto ressupporters beforehe was to be hanged,yet theychose finally do nothing to cue Brown -not onlybecause the chancesforsuccess werenon-existent, also bebut cause they recognizedthe explosiveforcesthat Brown's executionwould most ferventdisAs serviceablytrigger. James Redpath,one of Brown's affirmedafter Brownhad been caught:"living acted bravely, he ciples, dying,he willteach us courage.A Samson in his life;he willbe a Samson in his death."37 Brown'smost notablereferenceto himselfas Samson occurs in a wherehe writes hisdisappointment the failure at 15 November 1859letter of of the Harper's mission: Ferry I have been a good deal disappointed it regardsmyself in not as to myownplans;butInowfeel entirely to reconciled that keepingup even: forGods plan,was Infinitely no doubt; I shouldhave or better; of keptto myown. HadSamson keptto his determination nottelling Delilah whereinhis greatstrength he wouldprobably have never lay; overturned house. I didnottell Delilah; I was inducedto act the but to & verycontrary mybetter judgment; Ihavelostmytwonobleboys; &otherfriends,if notmytwoeyes.38 Brown claimedthathis sympathy the men he hadtakenhostage, for and his concernfor theirfamilies,led himto lingerat the arsenal rather than to flee with his comradesand the weapons they had seized.39 This fromhis own plan, however,meantsimplythat God had differdeparture ent designs for him.LikeSamson, he had erredterribly; as Brown's but, own allusion his error wouldenablehim,likethe latertriumphant forecasts,
36. Cited in Ruchames, p. 154. See also Brown's last speech to the court, 2 November 1859, cited in Ruchames, p. 134.
37. Citedin Oates, p. 317. See also Rossbach,Ambivalent Conspirators, 232-35. pp.
38. Cited in Ruchames, p. 144. 39. See Brown's letter of 1 November 1859, cited in Ruchames, p. 137.
1990 2 316 boundary / Spring that him intended to perform. Samson, to completethe work Godhadtruly He wouldoverturn house of God'senemies, killing the himselfand them in a ghastlyholocaust. Brown's southern foes soughtto appropriate Samthe Interestingly, it son storyfortheirown ends, employing to rally pro-slavery the cause and exprophesythe havocthatwouldensue ifthe North, by impelled Brown's In ample, took controlof the federalgovernment. a January1860 speech to the Senate, Robert Toombsthundered: Neverpermit Federalgovernment pass intothe handsof the this to BlackRepublican declared againstyou and war party.Ithas already It institutions. everyday commits acts of waragainstyou:it has your
already compelled you to arm for your defence. . . . Defend your-
selves! The enemy is at yourdoor,wait not to meet him at your meet himat the doorsill, drivehimfrom Temple the and hearthstone; him and of Liberty, pulldownits pillars involve in a commonruin.40 or southernpassions, he Howevermuch Toombsmay have kindled failed in his effortto establishthat the South, not the abolitionist North, do role. Buthis words,like Brown's, could effectivelyplay a Samson-like in the speeches and with intersectprovocatively innumerable references, and to writingsof both northerners southerners, the perils of a "house violence if such of dividedagainst itself"and to the certainty catastrophic was led to the scaffoldon the mornshouldpersist.As Brown self-division ing of his execution, he passed this note to one of the guards:"IJohn that Brownam nowquitecertain the crimesof thisguiltyland:willneverbe vainlyflattered myself purgedaway;butwithBlood.I had as I nowthink: 41 it knewthathis be thatwithout verymuchbloodshed; might done." Brown see death wouldspeed the spiralof violence:the Northwouldinevitably and violence as the only answerto southerntyranny, the Southwouldin turnarmitselfto repelits foes. Brownthus ascertainedhis death as a strokeof providential irony that ensured the ultimate victoryof divinejustice.By executinghim,the the its Southwas damning itself,writing ownepitaph, bringing awfulday of the closer. Forus, of course, even morethanforBrown, ironies reckoning resonatewithmeaning.The and its aftermath of his raidon Harper's Ferry
