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A Plea For Captain John Brown

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Henry David Thoreau

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“But in the weeks after the conflict, he joined with abolitionists in transforming John Brown in the eyes of antislavery northerners from a madman to a “martyr”. Countless Americans came to admire his David-like courage to strike at the mighty and hated Goliath-like slave power. The disdain for violent Black revolutionaries lurked in the shadows of the praises for John Brown, however. Black slave rebels never became martyrs and remained madmen and madwomen. Never before had the leader of a major slave uprising been so praised. Not since Bacon’s Rebellion had the leader of a major antislavery uprising been White.”

RacismSlaveryAmerican HistoryAbolitionJohn Brown
Book:Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
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“If we had learned anything over the last decade, it was that there was no other way to defeat slavery, except with a willingness to die for it. We had learned what the Negroes long knew. And thus we merely did what the Negroes themselves had done over and over in the past—in Haiti, in the mountains of Jamaica, and in the swamps of Virginia—but could not do out there on the plains of Kansas. We did what we wanted the Negroes to do in Kansas. By slaying those five pro-slavers on the Pottawatomie that night, we placed hundreds, thousands, of other white men in the same position that we along amongst the whites had held for years: for now every white man in Kansas, anti-slaver and pro-slaver alike, had to be ready to die for his cause.”

SlaveryRebellionMassacreJohn BrownAntislaveryBloody Kansas
Book:Cloudsplitter
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“Who is it whose safety requires that Captain Brown be hung? Is it indispensable to any Northern man? Is there no resource but to cast these men also to the Minotaur? If you do not wish it, say so distinctly. While these things are being done, beauty stands veiled and music is a screeching lie. Think of him,—of his rare qualities!—such a man as it takes ages to make, and ages to understand; no mock hero, nor the representative of any party. A man such as the sun may not rise upon again in this benighted land.”

John Brown
Book:Apologia per John Brown
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“The creative writer is a creator, yet his creative liberty should not be abused: his total dispositions should not squeeze the characters out of their will, thereby translating them into mental golems—respect your characters. Let them act and think for themselves.”

WritingCreationBooksWritersCreating CharactersAvatarCreative Writer
Book:Learn Creative Writing: A guide to writing perfect drafts
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