專八人文知識(shí)需知的美國名人--約翰·布朗

　　1859年發(fā)生的約翰·布朗起義，是美國人民群眾試圖用武裝斗爭(zhēng)消滅黑人奴隸制的一次英勇嘗試。約翰·布朗是這次起義領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人，故名。1800年，布朗出生于康涅狄格州一個(gè)白人農(nóng)民家庭。其父為廢奴主義者，布朗從小受反奴隸制思想的熏陶。1856年曾參加堪薩斯內(nèi)戰(zhàn)，贏得勝利。1859年他領(lǐng)導(dǎo)美國人民在哈伯斯費(fèi)里舉行武裝起義，要求廢除奴隸制，并逮捕一些種植園主，解放了許多奴隸。他的起義最后被鎮(zhèn)壓，他被逮捕并殺害。大部分歷史學(xué)家對(duì)他持肯定態(tài)度，包括作家愛默生及梭羅均稱贊約翰·布朗。

　　John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist, who advocated andpracticed armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in1856 in Bleeding Kansas and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.

　　President Abraham Lincoln said he was a "misguided fanatic" and Brown has been called "the mostcontroversial of all 19th-century Americans."Brown's actions are often referred to as "patriotictreason", depicting both sides of the argument.

　　John Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans inHarpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) electrified the nation. He was tried for treason againstthe state of Virginia, the murder of five proslavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrectionand was subsequently hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionisticeberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party. Historians agree that the HarpersFerry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.

　　Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansascrisis. Unlike most other Northerners, who advocated peaceful resistance to the pro-slaveryfaction, Brown demanded violent action in response to Southern aggression. Dissatisfied with thepacifism encouraged by the organized abolitionist movement, he reportedly said "These men are alltalk. What we need is action—action!" During the Kansas campaign he and his supporters killedfive pro-slavery southerners in what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre in May 1856, inresponse to the raid of the "free soil" city of Lawrence. In 1859 he led a raid on the federal armoryat Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in modern-day West Virginia). During the raid, he seized the armory;seven people (including a free African American) were killed, and ten or more were injured. Heintended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed. Within 36 hours,Brown's men had fled or been killed or captured by local farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines ledby Robert E. Lee. Brown's subsequent capture by federal forces, his trial for treason by the stateof Virginia, and his execution by hanging in Charles Town, Virginia (now West Virginia) were animportant part of the origins of the American Civil War, which followed sixteen months later.

　　When Brown was hanged after his attempt to start a slave rebellion in 1859, church bells rang,minute guns were fired, large memorial meetings took place throughout the North, and famouswriters such as Emerson and Thoreau joined many Northerners in praising Brown.

　　Historians agree John Brown played a major role in starting the Civil War.His role and actions priorto the Civil War as an abolitionist, and the tactics he chose, still make him a controversial figuretoday. He is sometimes memorialized as a heroic martyr and a visionary and sometimes vilified as amadman and a terrorist. Some writers, such as Bruce Olds, describe him as a monomaniacal zealot,others, such as Stephen B. Oates, regard him as "one of the most perceptive human beings of hisgeneration." David S. Reynolds hails the man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seededcivil rights" and Richard Owen Boyer emphasizes that Brown was "an American who gave his lifethat millions of other Americans might be free." For Ken Chowder he is "at certain times, a greatman", but also "the father of American terrorism."

　　Brown's nicknames were Osawatomie Brown, Old Man Brown, Captain Brown and Old Brown ofKansas. His aliases were Nelson Hawkins, Shubel Morgan, and Isaac Smith. Later the song "JohnBrown's Body" (the original title of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic") became a Union marchingsong during the Civil War.

　　In 1938–1940, American painter John Steuart Curry created Tragic Prelude, a mural of JohnBrown holding a gun and a bible. In 1941, Jacob Lawrence illustrated the life of John Brown in TheLegend of John Brown, a series of twenty-two gouache paintings. By 1977, the original paintingswere in such fragile condition they could not be displayed, and the Detroit Institute of Artscommissioned Lawrence to recreate the series as a portfolio of silkscreen prints. The result was alimited edition portfolio of twenty-two hand-screened prints. The works were printed and publishedwith a poem, John Brown, by Robert Hayden, which was commissioned specifically for the project.Though John Brown had been a popular topic for many painters, The Legend of John Brown wasthe first to explore the topic from an African American perspective.