John Brown, 1800-1859: A BiographyFiftyYears 40. Cited in Oswald GarrisonVillard, After(1910; rpt.New York: Knopf,1943), pp. 565-66. 41. Citedin Ruchames,p. 167.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 317 and Brown were RobertE. troopthatcaptured key officersin the U. S. cavalry E. B. Stuart; loyally in of the arsenal,theywere control Lee and J. regaining that serving on behalfof the federalgovernment they soon wouldsteadA reversal A. fastlyoppose.42 similar appearsinthe conductof Henry Wise, of condemnedBrown's treasonousactionsand who, as governor Virginia, a to yet who emulatedthem in April1861 by organizing conspiracy commandeerthe Harper's Ferryarsenal.As wardrewnear,Wise advised his to themto take "alessouthernneighbors prepare againstinvasion, telling son fromJohn Brown" readying theirspears and lances.43 the most But by twist of all, the one that almost unbelievably confirmsthe tragic striking dimensionsof Brown's career,is the angrypresence, at the scene of the execution, of John WilkesBooth.At the time a memberof a Richmond riflecompany,Boothwouldlateract as the assassin of Lincoln would and sublimerestagingand heightening Brown's of retherebyaid in Lincoln's role.44 demptive 2 As a historical warrior and refigureand symbol,as Samson-like deemer of a nation,John Brown was complex,controversial, dangerand ous when DuBoisfocused attention upon himin the early 1900s. Blacks had longcherishedBrown a herorivalled by Lincoln; was a white as he only manwho hadso totally with identified the enslavedNegroesthathe showed no taintof prejudice gladlysurrendered lifein a desperateattempt and his to liberatethem. Butto whitesoutherners-who had theirown martyrsBrownhad usurpedthe rule of law and had sought to sparka murderous slave revolt.Turn-of-the-century southerners Brown's raid, interpreted we should recall,when virulent was "Negrophobia" at its height.45 the By inhabited white mind, the 1900s, Negroes livedin the land,and fearfully as a "degenerate" thatwhitescontrolled race disenfranchisement, through Brown's actionshadalwaysseemed horrifying, segregation,and lynching. andthey appearedeven morevividly to southerners so fixateduponvisions of blacksavagery,violence,murder, rape. and
42. Citedin Villard, 450. p. 43. Citedin Villard, 465-66. pp. 44. Citedin Villard, 555. p. 45. See George M. Fredrickson, Black Image in the WhiteMind:The Debate on The Afro-American Characterand Destiny, 1817-1914 (New York: Harperand Row, 1971), pp. 256-82.
1990 2 318 boundary / Spring and To whites in the Northmeanwhile, especiallyto liberalwhites John Brown was a glorious,if disconcertconcernedaboutrace relations, remembered for his campaignsin not ing, kindof hero. He was primarily in Kansas and Missouriand later plans for insurrection the South, but, Christian he had manifested forthe plain-spoken rather, duringhis dignity or and One couldnotoverlook denyhis sins, itwas said, imprisonment trial. as yet one finallyhad to acknowledgehis transfiguration; OswaldGarri"in John Brown atonedfor concludedin his biography, Virginia, son Villard of and his sublimedevotion Pottawatomie the nobility his philosophy by even to the gallows..... It was the weapon of the spiritby to principle, His whichhe finally inspirational-it conquered."46 examplewas powerfully the impelledmen and womento undertake workof reform-but it was an exampleone couldsafely invoke.Nearlyall agreedthat Brownhad finally errorsand had chastenedand sanctifiedhis spirit realizedhis abominable the last days of life. during the DuBoisresearchedand wrotehis biography during earlyyears has of the twentiethcentury,but, as Herbert Aptheker said, "thetremenhis dous symbolof John Brown" figuresin workhe didthroughout career.47 under DuBois had first studied Brownwhile doing researchat Harvard and his 1909 book consoliAlbertBushnellHartand Edward Channing, that dates ideas about (and insightsinto)Brown he had consideredcareIn return. August1906, three years fullyand to whichhe wouldfrequently beforethe bookappeared,DuBoishad addressedthe meetingof the Niawitha and that Ferry thatpinnacled gara Movement convenedat Harper's at bare-footed"pilgrimage dawn"to "thescene of Brown's martyrdom."48 for He took as his subject Brown's fight pertinence the twentieth-century of racism.Blacks,said DuBois,had been deprived the ballot,deagainst and nied education,and cruellyburdenedand abused by discrimination he affirmed, this," segregation."Against the Niagaramovementeternally protests.We willnot be satisfied take one jot or tittleless thanourfullmanhoodrights.We claim to that American, forourselveseverysingle right belongsto a freeborn we civil political, and social;and until get these rightswe willnever The cease to protestand assail the ears of America. battlewe wage It is not for ourselvesalone butfor all trueAmericans. is a fightfor
