Reviews for Fire From the Midst of You: A Religious Life of John Brown

The average rating for Fire From the Midst of You: A Religious Life of John Brown based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-30 00:00:00 David Campbell DeCaro's book is especially relevant in the year of the Black Lives Matter movement. Its subject, John Brown the abolitionist's religious convictions and his struggle against the deep racism of a nation that not only tolerated slavery but brought the weight of the federal government to bear in its defense, contrasts strikingly with the widely held view of Brown (especially since 9/11) as a violent fanatic, in a word, a terrorist. Yet as DeCaro points out, the practice of holding millions of Blacks as property, was state-sanctioned, institutional terrorism. Anti-slavery from his early youth, Brown long hoped that the slave system could be abolished through political persuasion, but as proslavery Southerners (and their allies in the North) became ever more aggressive in defense of slavery from 1850 onward, Brown became convinced that slavery would never end without a militant response. At a minimum, radical abolitionists would have to defy the federal Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 by aiding slaves to escape from plantations and blacks would have to arm themselves to protect runaways. When in the mid-1850s armed proslavery Southerners invaded Kansas, burning Free-State settlements, killing or intimidating free-state settlers, and engaging in massive voter fraud in elections intended to determine whether Kansas would be a free or slave state, Brown took up arms. In so doing he won the lasting respect of African-Americans as one of the few whites willing to risk his life to end slavery.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-30 00:00:00 Sary Bader Decaro presents the life and times of John Brown, who as a Christian abolitionist could never justify slavery in this country! Fro when Jesus said, "What you do to the least of my brethren you have done unto me!" right there presents a challenge to anyone who would use the bible to justify slavery. He was a friend to Frederik Douglas and assisted Harriet Tubman with the underground railroad. Here is a man that was the first American tried for treason. The Harper's Ferry plan may have failed but John Brown's name will live on forever as one who tried to save his brethren.