Midnight rising : John Brown and the raid that sparked the Civil War / Tony Horwitz.
2011
E451 .H77 2011 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
Midnight rising : John Brown and the raid that sparked the Civil War / Tony Horwitz.
Author
Horwitz, Tony, 1958-2019.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
9780805091533
080509153X
080509153X
Publication Details
New York : Henry Holt and Co., 2011.
Language
English
Description
xii, 365 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 25 cm.
Call Number
E451 .H77 2011
Dewey Decimal Classification
973.7/116
Summary
In this book the author tells the tale of the daring insurrection that put America on the path to bloody war. Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, this work portrays Brown's uprising revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859 he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland, joined by his teenage daughter, three of his sons, and a guerrilla band that included former slaves and a spy. On October 17, the raiders seized Harpers Ferry, stunning the nation and prompting a counterattack led by Robert E. Lee. After Brown's capture, his defiant eloquence galvanized the North and appalled the South, which considered Brown a terrorist. The raid also helped elect Abraham Lincoln, who later began to fulfill Brown's dream with the Emancipation Proclamation, a measure he called "a John Brown raid, on a gigantic scale." This book travels antebellum America to deliver both a historical drama and a telling portrait of a nation divided, a time that still resonates in ours.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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Table of Contents
Prologue: October 16, 1859
pt. 1. The road to Harpers Ferry
School of adversity
I consecrate my life
A warlike spirit
First blood
Secret service
This spark of fire
pt. 2. Into Africa
My invisibles
Into the breach
I am nearly disposed of now
pt. 3. They will Brown us all
His despised poor
A full fountain of bedlam
So let it be done
Dissevering the ties that bind us
Epilogue: Immortal raiders.
pt. 1. The road to Harpers Ferry
School of adversity
I consecrate my life
A warlike spirit
First blood
Secret service
This spark of fire
pt. 2. Into Africa
My invisibles
Into the breach
I am nearly disposed of now
pt. 3. They will Brown us all
His despised poor
A full fountain of bedlam
So let it be done
Dissevering the ties that bind us
Epilogue: Immortal raiders.