A New Understanding of Why We Fought the Civil War. Thoreau’s deification of John Brown should be a reminder of the perils of glorifying political violence in the name of any ideal. John Brown ...

John Brown's obsession with ending slavery cast him as an abolitionist hero. In 1856, provoked by a bloody attack on Kansas settlers by “border ruffians,” Brown led a raid at Pottawatomie ...

It is said that John Brown was the spark that started the Civil War. Truly, he marked the end of compromise over the issue of slavery, and it was not long after his death that John Brown's war ...