Devin Capuani
History 103 Book Report
September 28, 2014
Raising Holy Hell The novel Raising Holy Hell at length discusses the madness of John Brown and his life leading up to his famous raid on Harper’s Ferry. John Brown was a radical abolitionist from Connecticut who believed in the violent overthrow of slavery as opposed to law .The raid was just the beginning to rising tensions between the North and South upon the issue of slavery. The raid on Harper’s Ferry lasted only three days until Robert E. Lee had a garrison of marines storm the engine room at Harper’s Ferry and capture all of the raiders. John Brown was captured as a result, put to trial where he was found guilty and executed by hanging. On page 31, there is a piece from John Brown Jr., which talks about the death of his mother. In the passage, the boy talks about how the death of his mother was explained to him and his siblings in religious terms. His father told them that their mother was now with God in heaven but the boy chose not to believe such things. The part of the passage that is the most interesting is the last bit, the boy was fearful of incurring his father’s wrath so never told him the truth. This signifies that John Brown was a very violent man, not only to slave supporters but for his own children to fear speaking their minds due to their father’s anger is a big clue into his personality and in the case of this book, his insanity. The next section that stands out is on page 37. The section is written about an Indian proverb “There are only three things that are real- God, human folly, and laughter. As the first two are beyond our comprehension, we must do all we can with the third. John Brown’s response to this is that only the second two are beyond comprehension and stated, “ That is why I do all that I can with the first.” John Brown’s response to the proverb is very interesting, for a second it makes someone analyzing him wonder if his raid on Harper’s Ferry is something that he does because God would have wanted him to. It makes a person think that John Brown believes he is doing God’s work by carrying out the raid and causing a slave revolt. This also may cause one to believe that Brown thought as long as he said his prayers and followed God, he would not be punished with God at his side so to speak. This quote on page 258 from Thomas Jefferson reads “ The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots. It is its natural manure.” The quote means that rebellion within a country is needed from time to time in history. A country needs rebellion to pull its citizens together and unite during difficult times, not only that but once a rebellion is put down, it reaffirms the public’s believe and trust in their centralized government. Patriotism can come from such a rebellion as the raid on Harper’s Ferry and this was the case in the North after John Brown’s trial. While the raid was considered to be misguided and plainly insane, he became a martyr. The pages, 259-263, following said quote describe the ensuing events that take place as a result of news that the Harper’s Ferry arsenal had been raided. According to the novel, the raid snowballed into insurrection with slaves capturing and killing citizens in both Maryland and Baltimore. In Baltimore by 8pm, five hundred to seven hundred blacks and whites were enraged and citizens were being imprisoned and killed. Later in the novel, Brown states that he never meant for there to be a huge uprising, he just wanted to free the slaves at Harper’s Ferry and then continue to free slaves little by little. Whilst Brown never planned for this revolt to occur, he had a big impact on the people of Maryland after the news had been received. The content on pages 305 to 308 displays the questioning of John Brown by Senator James Mason and Lt. Stuart. The questioning begins with standard questions of who sent you, how many men did you have, and where did your money come from. The next set of question is what sticks out in the pages and is in line with what was discussed earlier in the paper regarding Brown’s religious fanaticism. Brown’s reasoning for performing the raid was because he believed those who backed slavery had committed a terrible wrong against not only God but against humanity as well. Brown believed he was perfectly right in doing what he did. This goes back to what was mentioned earlier about Brown thinking he was doing God’s work and that God meant for him to commit these crimes. Lt. Stuart goes on to ask if he believes this to be a religious movement to which Brown answers that he does and that it is the greatest service he can render God. The meaning of this section is to show to the reader that John Brown not only had his reasons for attempting to free the slaves at Harper’s Ferry but to also show that he did not mean to do physical harm to those they were invading. Brown says to General Lee that a few men were killed but only by those who were defending themselves and that his orders were not to harm those who don’t take up arms against them. While Brown might have been insane, he in my opinion did justify his actions in this section, even if his actions were not right.
There were times when John Brown did seem logical through the novel, such as when he was on trial and he was explaining his reasoning for the raid. Although there were those times, there were far more times in the novel where he could have been described as insane. Therefore, it is my opinion that John Brown was actually insane. One of the many reasons that John Brown was insane is that in his questioning by the state senator, the lieutenant, and General Lee, he said that he without a doubt believed that he was an “instrument in the hands of Providence”. This fact alone in my opinion makes him truly insane. Brown thought he was a prophet that and that his raid on Harper’s Ferry was something that he was meant to do in the eyes of God. Another reason he can be considered insane is his clear lack of planning that left him with less than twenty men, inside a fort with a garrison of marines standing outside the gates. During the questioning, he said that he had no intentions of harming anyone during the raid. Only an insane man could have thought his plan could have worked. He planned to raid the Ferry, free the slaves there and then retreat into the mountains. All of which would occur without harming anyone or his entire group getting killed. The Civil Rights Movements does not have many similarities to both John Brown’s actions and his motivations for his raid. Brown’s motivations for raiding Harper’s Ferry were for the most part based on his religion and devotion to God. As mentioned earlier, Brown believed that it was the greatest act he could render God and that it was both an extreme wrong against humanity and God. The Civil Rights Movement was encompassed of social movements throughout the United States and was purely based on the fact that it was wrong for blacks to be segregated and not have equal rights like whites had. The Civil Rights Movement had a basis that the Constitution declared all men equal and at that time African Americans were in no way, shape, or form being treated equal to whites. The actions taken by the Civil Rights activists were non-violent and took place mostly in the form of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and marches. Brown’s actions were obviously more violent wit Brown carrying out a raid on a federal arsenal and arming slaves. I don’t agree with John Brown but at the same time, I do. I do not agree with his actions that took place during the raid. The way of forcefully freeing slaves I believe was wrong. I believe it isn’t the right way to go about abolishing slavery because there is no structure to it. The slaves would keep getting freed but it would be a constant battle between the slave owners and the abolitionists, the abolitionists freeing them and then the owners taking back freed slaves when they see them. I think that for a massive change like the destruction of slavery to have occurred, it would have had to been a treaty of some sort between both owners and abolitionist. Only with a written agreement would there have been a definite and final solution to slavery. The part about John Brown that I do agree with is his believing in men being free. He was right to believe it was a terrible wrong against humanity to treat human beings as property and to force them into slavery. It is possible to see the rights and wrongs of John Brown but in the end the way he went about trying to stop slavery both would not have worked and would have led to tug of war between the two sides.