John Brown,pp. 586, 588. 46. Villard, 47. Aptheker, 91-92. pp. 48. W. E. B. DuBois,Autobiography, 249. p.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 319 and false to its founding,beideals, lest this, our commonfatherland, come in truth landof the thiefandthe homeof the Slave-a bythe wordand a hissingamongthe nationsfor its soundingpretensions and pitiful accomplishment.49 DuBois'soratory echoed the rhythms manysimilar of speeches deliveredby blackandwhiteabolitionists, such as Douglass's1852 speeches address on "the meaningof July Fourthfor the Negro,"which blasted Americafor betraying revolutionary its ideals and warnedof the mockery and contemptthat this corrupted nationwas deservedlycasting upon itself.50 DuBoisobviouslymeans to tie his own languagefor the Niagara Movement the abolitionist to cause, so thatitcan capitalize uponthe moral rhetoricand behaviorthat the earliermovementhad mobilized.His apfor the proachin the speech is a riskyone, however, itunderscores "battle" that the men and women of the Niagaramovement,assembled in the South, must dynamically wage. ThoughDuBoismeans this term metait inevitably carrieswithitassociationsof literal battlesthatwere phorically, launchedby rebellious slaves andwhitecomradesandthatshed the blood of southerners. DuBoistries to forestall these violentpossibilities. declaresthat He he and his followers shouldstriveto complete(andsurpass)the missionof the abolitionists modelling themselvesupona saintlyJohnBrown: by We do not believe in violence,neitherin the despised violence of the raidnor the laudedviolence of the soldier,nor the barbarous violenceof the mob,butwe do believein John Brown, thatincarin nate spiritof justice,thathatredof a lie, thatwillingness sacrifice to and money, reputation, life itselfon the altarof right.And here on the scene of John Brown's we martyrdom reconsecrateourselves, our honor,our property the finalemancipation the race which to of John Brown diedto makefree.51 Brown couldnotbe a Samson,a suicidal for berserker, DuBois.That was a powerful problematic but and others' image, pervasivein Brown's of writings the 1850s and 1860s, and DuBoistriedto resistit. Brown was,
49. W. E. B. DuBois, "TheNiagaraMovement: Addressto the Country," 1906, in Pamphlets and Leaflets by W. E. B. DuBois, ed. HerbertAptheker(WhitePlains: KrausThomson, 1986), pp. 63-65, at p. 63. 50. See Foner,Lifeand Writings Frederick of Douglass, 2: 181-204. 51. W. E. B. DuBois,"Niagara Movement," 64. p.
2 320 boundary / Spring 1990 instead, a second Christ,a connectionthat DuBoissoon explainedin a shortpiece he wrotefor TheHorizon-the Niagara Movement's magazine -in December1909: time and the timeof John Brown. the second This is Christmas On on of this monthhe was crucified, the 8th he was buriedand on the 25th, fiftyyears laterlet himrise fromthe dead in every NegroAmerican home.Jesus came notto bring peace buta sword.So did John Brown.Jesus Christgave his life as a sacrificefor the lowly. So didJohn Brown.52 like But if Brownis likethe crucified Christ,he is, revealingly, the whomDuBoisstrangely Christwho wields a sword,the Christ says came it not to bringpeace. DuBoisrejectsviolenceyet incorporates in his language of struggleand protest.Violenceis recognizedand contemplated: also be fended off, it exists as a real,beckoning option.Itmust,however, of the suicidethat it wouldguaranteefor blackswho postponed,because to mightfondlyseize upon it. DuBoisintendshis own "battle" be social, it moral,and political: willinvolvethe self-defining challenges of endless honorto self-sacrificeand fidelity the cleansingethicof steady,dignified, man the and able work.LikeChrist JohnBrown, trueheroand exceptional laboron must sufferfor the lowly,forginghis identity exhausting through theirbehalf.
3
on JohnBrowndrawstogetherhis reflections a formidable DuBois's to subject, thoughthe book does sufferby comparison the painstakingly detailed biographies Villard and, morerecently, Stephen B. Oates. by by In writinghis book, DuBoisseems not to have done fresh archival work, such as the two-volume sources, published heavilyuponpreviously relying
Sanborn (1885). When Life and Letters of John Brown, edited by Franklin
reviewin TheNation,he DuBois'sstudy,in an anonymous Villard critiqued the mistakesin it and suggested thatDuBoishad failedto be emphasized reviewspawned a bitter Villard's skepticaltowardhis materials. properly and of lettersbetween DuBois,Villard, Paul ElmerMore,who exchange
A The 52. W. E. B. DuBois, "JohnBrownand Christmas," Horizon: Journalof the Color ed. 5 (December1909):1; rpt.Selections fromthe Horizon, Herbert (White Aptheker Line, Plains:Kraus-Thomson, 1985), p. 85.
