Marking the Birth of John Brown

John Brown, American terrorist, American hero, was born on this day in 1800. “John Brown was John the Baptist for the Christ we are to see” sang those who saw his Quixotic raid on Harper’s Ferry as the beginning of the end for slavery. And how that holds some terrible truth, a challenge to all of us who wish for a better way. I think of those who say without the Civil War slavery would have ended on its own in time. I don’t find that argument particularly compelling, and wonder who would volunteer to make their children and maybe their children’s children chattel slaves to avoid the conflagration that would be the cost of their liberation. Of course with that I find myself thinking of the way reconstruction was bungled, and with that the creation of what feels a permanent underclass. And I think of how John Brown’s cause has been betrayed at its heart, and how that call for liberation for all continues to haunt us…