Midnight
Rising: john Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War
By:
Tony Horwitz
The book “Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid
That Sparked the Civil War” by Tony Horwitz, is the story of a man by the name
of John Brown and his family. Covering the families hardships and dilates, this
book gives a feel for life in the 1700s and 1800s for a family with strong
determination. There is little spoken
about John’s life as a child, however his story officially begins as he marries
his first wife.
John, named after his grandfather “Captain
John Brown”, a farmer and Revolutionary War officer, grew up without money.
Brown had a hard childhood and equally if not more challenging adult life. He
grew up respecting everyone equally including slaves. John married and
remarried a few time for he and his children suffered the natural deaths of his
spouses. He had many children, so many that there are not accurate numbers
written anywhere. John had a hard time supporting his family throughout his
life. As soon as he paid someone off, he would be in debt to someone else, for
he often pursued business opportunities head first without thinking. The Brown
family was a very religious family with the occasional child that thought it
was boring. There was no tolerance for misbehavior from his children, for that
was the way he was raised and believed was the only way to properly raise
children. His children grew up to be very successful and grateful that their
father was so strict. Brown’s sons grew up to be lawyers and business men. His
daughters married good men and had a pleasant life. All of Brown’s children
were proud of him, and he of them.
In later years, John joined and even started
organizations that apposed slavery. John joined the Free Masons but quickly
discovered that he had different ideals than that group. He later joined the
Secret Six, which was a group of six men that wanted freedom for slaves. These
were white men and they went on to organize attacks to let the government know
that they wanted to abolish slavery. Though few, abolitionists were able to
make an impact on how the United States is run today. Brown with the help of
his older sons and 21 other men, launched an attack on an armory at Harpers
Ferry Virginia. This attack on Harpers Ferry set in course a series of events
that lead to the Civil War.
This book however interesting was fairly slow and hard to
get into. Once I got into it, on the other hand, I enjoyed the story of John
Brown, the most significant abolitionist of the 17 and 1800s. Through the
course of reading this book, the reader will gasp, yawn, laugh, and possibly
feel sad. Much Like every person’s life, there are good times, bad times, sad
times, and just time. Before reading this book, I had no idea what started the
Civil War or even what Harpers Ferry was. I actually believed it might have
been a Ferry boat that transports people up and down the rivers. It gives a
whole new perspective about learning history when you are learning it from
different people’s perspectives. One however would have to read all of the
books and other literature written about John Brown to truly know his story,
but this book had that in mind and included good sources of information. I’ve
found that there is an audio book of “Midnight Rising” on Audible for purchase
and I highly Recommend buying it for this book can be challenging to read word
for word especially for a long time. It would be good however to follow along
to as you listen in order to get the full effect. I am not sorry that I read
this and have personally gained knowledge about many events during this era.
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