Cain / JohnBrown W.E. B. DuBois 321 and
a fromDuBoisthatsought editedTheNationandwho refusedto print letter to answerVillard's review.53 was hasty in gatheringand inspectingsources, DuBois probably with as Villard Andthis willdismayreadersfamiliar the massive charged. amount of originalresearchthat DuBoisundertook his Harvard for disstudies sE:tationon the slave trade (1896) and forthe AtlantaUniversity (1897-1915). Sometimes,too, DuBoisappearsnot to have fullydigested whatBrown abouthimself otherssaidabouthim,over-relying said and upon and therebylessening the impactof his argument.DuBoisinquotation fromFrederick cludes, forexample,a seven-pagequotation Douglassthat recountsan eventfulmeetingwithBrown (102-09) and a four-pageletter fromBrown's eldest son (127-31). A few of the chapters,notably that one deals withBrown's inthe South,consistalmost forattacking plans slavery of entirely unexamined quotations. is on Especiallydisappointing the absence of commentary certain WhenBrown key quotations. spoke to the courtforthe lasttime,he stated that he "neverdid intendmurder, treason,or the destruction propor of or to excite or inciteslaves to rebellion, to makeinsurrection"; or and, erty, as he concluded,he stressed this pointa second time: "Inever had any to design againstthe life of any person,norany disposition committreason, or excite slaves to rebel,or make any generalinsurrection" (quoted by DuBois,pp. 361, 362). One wondershow DuBoisrespondedto these wordsof self-refashioning portray that Brown's missionas the oppositeof what it indubitably was. In this instanceas in others, DuBoisneglects to own representation himselfand allowsBrown occupy of to query Brown's center-stageuncontested critical by judgment. This verdict holds true as well for DuBois'ssketchy account of Brown'sviolentforays in Kansasand Missouri of the massacre of a and men at Pottawatomie Creek.DuBoisviews this epigroupof pro-slavery sode-which Villard, RobertPenn Warren, Oates have treatedvery and witnessto the "costof freedom" severely-as simplybearing painful (144). But here and elsewhere DuBois'ssilence reveals, I believe, his powerfully ambivalent feelings about Brownand his sympathy for the violent les-
sons thatThoreau,Parker, otherabolitionists drawn and had fromBrown's actions. DuBoiswas an angrybutnota violentman.Yet,as his earlier writhe ings on Brownintimate, was allured the murderous that Brown by path
53. See The Correspondenceof W.E. B. DuBois,ed. Herbert Univ. Aptheker (Amherst: of Massachusetts Press, 1973), 1: 154-64.
2 1990 322 boundary / Spring chose to pursuein Kansasand Missouri was fascinatedby the revoluand warrior aimedto wage in Virginia. After tionarycombatthatthe abolitionist the all, DuBois had seen vicious race riotsexplodethroughout Souththe riot Atlanta of September1906-and he feltthe apincluding terrifying if notthe wisdom,of fighting peal, againstthe Southernracistswithwhom BookerT. Washington his minionshad humiliatingly and desiredto reach In an accommodation. his Autobiography, mentions he couldnever he that a he conceive of killing humanbeing. "But," adds, when the Atlantariot brokeout in 1906, to wheremy wife and six-year I rushedbackfromAlabama Atlanta old childwere living.A mob had ragedfor days killing Negroes. I andtwodozen rounds a Winchester double-barreled shotgun bought If of shells filledwithbuckshot. a whitemobhadsteppedon the camhesitation have sprayedtheirguts pus where I livedI wouldwithout overthe grass.54 attention Brown's to battlesand insurrectionist DuBois'srespectful schemes, and his silentlyforgiving responseto them,connectas wellwith his firmbelief that the assault on Harper's Ferrycould indeed have sucDuBoissays, and it failed only because ceeded. It was not far-fetched, some of Brown'smen, actingas a rear-guard, delayed in unaccountably and suppliesto a local schoolhousewhere, it was weapons transporting slaves and theirwhitecomradeswouldbandtogetherto hoped, mutinous beliefinthe feasiranks.ScholarshavenotsharedDuBois's fillout Brown's this of plan,butDuBoisemphasized pointeven moreboldlyin bility Brown's articleshe wrotelaterin his life.He even termedthe plan"amasterpiece," haveworked."55 based on sound guerrilla tactics,that"could flawsand oddlydisconcerting highlysugits Whatever scholarly (if on a gestive) silences, JohnBrownremains superbmeditation Afro-Ameriof and and can cultural political rendering Brown's history an impassioned or mixedlegacy-was he warrior saint?-for the freedomstrugglesof the
54. W. E. B. DuBois,Autobiography, 286. p. WestAfrican Pilot,10 November1951, 2; rpt. 55. W. E. B. DuBois,"JohnBrownLiveth!," (MillAptheker by Writings W.E. B. DuBoisin PeriodicalsEditedby Others,ed. Herbert New of wood:Kraus-Thomson, 1982),4: 168-69. See also "TheCrucifixion John Brown," Times (Moscow) December 1959, 26-29; rpt. Writings W. E B. DuBois in Periodiby God'sAngryMan," Freedom, cals Editedby Others,pp. 302-6. See also "JohnBrown: February1951; rpt.Newspaper Columnsby W.E. B. DuBois, 1945-1961, ed. Herbert 1986), 2: 1108-9. Aptheker(WhitePlains:Kraus-Thomson,
