John Brown's Body Research Articles

"The Blood of Millions": John Brown's Body, Public Violence, and Political Community

Accustomed to the overnight successes, unexpected comebacks, and sudden reversals of celebrity culture, we might still find cause to wonder at the course of John Brown’s fame. At the time of his capture in October 1859, Brown was a pariah, a fanatic, a blunderer of enormous proportions. By the summer of 1861 he was a mascot of sorts for the Union army—his death commemorated time and again as soldiers prepared to fight, his name synonymous with bravery, self-sacrifice, and patriotism. No one was more aggrieved by this transformation than John Wilkes Booth. Writing to his brother-in-law in 1864 he lamented, “what was a crime in poor John Brown is now considered (by themselves) as the greatest and only virtue of the whole Republican Party. Strange transmigration!”1

"The Blood of Millions": John Brown's Body, Public Violence, and Political Community

Journal Article “The Blood of Millions”: John Brown's Body, Public Violence, and Political Community Get access Franny Nudelman Franny Nudelman Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Literary History, Volume 13, Issue 4, Winter 2001, Pages 639–670, https://doi.org/10.1093/alh/13.4.639 Published: 01 December 2001

The Map and the Territory: An Interview with Michael S. Harper

The interview that follows was produced in three-part process. The initial question-and-answer sessions took place in Providence, Rhode Island, during June 1997 and August 1998. Audio recordings of these meetings were made in Harper's loft, in his office on the campus of Brown University, and in his car while driving through the narrow streets of Providence, and subsequently transcribed. Professor Harper then reviewed the raw transcripts, editing and elaborating on his answers as he saw fit. He was also kind enough to provide written answers to questions that emerged during this revision process. On February 12, 1999, Professor Harper was satisfied with the interview and returned this text to me along with note which read: CODA: I am attaching several poems which are meant to elucidate some of the ideas in my responses. 'Let the doing be the exercise, not the exhibition' (Jean Toomer). Antonucci: We can start by going back. In the 1973 interview with O'Brien from Interviews with Black Writers, you state that the poem Zeus Muse about the making of grids, the relationship between horizontal and vertical axes and dominion. You continue, Essentially it's about imperialism; it represents gaze over all things, dominion over all things. But black people can't function in that particular vision of the grid. They're expendable, they've been annihilated; and not only black people but nonwhites, or pagans or Indians or anyone and anything in the way of this particular vision with its armies, navies and its technological system. Could you speak to the way that this and other poems challenge dominant notions of American identity in their mapping of the American cultural/historical landscape? Harper: In the twenty-five years that have passed since the O'Brien interview the notions of renegade commentator from without the magic circle have changed. The best answer to the question is attitudinal. Robert Hayden's poetry exemplifies the psychic landscape of the stranger. I share that resonance as an outsider; it is condition I prefer to belonging, however comfortable that status might be. Antonucci: Robert Hayden describes America as a problem in metaphysics. In your interview with James Randell you call Hayden great historian and symbolist poet. Would you care to elaborate on the idea of poets as historians? Harper: Hayden says in his poem [American Journal]: america as much problem in metaphysics as it is nation earthly entity an iota in our galaxy an organism that changes even as i examine it fact and fantasy never twice the same so many variables Pay attention to the lineation, the gaps, and the tentative feedback of an extraterrestrial come to observe us (see brackets around title) as message given to us as perceptions subject to enhancement and revision. This is dynamic process. Perhaps our closeness to the intricacies of identity, including race and gender, blind us to what we have in common with humanity. And as Hayden reminds us, the unknowable essence is what we, as Americans and extraterrestrials, have in common. This means to me that we have neglected the largest part of our inheritance, the efficacy of religion as faith in the future that might bind us all. Hayden wrote the important essays on the presence of Black Americans in the State of Michigan for the Federal Writers' Project, even though the assignation of these essays was anonymous. If one would compare the poems Hayden wrote in The Black Spear sequence, in which Hayden took on Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's Body, the linkage and responsibility Hayden absorbs into American Literary Historiography provide good example of technique, kind of personal shorthand which reviews and extends the insights of our predecessors as living monument to the present and future. Hayden's poems continue to resonate long after his death, providing usefulness for coming generations: place to start, looking backward and forward to the metaphysics in Hayden's admonition: america as much problem in metaphysics as it is nation earthly entity an iota in our galaxy Antonucci: With respect to Brown and his legacy as literary figure and historical subject, your poetic commentary appears to be part of larger discourse that includes works by Benet and Hayden as well as Robert Penn Warren and Du Bois. …

