John Brown of Harper's Ferry Fame. Crazy Man, Terrorist, Liberator, Hero, Abolitionist, or all of the above? Artwork

StocktonAfterClass

Ron Stockton was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 48 years. His specialty was non-western politics and political change. He taught classes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion and Politics, the Politics of Revolution, Non-Western politics, and American politics. He also taught in the Honors Program, focusing upon foundational readings from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has an interest in religion and politics and in the role of religio-ethnic groups in the political system. The listener can anticipate talks on Arab-Americans, Jews, African-Americans, the Scots-Irish, and Evangelicals. He has lectured and written on American politics, public opinion, and voting behavior and on the role of religious organizations and ideologies in the political system. There will be occasional discussions of books and films that address serious issues. And he has lectured and published and even taught a class on gravestones, especially those of different ethnic and religious groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, and Native Americans. The goal of the podcast series is to provide analysis and commentary by a political scientist to explain and make accessible political, historical, and cultural developments in the United States and around the world, and to give the listener analytical tools to understand those developments. It is also to entertain the listener.

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StocktonAfterClass

John Brown of Harper's Ferry Fame. Crazy Man, Terrorist, Liberator, Hero, Abolitionist, or all of the above?

July 18, 2025 • Ronald Stockton

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Jane and I recently went to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. This was the place where John Brown, in October of 1859, conducted his famous strike against slavery. Brown and all of his men were killed, which he anticipated might happen. So why did he engage in such a seemingly-futile action?

In the bookstore I saw a biography of Brown written by W. E. B. Du Bois in 1909. Du Bois was the greatest Black intellectual of the 20th century and this book shows why. It is a remarkable book, beautifully written, and filled with speeches, notes on meetings, documents. I came away with a very different view of Brown than I had previously held.

If you would like to read the book, you will be glad you did. Meanwhile, here is my assessment of Brown, based upon what Du Bois wrote.