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 323 and twentiethcentury.Onlyin a marginal is John Brown"about" white a way man. DuBoisrevitalizingly Brown a symbolof black achieveas interprets ment and aspiration-so muchso that his bookcan quite reasonablybe termeda studyof the souls of blackfolk.Inhis preface,DuBoisstates that he intendsto examinethe facts of Brown's "from different life a pointof view,"addingthat "theview-point adoptedin this book is that of the little knownbutvastlyimportant innerdevelopment the NegroAmerican" of (7). DuBois'semphasis is startling, even shocking,foritjudges Brown matto ter for what he reveals aboutthe development blacks,not whites. For of DuBois, Brownmeritsraptnotice because he livedon close terms with has blacks, and, more than any otherwhiteAmerican, "comenearest to the real souls of blackfolk"(8). Through Brown-the man who touching stood withblacks "ona planeof perfectequality" see also 247)-we (99; can learn essential truthsabout blackexperiences,values, accomplishments. He enables us to peer intothe oftenveiledsoul of a maligned and abused people and to glimpse signs of blackviolence, vengeance, and determined, prolonged struggle. The openingof DuBois's chapter first takes exactlythisturn: The mysticspell of Africais and ever was over all America.Ithas and guided her hardestwork,inspiredher finest literature, sung her sweetest songs. Hergreatestdestiny-unsensed and despised the thoughit be-is to give backto the firstof continents giftswhich Africa old gave to America's of fathers' fathers. Of all inspiration which Americaowes to Africa,however,the faris the score of heroicmenwhomthe sorrowsof these greatestby darkchildren calledto unselfish devotion heroicself-realization: and and Benezet, Garrison, Harriet Stowe;Sumner,Douglass,and Lincoln-these and others,butabove all,JohnBrown. (7) Notonlydoes DuBoisassign Brown extraordinarily statusan lofty Africanizes American hisexcellingeven Lincoln's-buthe also strikingly Africaas the source forthe best achievementsof America tory,depicting and the land to which America'sgifts will eventuallyreturn.America's heroes, blackas well as white,exist because of the sorrowful lives of the "dark children" Africa. of The enslaved peoplethemselves issued the call to selfless service and inaugurated crusadethatfreedthem. the in accents the strengthand Everywhere his book, DuBoisradically resistanceof blacks:they foughtagainsttheirmasters,didwhateverthey
could to counter brutalityand mistreatment,and exemplified forms of cour-
1990 2 324 boundary / Spring learnedand took inspiration. DuBois age from which white abolitionists the extent of the repression that blacksfaced and the dense recognizes network law and customthat functioned maintain vicious status of to the to slave revoltsand effortsby quo. Buthe misses no opportunity highlight blacks on a small and large scale to flee to the North."Theflamingfury of theirmad attemptsat vengeance,"says DuBoisof rebellious slaves in and SouthCarolina, alldownthe blood-swept "echoes Jamaica,Haiti, path of slavery"(79). The "great blackmass of Southern slaves were cowed," he observes, "but they were notconquered" (81). In Louisianaand Tennessee and twice in Virginia they raised the nightcry of revolt,and once slew fiftyVirginians, holdingthe state forweeks at baythereinthose same Alleghanies whichJohn Brown loved and listenedto. On the ships of the sea they rebelledand to murdered; Florida they fled and turnedlikebeasts on theirpursuers till whole armies dislodgedthem and did them to death in the everglades;and again and againover them and throughthem a surged and quivered vast unrestwhichonlythe eternalvigilance down.Yetthe fearof thatgreatboundbeast was of the masterskept dreadthat never left the South ever there-a nameless, haunting and never ceased, but ever nervedthe remorselesscrueltyof the master'sarm.(81-82) DuBois'simageryof the bloodyblack"beast" capitalizesupon the Even in the bookof Revelation. of fearfulrendering impending cataclysm it deliberately ratifies fears of blackviolencethatwere common the more, own amongthe southernwhitesof DuBois's dayandthatweregivena groracistbest-sellers,The formin ThomasDixon's staggeringly tesque, lurid
Leopard's Spots (1902) and The Clansman (1905). DuBois's tactic here is
committed his opby daringand dangerous;he emphasizesthe slaughters War Whitesin the pre-Civil period,DuBoissuggests, had pressed people. into men intoanimalsor, moreominously, beasts capable of transformed that The "onething" saved the Southfromthe horrors terrible devastation. the of Haiti,DuBoiscontends,was the "escapeof the fugitives," men and and chose to flee to the North joinedwithfree blacks womenwho bravely that and there to form"thegreatblackphalanx worked schemed and paid for the freedomof blackmen in America" and finally (82). Once in fought the the North, escaped slaves toldof the slaveholders' crimes,and, as the the for case of Frederick Douglassattests, authenticated potential greatness that slavery punishingly denied. "Indeed,"speculates DuBois about