John Brown's Body: Elites, Heroic Embodiment, and the Legitimation of Political Violence

While violence against a legally constituted government is condemned when defined as such, some violent political acts are considered socially proper. I explore how political violence can be legitimated or even venerated by reference to John Brown's raid on the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859. Such claims are particularly likely when the violent act has cultural resonance, the actor is supported by cultural and political elites who serve, in effect, as “fellow travelers” for the movement, and when opponents of the violence do not participate in the creation of meaning. Because of Brown's links to cultural elites in Boston and to political elites in the emerging Republican Party, many Americans came to see Brown as a hero or martyr, embodying in his personal actions a committed moral figure. Like most effective narratives, collective memory requires a hero with which audiences identify. By virtue of his physical embodiment of radical abolition, John Brown served as a mnemonic for his cause. The label “John Brown's Body” refers to more than a song title, but to the process of recalling a complex concern through the images of individual action and persona. Images of Brown the man were facilitated by the secession of Southern states, leaving the reputational field open for Brown's supporters to establish his reputation after his death without rival narratives.

John Brown's Body: Elites, Heroic Embodiment, and the Legitimation of Political Violence

John Brown's Body: Elites, Heroic Embodiment, and the Legitimation of Political Violence

John Brown's Body (1998 Fiction Contest Winner)

John Brown's Body (1998 Fiction Contest Winner)

Robert Hayden's Epic of Community

As early as 1941 Robert Hayden prepared himself for the task of writing an ambition he formed after reading Stephen Vincent Benet's long Civil War poem, John Brown's Body. Interviewed in 1972, Hayden spoke of this ambition in the following manner: I've always been interested in Afro-American history, and when I was young poet, since I knew that history had been misrepresented, I wanted to contribute toward an understanding of what past had really been like. I set out to correct the misconceptions and to destroy some of the stereotypes and cliches which surrounded Negro history. (Collected Prose 162) Speaking here of our history and our past, Hayden shifts easily from the first person singular to first person plural, reminder that all historical epics are first of all affirmations of community. Yet readers familiar with Hayden's concerns, with the care of his writing, will hear in this particular affirmation quiet but important ambiguity. For while he speaks in this passage in the first person plural, it is not entirely clear whether his our is meant to encompass all of America, or only the Negro portion. As I shall try to show, the possibility afforded by this ambiguity is major theme of Hayden's later work. Over the years Hayden's planned epic--his ambitious corrective to cliches and misconceptions about black history--would assume many forms, reaching temporary completion as collection of poems called The Black Spear, a mixture of styles, idioms submitted to various publishers but eventually withdrawn (Collected Prose 187). Asked about the genesis of this collection, Hayden recalled: Specifically, I became interested in writing it largely as result of reading Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's Body. There's passage in which he says, O, black-skinned epic, epic with the long black spear, I cannot sing you now, having too white heart. And he goes on to say that someday poet will rise to sing of the black spear. I dared to hope that I might be that poet. (Collected Prose 162) Hayden eventually abandoned The Black Spear, but the inspiration driving the project remained strong. Indeed, the inclusion of sequence of meditations on John Brown in the posthumous volume American Journal--there are also poems for Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar--indicates the depth of Hayden's commitment to this original impetus of his work. The principal difference between The Black Spear and American Journal is the nature of Hayden's use of the first person plural--the pronoun of community. Implicit from the beginning in Benet's call for black epic was an essentialist understanding of the poet's relationship to this pronoun. Hayden's increasingly deft interrogation of this essentialism thus provides an especially useful means of tracing the development of Hayden's art. Leaving behind the writing of Benet's he increasingly took on the task of writing more generally American poetry, first under the aegis of passionate universalism, later through stance somewhat akin to multiculturalism. An early collation of The Black Spear won for Hayden the Hopwood Award for 1942, judged by W. H. Auden; single poem survives from that manuscript in Hayden's Collected Poems--O Daedelus, Fly Away Home.(1) Another early poem, Frederick Douglass, conceived originally as the final sonnet in sequence celebrating outstanding figures in the antislavery struggle, was also written for that project (Collected Prose 185). Then too there's Middle Passage, prepared specifically as The Black Spear's opening, now Hayden's most famous poem, an early version of which appeared in Phylon. Epic in scale if not length, this astonishing work allows us to consider Hayden's abandonment of The Black Spear as something other than sign of failure. Of course, as is often the case with writers' projects, The Black Spear was never really abandoned after all, but only underwent metamorphosis. …

