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Book Review Of Midnight Rising Tony Horwitz

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The book, Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz, was about John Brown and the upcoming events that led him to the raid of Harpers Ferry. John Brown was an American who strongly believed in the abolishment of slavery in the United States. The author’s purpose of this book was to go into depth about John Brown and what he did that contributed to spark the Civil War. When Tony Horwitz wrote about the loss of Brown’s children and it made him depressed, I liked that Horwitz mentions earlier losses and his emotions that later contributed to the loss of his children that resulted him to a highly commitment of slavery abolishment. At the beginning of the book, Horwitz mentions that Brown had a squirrel that he took care of, but then lost and the same with his mother, her death. “He nursed and tamed a bobtail squirrel and grew to dote on his pet. This too he lost … at the age of eight, he suffered a much greater trauma: the death of his mother in childbirth” (11). By mentioning this, the author sets up why Brown was so committed to abolish slavery. The loss of his children made Brown depressed and Horwitz mentions that Brown wanted to die. “I felt for a number of years, Brown later wrote in a letter to a young abolitionist, a steady strong desire: to …show more content…

I liked the way he organized the book because it makes the book flow well with the events that lead to the outcome of John Brown. At the beginning, Horwitz mentions that John Brown’s grandfather was a Revolutionary War officer and Brown was descended from Puritans. “Brown was named for his grandfather, a Connecticut farmer and Revolutionary War officer” (9). “He descended from Puritans and Revolutionary soldiers and believed he was fulfilling their struggle for freedom” (3). I think the purpose of mentioning these extra details was to inform the reader that Brown had blood to lead and him being descended from Puritans, led him wanting the freedom of

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Horwitz successfully supported his argument by providing the information of Brown’s raids, particularly emphasizing the raid on Harpers Ferry. He provides the reader with the impacts and events leading to the raid from beginning to end, starting “when word of trouble in Harpers Ferry spread” to Brown facing “his own imminent and ignoble death” (Horwitz, 2011, p. 173, 184). Brown was obviously not the only abolitionist that had an impact on the beginning of the war; as is shown when Horwitz informs the reader of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and Bloody Kansas. He believed that slavery was a violation of God’s and the nation’s beliefs. Brown’s raid was a critical aspect that led an already broken nation to the brink of

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He points out personal facts about how he feels when he says, “I often found myself regretting my own existence, and wishing myself dead; and but for the hope of being free, I have no doubt but that I should have killed myself or done something foe which I should have been killed”. The words that he uses explains the emotions that he was going through and to build an appeal to emotions. Throughout the time that he has been expanding his knowledge he runs across the word “abolitionist” which means it’s a movement to end slavery. He was always eager for someone to speak about it and he was ready to listen he says, “I did not dare ask anyone about its meaning, for I was satisfied that it was something they wanted me to know very little about”. He says this because he realized that the word is spoken very rarely and he knew if he spoke that word and someone heard him, he could get penalized.

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Although Douglass used print media and public speeches as his main methods, he also supported acts of rebellion, even when violence was involved. His refusal to join Brown may indicate to some that he was not for violent revolts, but the true intention

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