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 325 and John Brown,"itis not unlikely the firstblackfolkto gain his aid and that to became his life-work, sympathiesand directhis thoughts whatafterward werethe fugitive slaves fromthe South" (83). DuBoiscites no evidencefor this possibility, it accordswiththe momentum his argument: but of blacks showed the way to whites, directedthe thoughtsof white men such as motiveforwhiteabolitionism. Brown,and suppliedthe energizing To understand battlefor liberation seared Americain the the that middleof the nineteenth that century,DuBoismaintains we must hearken to the movementof the blackmasses, the stirring "below" generated that and vitalized prominent the leaders: A great unrestwas on the land.Itwas not merelymoralleadership fromabove-it was the push of physicaland mentalpainfrombebut of neath;-not simplythe cryof the Abolitionist the upstretching the slave. The visionof the damnedwas stirring westernworld the and stirring blackmen as wellas white.Something was forcingthe issue-call it whatyou will,the Spirit God or the spell of Africa. of Itcame likesome greatgrinding imswell,-vast, indefinite, ground measurable mighty, the darklowwhispering some infinite but like of disembodiedvoice-a riddle the Sphinx.Ittore men's souls and of wreckedtheirfaith.(121) The apocalypticspecter that hauntedthe western world,DuBois hard on counsels, reflectedthe painfully workthatthe enslavedperformed theirown behalf:this is wherethe originating forrevoltand rebelimpulse liondwells.DuBoisis intentuponreorienting reader'ssense of political his struggle,whichis made fundamentally the masses, not by the exalted by heroes (see also 134). Inthe process, DuBoisredefines history abothe of litionism the storyof arduousblackinitiative, blacksfighting their as of for freedomand stirring whitesto helpthem.Although book is obviously this aboutJohn Brown,in one sense it concentrates Brown orderto draon in matizethe blackforces-the spellof Africa the animations the black and of masses-that worked him. through DuBois's of life reading the eventsof Brown's falters onlyonce, when he engages the failureof Douglassand otherblacksto participate the in raidon Harper's Ferry.DuBoishandlesthis matterunsteadily (see 10910, 270, 344-46), perhapsbecause he believesthatblackserredmilitarily and morally whenthey refusedto joinBrown's ranksinsignificant numbers. The historical recordatteststhatsome blackswerepartof the mission,but
most rejected it as desperate and unworkable.Douglass himself reports in
326 boundary / Spring 2 1990 his autobiography he fearedBrown's that actionwouldcommitthe South even more absolutelyto slavery:it wouldscripta bloodyspectacle that the South woulduse to organizeits powerallthe morevindictively. Brown relatesDouglass,"he him,and "inparting," urgedDouglassto accompany and put his arms aroundme in a mannermorethanfriendly, said: 'Come withme, Douglass;I willdefendyou withmy life. I wantyou for a special purpose.When I strike,the bees willbeginto swarm,and I shallwantyou to help hivethem.'"56 ButDouglasswas unconvinced. DuBoissympathizes Douglass's with decisionto rejectBrown's offer, but he seems not to have agreed withit. Menfear the path that Brown followedand readily furnish reasonsforshunningit, but, sensible, prudent claims DuBois,todaywe clearlysee that"John Brown was right" (338). he "Slaveryis wrong," said,-"kill it."Destroyit-uproot it, stem, exterminate and do it now. it blossom,and branch; itno quarter, give Was he wrong?No. The forcible stayingof humanuplift barriers by of law,and might,and tradition the mostwickedthingon earth.It is is wrong,eternally name it is called, wrong.Itis wrong,by whatever or inwhatever and guise it lurks, wheneveritappears.Butit is espein ciallyheinous,black,and cruelwhenit masquerades the robesof law and justiceand patriotism. was American So slaveryclothedin not means. (340-41) 1859, and it hadto die by revolution, by milder Brown'sattack,then, was a failure,but his Samson-likebehavior to prophesiedthe violence on a grandscale that had inevitably come if were at last to die. Here,as oftenin his book,DuBoispresentshis slavery ardentversionof the American Afro-American andannouncesthe and past fatethatlies instoreforwhiteAmerica the beginning the twentieth at of cendemandedrevolution so does the racismthatpermeates and tury.Slavery whatare the weapons Americain the early1900s. The questionis simply, will withwhichthis revolutionary warfare be prosecuted?To keep blacks in check willrequiremassive repression and violence,and such a policy is doomed to be counter-productive. feverishly By keepingdown blacks, will toward blackself-assertion whiteAmericans onlygalvanizemovements and resistanceand kindleblacks'desireforviolentmeasuresto end their oppression. Likemanyturn-of-the-century commentators, DuBoisdoes mention