Servile Insurrection and John Brown's Body in Europe

Servile Insurrection and John Brown's Body in Europe

Roosevelt's Image Brokers: Poets, Playwrights, and the Use of the Lincoln Symbol (review)

92CIVIL WAR HISTORY And yet, Quarles thinks, Brown may not have misjudged the militancy of slaves as much as some historians suppose. Because of bad timing the revolt was suppressed too quickly to really test black militancy. Certainly northern blacks were not unresponsive as the aftermath of Harper 's Ferry shows. And, despite a lavish display by the southern press of loyal slaves professing hatred for Brown, these same journals report a wave of arson attempts, suggesting a different response than the one being featured on their front pages. Of course the chief impact of Brown has been the legend rather than the man. For blacks his image has proved more enduring than that of other whites whose noble words are often belied by self-serving deeds. Even for those frustrated black nationalists of the 1960s, the division of the world along the lines of color was never complete. Because they remembered that there had been one white man who cared enough to become a martyr to their cause. John Brown was evidence that mankind is one. W. McKee Evans California Polytechnic University Roosevelt's Image Brokers: Poets, Playwrights, and the Use of the Lincoln Symbol. By Alfred Haworth Jones. (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1974. Pp. 134. $8.95.) Alfred Haworth Jones's title imperfectly suggests the central theme of this provocative study: Franklin Roosevelt's discovery and use of Abraham Lincoln, with the help of Carl Sandburg, Stephen Vincent Benêt and Robert Sherwood, to strengthen Roosevelt's leadership as America prepared for World War Two. Through Sandburg's The Prairie Years ( 1926) and The War Years ( 1939), Benét's John Brown's Body ( 1928) and Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" (1939), these spiritual descendants of Walt Whitman demonstrated the symbolic importance of legitimizing American democracy by rediscovering for their generation Abraham Lincoln. Sandburg began almost immediately after Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933 to note the parallels between the aristocrat of Hyde Park and the prairie lawyer from Illinois. In 1935, Sandburg, known as the Washington correspondent for the Lincoln administration, wrote F.D.R. that "as with Lincoln there has been a response of the People to you: they have done something to you and made you what you could not have been without them, this interplay operating steadily in your growth." With publication of Sandburg's Tlie War Years in 1939, Max Lerner hailed the new Lincoln image as "almost providentially made for our present national crisis." During the 1940 presidential campaign, Sandburg delivered his "What Lincoln Would Have Done" speech in which he concluded that Lincoln would have been a New Dealer. Benêt and Raymond Massey also lent their Lincoln magic to the Roosevelt cause. BOOK REVIEWS93 With Sherwood writing his speeches, F.D.R. himself more frequently compared his striving for national unity with that of Lincoln in 1864. Jones's title emphasizes for a media-conscious public the manipulation of the electorate involved in securing and retaining the presidency. His study, however, deals more fundamentally with the process by which in a democracy such as ours poets as well as politicians engage in legitimizing their roles and their generation by interpreting and identifying with our great historical figures. Finally, Jones suggests why Franklin Roosevelt as president could kneel with more apparent conviction at the Lincoln altar in time of war than could Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Unlike his two successors, F.D.R. led the nation's worship with the support of some of its foremost poets and playwrights. The liturgy was more convincing, the political self-serving more concealed , and the nation united to face what was widely regarded to be a just war. Christopher N. Breiseth Sangamon State University ...

