"The Blood of Millions": John Brown's Body, Public Violence, and Political Community
2001; Oxford University Press; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/978-1-4039-7846-2_3
ISSN1468-4365
Autores Tópico(s)American History and Culture
ResumoAccustomed 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
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