56. FrederickDouglass, Life and Times of FrederickDouglass (1892; rpt. New York: Macmillan, 1979), p. 320.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 327 and for virtuesand crucifixion the cause of freedom(e.g., Brown'sChrist-like the idealism Brown's that 338), andhe also unfolds lesson of self-sacrificing centralmessage, etched in career illustrates (356-57, 370). ButDuBois's is of descriptions violence,insiststhat"thepriceof repression greaterthan the cost of liberty" see also 76, 140). The priceis notonlythe loss of (17; for talentand skillamongsubjugated peopledeniedopportunities advancement, but it is also the pricepaidby the dominant group:racialprejudice and hatreddiminish America a whole (17). Some mightargue, DuBois as that changes in America's treatment its blackpopulation of will observes, too costly in money,blood,and national to implement. But prove identity DuBoisrepliesthatthe cost we mustpay nowwillbe farless thanthe cost will thatfurther DuBoisbelieves,the forces of repression exact. Eventually, if freedomwillprevail; America balksat freedomnow and deprivesblacks of their rights,then it willbe obligedto intensify repressiveactionsits willthus arouse blacksto an even higherpitchof opposition.When and the South failedto free its slaves, he added,it ensuredthat revolutionary withBrown's and endingwiththe CivilWar,would raid violence, beginning Itthereforeignorantly, eruptdevastatingly. self-destructively obligeditself to pay a priceinfinitely thanwouldhave been "thecost of liberty." greater As he closes his book,DuBoisreaffirms basic message: his the is This, then, is the truth: cost of liberty less than the priceof repression,even thoughthat cost be blood. Freedomof development and equalityof opportunity the demandof Darwinism is and this calls forthe abolition hardand fast lines betweenraces, just of as it calledforthe breaking downof barriers betweenclasses. Only in this way can the best in humanity discoveredand conserved, be and onlythus can mankind in peace and progress.The present live to attempt forceallwhitesabovealldarker peoples is a sure method of humandegeneration. cost of liberty thusa decreasingcost, The is while the cost of repressionever tends to increaseto the danger Revolution not a test of capacity;it is is pointof warand revolution. of alwaysa loss and a lowering ideals.(395) In this unsettled,complicated passage, DuBoiswarns Americaof the revolution certainto scar it if it persists in its barbarism fostering by racismat home and hellishly abroad.He uses Darimperialism sustaining win against the social Darwinists claiming evolution that tends toward by
progress and a better life for all. Darwinwould never advise us, DuBois professes, that we should batter down the darker races of the world and,
328 boundary / Spring 2 1990 and of artificially wrongheadedly, imposethe primacy the whiterace upon the evolutionary As DuBoisnotes earlier, "thepresenthegemonyof cycle. the white races"threatens"bymeans of bruteforce a survivalof some of the worse stocks of mankind. attempts peoplethe best partsof the It to earth and put in absoluteauthority over the rest, not usually(and indeed not mainly) culture Europe its greedanddegradation" the of but (379-80). WhileDuBois'seffortto subvertturn-of-the-century social Darwinism is convincing to a point,it is, finally, somewhat strained. turning a up By sociologicalweaponof the racistsagainstthem,DuBoissurelydidsurprise to many readers:he was demonstrating them that Darwinian arguments could be employedfor progressiveas well as reactionary purposes. But DuBois'srelianceon Darwinian notionsof good and bad stocks of people and the evolutionary growthof the best types, and his worriedconcern and aboutdegeneration decay-all these mistakenly locatehimon the opterrain: is givingcredibility theirterms. DuBois'stactic is he to pressors' racialist clever,yet it leads himintoungainly categoriesof his own as he bad protestsagainstthe inveterate stocks of whitepeople who gain sway and over blacksin America Africa. is this closing section of John Brownskewed? Whythe sudWhy of themes? Isuspect that den, ultimately unpersuasive surfacing Darwinian DuBoiswent astray,lookingfor and awkwardly of "survival the handling on fittest" language,because he recognized some leveland, furthermore, him wished to avoidthe powerful logicof his book-a logicthatpropelled towardan acknowledgment indeed,an acceptanceof violenceas the and, finalstage of social and political inevitable protest.DuBoisproposes that of Yet "is revolution alwaysa loss anda lowering ideals." thisis notthe truth of John Brownas DuBoishimselfearlierdefinedit. DuBoisdeclaredthat not to American John Brown"wasright": slavery"had die by revolution, by in DuBois mildermeans"(341). Writing an era ravagedby Negrophobia, the coursethatthis fastens himselfto Brown's exampleandjustifies violent of Brown whitewarrior followed."Thecarnival crimeand rapine" produced but in Kansas "was a disgraceto civilization it was the cost of freedom, and it was less than the priceof repression" (140). But even as DuBois of whatBrown in Kansas did instructs to see the revolutionary us rightness he and Virginia, also wants to stampsuch vengefulconductas wrongideals and preventsus undercuts and always wrong-because revolution them. fromrealizing at sensed this contradiction the heartof his book. DuBoisprobably
In 1962, for a new edition of John Brown, he inserted a passage directly after the paragraphabout revolutionI have quoted.
