Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War - Hardcover

Horwitz, Tony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 080509153X ISBN 13: 9780805091533

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Inc, 2011

Synopsis

Plotted in secret, launched in the dark, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a pivotal moment in U.S. history. But few Americans know the true story of the men and women who launched a desperate strike at the slaveholding South. Now, "Midnight Rising" portrays Brown's uprising in vivid colour, revealing a country on the brink of explosive conflict. Brown, the descendant of New England Puritans, saw slavery as a sin against America's founding principles. Unlike most abolitionists, he was willing to take up arms, and in 1859, he prepared for battle at a hideout in Maryland, joined by his teenage daughter, three of his sons, and a guerrilla band that included former slaves and a dashing spy. On October 17, the raiders seized Harpers Ferry, stunning the nation and prompting a counterattack led by Robert E. Lee. After Brown's capture, his defiant eloquence galvanized the North and appalled the South, which considered Brown a terrorist. The raid also helped elect Abraham Lincoln, who later began to fulfil Brown's dream with the Emancipation Proclamation, a measure he called "a John Brown raid, on a gigantic scale."

About this title

About the Author

Tony Horwitz is the bestselling author of Midnight Rising, A Voyage Long and Strange, Blue Latitudes, Confederates in the Attic, and Baghdad Without a Map. He is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The New Yorker. He lives in Martha's Vineyard with his wife, Geraldine Brooks, and their two sons.

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Inc
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 080509153X
• ISBN 13: 9780805091533
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384