America's Spartacus and Brutus
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Abolitionist and American martyr John Brown. To his right, former US Senator, US Secretary of War, then Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis.
After Abolitionist John Brown’s heroic seizure of the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA on 3 Jul 1859 to amass weapons for his emancipation campaign, disappointingly no slaves joined his Spartacus-like tiny army of 21 volunteers (including his own sons).
John Brown’s tiny force was defeated by Colonel Robert E Lee leading a company of US Marines. One of John Brown's sons was killed.
This was an era when Abolitionists were reviled and demonized as Southerners were terrified of a slave revolt like the one which occurred in Haiti decades ago. Using the Slave Patrols, the antebellum South was a police state.
Wounded and captured, John Brown was quickly tried for his heresies in arguably a “kangaroo court.” But prosecutors were unsure how to charge John Brown and the grand jury indicted him on “treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia” and inciting people “to rebellion and insurrection,” which includes “riot, robbery, murder, and arson.”
Virginia Governor Henry Wise, while abhorring his views, pronounced John Brown “the gamest man I ever saw.”
Hiram Griswold, defense counsel for John Brown, argued that “no man is guilty of treason unless he be a citizen of the state against which the treason so alleged has been committed”–and that Brown, a citizen of New York, could not therefore commit treason against Virginia. As for the charge of inciting a slave revolt, his lawyer insisted “there is a manifest distinction” between trying to free slaves, which Brown admittedly did, and inciting them “to rebellion and insurrection,” which includes “riot, robbery, murder, and arson.” Brown’s goal was to liberate slaves, not kill slaveowners or inflict mayhem.
Defense counsel conceded that citizens were shot during the Harper’s Ferry incident. But to call these shootings “murders” as the state sought to do, was to confuse common criminal conduct with the unfortunate but sometime necessary consequences of a military battle. The deaths, Griswold contended, were not “murders” within the meaning of Virginia law, but rather battlefield casualties.
The gallant courtroom defense failed and of John Brown was found guilty after 45 minutes of jury deliberation.
John Brown was publicly executed on 2 Dec 1859, five months from his raid on Harper’s Ferry.
The execution of John Brown. Shakespearean actor John Wilkes Booth was a spectator. (Source: David Hunter Strother)
Fast Forward Six Years to the “Battle of Philippi” Ending the American Civil War
Confederate Army commander Robert E. Lee (Cassius) surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on 9 Apr 1865. President Jefferson Davis attempted to head west to continue the war with die-hard guerilla forces unwilling to concede, but the turncoat and his small party were captured by Union forces one month later.
In between the Confederate Army surrender and the capture of America’s Brutus, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe, VA, and confined to a casemate, forced to wear fetters on his ankles, required to have guards constantly in his room, forbidden contact with his family, and given only a Bible and his prayerbook to read. Public outcry against these harsh conditions led to an easing of his discomforts.
Sketch of Jefferson Davis in Fort Monroe casemate by Alfred Waud (1865).
In late summer 1865, Attorney General James Speed determined that it was best to try Davis for treason in a civil criminal trial. In June 1866, the House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of 105 to 19 to put Davis on trial for treason. Union prosecutors worried a jury might sympathize with Davis and acquit him in an act of jury nullification that would be interpreted as validating the constitutionality of secession. Ultimately, after two years of imprisonment, Jefferson Davis was released unscathed in Richmond on 13 May 1867. His bail of $100,000 (~$1.79 million in 2023) was posted by the oligarchs of his day: Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Gerrit Smith.
The Different Treatment Between the American Spartacus and Brutus
John Brown introduced the terrifying concept of racial equality to Southern slave-owners that threatened their prosperity, the status quo, and the myth of white supremacy. Bewildered prosecutors against America’s Spartacus cobbled together their charges against him and railroaded John Brown to his execution, all within five months. The incredibly dangerous meme of racial equality had to be quickly and decisively crushed.
But for America’s Brutus whose secession attempt cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and millions of dollars in destruction, post-Civil War prosecutors were unable to convict Jefferson Davis of one, single charge. After two years Jefferson Davis was released unscathed from prison on 13 May 1867. The all-important meme of white supremacy was not quickly and decisively crushed.
While the “Battle of Philippi” defeated Brutus and Cassius and dissolved the geographic Mason-Dixon Line, the meta-physical apartheid of America and the meme of white supremacy remains to this day. Witness the several failed Congressional and criminal attempts to convict Donald Trumpf, the ultimate avatar of whiteism, just like Jefferson Davis, whose princely bond of $100,000 was paid by oligarchs 160 years ago. There should be no mystery that Trumpf wants to rename US military bases with the names of defeated Confederate generals.
Endnotes:
Only two Confederates would hang for war crimes after the US Civil War: Henry Wirz and Samuel “Champ” Ferguson. White supremacist Jefferson Davis would move to Canada and return to the US, outliving President Abraham Lincoln by 24 years and John Brown by 30 years. On 6 Dec 1889, Davis died in Mississippi at the ripe old age of 81. The Lost Cause of the Confederacy movement considered him to be a hero. In the late 19th and the 20th centuries, his legacy as Confederate leader was celebrated in the South. Some historians claim that John Wilkes Booth may be considered a Brutus or a Judas Iscariot for stalking and eventually assassinating President Abraham Lincoln.
Ralph Waldo Emerson would call John Brown’s 1859 courtroom oration, along with the Gettysburg Address, one of the two greatest American speeches:
Sources:
https://famous-trials.com/johnbrown/620-home
https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/murder-most-foul-how-shakespeare-connects-abraham-lincoln-and-john-wilkes-booth/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Davis
https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Brown-American-abolitionist
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/only-two-confederates-were-executed-for-war-crimes-during-the-civil-war/
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