Cain/ John Brown W.E.B.DuBois 329 and Butif [thisrevolution] a truerevolution repaysall losses and reis it sults inthe uplift the human of race.OnecouldwishthatJohnBrown couldsee todaythe resultsof the greatrevolution Russia;thathe in could see the new worldof Socialismand Communism expanding untilit alreadycomprisesthe majority mankind; of untilit has conof made vast inroadson the problem queredthe problem poverty, of ignoranceand even begunto putto flightthe problem avoidof able disease. It has abolishedunemployment is approaching and the greatday when all men willdo forthe world whatthey are best suitedto do and willreceivein return fromthe worldnotallthatthey wantbuteverything each manneeds. (395-96) that DuBoisherecorrects By 1962 a staunchCommunist partymember, his own earlier that can judgment affirming revolution embodythe best by idealsof mankind compensateforanycosts incurred and whileprosecuting it. InpartDuBoisis manifestly to celebratethe gloriousrevolutions striving inthe Soviet Unionand China; the heightof the ColdWar, boldly at he contends that revolution not a bad wordand presses homethatrevolutions is do notalwaysprofanehumanity. DuBoisis notsimplybringing book Yet his intoideologicallinewithhis Communist of the 1950s and 1960s, positions forhis wordsare inbasicaccordwiththe tendencyanddriveof the bookhe researchedand wrotein the early1900s. "Thegreat mass"of oppressed DuBoisaffirms his 1909text, in people in America, is becoming daily more thoroughly organized,more deeply selfmoreconsciousof itspower.... Andas itgrowsitis sensing critical, more and more the vantage-ground whichit holds as a defender of the rightof the freedomof humandevelopment blackmen in for the midstof a centreof modernculture.Itsees its brothersin yelheldphysically arms'lengthfromcivilization at low,blackand brown lest they become civilizedand less liableto conquestand exploitation.Itsees the world-wide effortto buildan aristocracy races of and nationson a foundation darker, of half-enslaved tributary and peoples. It knowsthat the last great battleof the West is to vindicate the right any manof any nation, of race,or colorto share inthe world's andthoughtsandefforts the extentof his effortand to goods ability. (389-90) If the brutalpracticesof racistAmericaat the turnof the century
demand the rebirthof abolitionism;if the South in particularshows itself deeply embedded in bigotry;and if the mass of mankindis steadily growing
2 1990 330 boundary / Spring in its power; thenterrible, but terrifying, necessarybattleandwarlie ahead. DuBois "Persistencein racialdistinction spells disastersooner or later," be prophesies.Menand womenwilltherefore forcedone day to chooseold John as Frederick Douglasswas forcedto choose whenthe "dear man" in Brownurgedhimto hivethe bees soon to be set swarming the South. articulates and unevenly This choice-one that DuBoisboth approvingly in strivesto countervail his book-will be a choicebetweenwordsand vioand lent deeds, reform revolution, peacefulconductand the death-dealing that John Brownadopted.As Browndeclaredto the court, in strategies wordsthatDuBoisquotesto concludehis book,"This questionis stillto be settled-this Negroquestion,I mean.Theend of thatis notyet"(403). The alarmed featureof JohnBrown,andthe mostprovocative, most disturbing tributeone can pay to it, is to say that DuBoispassionatelyevokes and violentsettlement the Negroquestion. of laborsto resistthe inescapably

Violence, Revolution, and The Cost of Freedom: John Brown and W. E. B. DuBois

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Violence, Revolution, and the Cost of Freedom: John Brown and W. E. B. DuBois Author(s): William E.

Cain / JohnBrown W.E. B. DuBois 321 and

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