Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
In chapter 24, Wilentz successfully distills the complex political atmosphere of America at the dawn of the civil war by succinctly describing the Harpers Ferry affair and its political ramifications. Wilentz does not oversimplify the matter or simply make Brown a one-dimensional figure. For example, on page 425, Wilentz explains the following: “To allay fears that Brown’s sympathizer’s came even close to a northern majority, northern conservatives and businessmen sponsored their own public meetings condemning Brown and any who would trample the Constitution. Democrats, North and South, tried to tie Brown around the neck of the Republican party. Alarmed Republicans hastily distanced themselves from Brown.” Here, Wilentz aptly characterizes the complicated nature of Brown as a national figure while simultaneously illustrating the tangled relations that both Democrats and Republicans shared across regional lines.
In many ways, Brown could be read as the catalyst that split the North and South, but Wiletnz seems to avoid that interpretation by giving the reader more to think about; both in terms of North vs. South and the bipartisan relationship between the Republicans and Democrats of the era. As @romangone states in their post, the South saw Lincoln’s election as “the North’s embrace of John Brown,” further separating the two regions in what would eventually lead to the realization of irreconcilable differences.