John Brown's Body

By no one has the history of the Civil War been · more competently and devotedly served than Boyd B. Stutler. His "Notes ¿r Queries" column, which he has editedsince the inception of "CivilWar History ," is only one of the media by which Mr. Stutler has disseminated a steady outflow of hard-core facts about the CivilWar, among them this year an exhibit of original John Brown and Harpers Ferry material and a long feature—for its 180th anniversary —of the history of his own National Guard Regiment, the 150th Infantry. John Brown's Body BOYD B. STUTLER John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave, His soul is marching on! "put into one sum the time[s] the name of Lincoln, the Martyred President , and Grant, the Peerless General, have been uttered and it would not make a hundredth part the number of time[s] that represents the utterance of John Brown's name in this song." That was the enthusiastic estimate of Alfred S. Roe in 1883, written at a time when there were probably more people in America who could sing "John Brown's Body" than any other song or hymn. This estimate may not have been an exaggeration, for "John Brown's Body" was the mighty war song that had roared its way from first to last through all the four years of the Civil War—and was carried over with but little loss of popularity into the immediate postwar years. It was a song for the camp and field, and for the long marches—but it also caught the popular fancy of the folks at home, and, if we are to believe contemporary records, the song was heard everywhere, in homes, at public meetings, and on the streets, in the northern and midwestern states. Indeed, its popularity spread to foreign lands, where it was sung in English and in alien languages. 251 f>r>-? B O Y 1) B . STUT I. F, H Set to the easy swing of a simple old Methodist air, slightly jazzed up, which was well known to the great mass of church-going people, with a beat that made it an almost perfect marching tune, the doggerel verses of the original composition contained the elements of simplicity and sentiment —with a touch of humor—that were essential in a popular expression to reflect the patriotic frenzy in the early months of the war. Once launched, the John Brown song rolled on like a great snowball, gaining favor and collecting scores of variant lyrics, the greatest of which—Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic"—has worn well through the years as a minor national anthem. That is the John Brown song in its glorified form. The origin of the song has been curiously confused and involved by myth-makers, uninformed writers, and some dozen or more false claimants to the composition of both words and music. But the story is made quite clear by careful research through newspapers of the war period, letters, and old records. The most amazing feature—not, however, a recent discovery —is that John Brown, the militant antislavery crusader whose name had been impressed upon the public consciousness by his raid on Harpers Ferry and his execution at Charlestown on December 2, 1859, was not the John Brown of the original song! But to the great Northern public there was but one John Brown—he of Osawatomie and Harpers Ferry—and the song was accepted as a tribute to the man whose antislavery raid was one of the principal contributing causes of the war. The original Brown named in the song was Sergeant John Brown of Boston. John Brown, the raider, got his song because of a public misconception , a circumstance that caused Dr. Frank H. Hodder to write that the posthumous fame of John Brown came about partly as the result of propaganda and partly as the result of the accident of the "John Brown song." ß ß ß When the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, war fever was worked up to a white heat in Boston. Young men flocked to the headquarters of organized military units to enlist for immediate service in the South...

