The Insurrectionist
In May 1856, Charles Sumner was caned on the Senate floor by Preston Brooks, which would set off a firestorm that raged between abolitionist and pro-slavery forces. But one man would view this event as nothing short of a declaration of war. The Insurrectionist follows the exploits of John Brown over three years, from the bloodied fields of Kansas, through Ohio and into Canada’s fugitive slave camps, and across the east coast—from his home in New York, to meetings with abolitionists in New England, and finally to his ill-fated raid on Harpers Ferry and his subsequent trial and hanging.
Herb Karl explores the haunting mind of John Brown and paints a portrait of a deeply spiritual man driven by his faith to the abolitionist cause. The Insurrectionist is a thoroughly researched and detail-driven book that does well in taming the notion of Brown as a wild zealot and portrays a man devoted to both his cause and his family. At times the book reads more like a textbook than a work of fiction, and in that lies one of the book’s flaws. Given the creative liberty that fiction allows, Karl shies away from this and sticks strictly to historical fact. Often, Brown’s actions are written in a way that there is only one option to take—such as his decision to take Harpers Ferry, splitting his troops, and his missed chances at retreat. The reader is left with more questions than answers here, whereas a work of fiction may have delved more into the mind of Brown and imagined his own thoughts as he wrestled with these decisions. In all, this is a good book for anyone interested in learning about John Brown, but not for those searching for a deeper understanding into this charismatic enigma.