For Collectors Only

For Collectors Only EDITED BY RALPH G. NEWMAN 18 East Chestnut Street Chicago 11, Illinois COVERING THE CIVIL WAR "BEAT" these days we are constantly reminded that there is a "Civil War revival ," and that books relating to the War Between the States are (at least according to some authorities) outselling all other books in both the fiction and nonfiction fields. Life devotes 18 pages to the epic story; Time features a special section with color photographs of the battlefields ; Collier's begins a new series with an elaborate (and expertly written) account of Lincoln's visit to Richmond; the usually blasé New Yorker devotes its entire literary section to a discussion of Civil War books; Holiday has begun publishing accounts of the major battles and other publications follow suit and plan even more impressive tributes to the Lincoln-Lee era. New Civil War books are appearing at the staggering rate of more than a new title a week and at least one book club which attempts to distribute literature in this field has had to determine whether to become a "bookof -the-week club" or reconcile itself to distributing what its editors believe are the better books. It was not always this way. Many of us recall the not-too-distant past when a first-rate Civil War title might be considered a success if the publisher could manage to sell 3,500 copies and a 5,000 copy sale was regarded as amazing. Sad enough, some of the best books in our favorite field never even reached these figures. Among the titles that graced the "remainder" lists were such classics as Marshall's An Aide-de-Camp of Lee, Sir Frederick Maurice's Statesmen and Leaders of the Civil War and the first edition of Randall's Constitutional Problems Under Lincoln. 75 76R A L G H G. N E W M A X Ordeal By Fire, the Fletcher Pratt book appeared on the list of non bestsellers until the new boom rescued it from publishing oblivion. It seems incredible to think that ten years ago the editor of the best single volume collection of the writings and speeches of Abraham Lincoln almost sold his rights to the book for a few hundred dollars because almost every major publisher had decided that a satisfactory market did not exist for the work. It was finally accepted and has remained in print ever since and I suspect will remain in the publisher's catalogue as long as the firm remains in business. The plates of Robert Selph Henry's "First with the Most" Forrest and Stanley F. Horn's The Army of Tennessee were melted down and the most colossal blunder of all occurred when the greatest of all of the classics, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, was allowed to go out-of-print. What caused the present boom? Some say it is the imminence of the Civil War centennial; others that interest is cyclical and at regular intervals reappears. It would seem to your editor that good books and writing were responsible for the present happy state of Civil War affairs. I figure it all began back in 1926 when a comparatively young but already prematurely gray-haired poet and newspaperman turned to the writing of American history and the first two volumes of Carl Sandburg's Abraham Lincoln appeared. Sandburg showed that it was possible to write history and write excitingly at the same time. This was not new — Carlyle had known it, but evidently too many had forgotten or had never known the technique. It required a combination of genius, curiosity and story-telling ability. Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body, published in 1928, helped stir the kettle. The journalists were about to take over from the academicians. The Civil War was just another "beat" and they covered Grant and Lee, the Shenandoah Valley and Shiloh just as they had handled local crime, the world series or current politics. Lloyd Lewis, Douglas Southall Freeman, Allan Nevins (newspaperman turned professor), Stanley F. Horn, John W. Thomason, Jr., Robert Selph Henry and a lovely lady named Margaret Mitchell and many, many others put real...

For Collectors Only

For Collectors Only EDITED BY RALPH G. NEWMAN 18 East Chestnut Street Chicago 11, Illinois CIVIL WAR FICTION publication of mac KiNLAY kantor's Andersonvtlle and the tremendous interest shown in the novel as weU as the controversy caused by its publication , has focused attention on the fiction of the Civil War. Collectors who may have overlooked it are now seeking first editions of the same author's Long Remember. They are also seeking first editions of the other great Civil War novels and rare book dealers are being canvassed for copies of Margaret MitcheU's Gone with the Wind, Clifford Dowde/s Bugles Blow No More and the inevitable The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane. This causes the conductor of this column and others who are "collection -minded" to speculate as to what the great Civil War novels might be. It seems logical to devote this column to the subject since our three previous issues have been devoted to the non-fiction that might be considered for "A Union Book Shelf." Three years ago John Cook Wyllie, Curator of Rare Books in the Alderman Library of the University of Virginia, set out to discover what the six "best" Civil War novels might be. I don't recaU what his final list looked like, but I remember my choices, which I believe I still uphold and herewith present for your comment: Benet, Stephen Vincent (1898-1943), John Brown's Body. [Garden City, 1928.] (If this title does not qualify as a novel I would substitute the foUowing) Boyd, James (1888-1944), Marching On. New York, 1927. Crane, Stephen (1871-1900), The Red Badge of Courage. New York, 1895. 415 416RALPH G. NEWMAN De Forest, John William (1826-1906), Miss RaveneVs Conversion from Secession to Loyalty. New York, 1867. Dowdey, Clifford (1904- ), Bugles Blow No More. Boston, [1937]. Mitchell, Margaret (1900-1949), Gone With the Wind. New York, 1936. Scott, Evelyn [D.], (1893- ), The Wave. New York, [1929]. I hope the readers of Civil War History wül submit their lists of six best Civil War novels. If sufficient replies are received we will devote one of our future columns to an analysis of the collective comment on the subject. At the end of diis column I am submitting a list of some of the outstanding Civil War novels from 1864 to 1955. Many of your favorites will be missing, but attach no significance to this omission. I am merely offering my own "working" list for whatever help it may render to you. Additional tides will be welcomed and included in our final check-list. You will note only durée titles from the Civil War period or immediately thereafter. One, Miss RaveneTs Conversion . . . , I believe to be die first great novel of the period. In recent years publication of the same author's Civil War and Reconstruction experiences (A Volunteer's Adventures: A Union Captains Record of the Civil War, 1946 and A Union Officer in the Reconstruction, 1948) has directed die attention of the Civil War enthusiast back to his early novel. John Esten Cooke and John Townsend Trowbridge appear on the list for sentimental as well as literary reasons. Cudjo's Cave and Mohun started many a youngster reading Civil War literature. Both authors knew the war from personal participation as soldier and journalist. Of the modern books, I believe the most neglected is Evelyn Scott's The Wave. This great novel which makes die war itself the hero, was completely overlooked for many years, but now is slowly gaining weU-merited recognition. I had a copy of diis book in which the author wrote the following inscription, "This was the first of a series of best-seUing novels on the subject—by other people." Here for better or worse is my "Civil War shelf"; I hope it will be of some help to you in selecting your favorite novels dealing with the War between the States. G?1 be looking for your lists and will be very anxious to learn of other obscure but deserving titles to which the readers of CtütZ War History will direct our attention. Allen, [William] Hervey (1889-1949), Action...

The Imperial Theme: "Macbeth" on Television

CLAUDE E. JONES, a retired naval commander, is an associate professor in the English Department of the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to his many publications in the fields of Elizabethan drama, Eighteenth-century theater and novel, and Modern American novel, he has published a volume of original poetry Wild Water. Mr. Jones has also done extensive work adapting Elizabethan plays, as well as John Brown's Body, for production at the University of California, Los Angeles.

The Phaeton Symbol in John Brown's Body

ALTHOUGH Mr. Benet's narrative of the Civil War offers few problems in meaning, one feature of the poem requires explanation. I refer to the figure of Phaeton which, appearing first as an ornament on the clock in a quiet New England home, attains a kind of daemonic existence in relation to the fortunes of Jack Ellyat, the Connecticut boy who joins the Union Army. Relying on Canby's statement that the Northern characters are more convincing than the Southern because the former have psychologies whereas the latter are chiefly manners and fate,1 I propose to show that Ellyat's story is a careful study in character development, in fact the main example of detailed psychological analysis in the poem, and that the Phaeton figure serves both to emphasize the unity in this part of the action and to represent the period of romantic youth through which Ellyat moves on his way to manhood. Furthermore, I wish to point out that in associating Phaeton with the clock, Benet suggests that Ellyat's development is worked out in two dimensions of time, the second corresponding to the lost year of adventure symbolized by the ride of the charioteer.2 In giving special attention to critical experiences in the life of a boy, Benet was, I think, returning to a favorite theme; for his works, both verse and prose, are often concerned with youthful characters and their problems. He is particularly sensitive to the influence of first love and to incidents which mark its passing. Such tales as Too Early Spring3 and Glamour deal with characters who feel that love is followed by an enduring spiritual change. In the latter story, for instance, Southgate, a would-be novelist, is conscious of the moment when romance ends: When I lay down on the bed, I

Song wanted: 'John Brown's Body

Song wanted: 'John Brown's Body