When John Brown led twenty-one men in an attack on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry on October 16, 1859, he envisioned a biblical uprising of millions of armed bondsmen, thus ridding the nation of the scourge of slavery. The insurrection did not happen, and Brown and the other surviving raiders were quickly captured and executed. This landmark anthology, which collects contemporary speeches, letters, newspaper articles, journals, poems, and songs, demonstrates that Brown’s actions nonetheless altered the course of American history. John Stauffer and Zoe Trodd have assembled an impressive and wide-ranging collection of responses to Brown’s raid: Brown’s own words, northern and southern reactions, international commentary, and reflections from the Civil War and Reconstruction era. Represented here are all the figures one would expect to see (Lincoln, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass), many surprises (John Wilkes Booth, Karl Marx, Giuseppe Garibaldi), as well as free and enslaved blacks and white citizens. The result is a book that views Brown from multiple vantage points. The Introduction describes the panic that Harpers Ferry created in the South, splitting the Democratic Party along sectional lines and altering the outcome of the 1860 presidential election. Without Brown, it speculates, the Civil War and emancipation would have been delayed by another four years―probably more―which in turn might have disrupted emancipation movements in Brazil, Cuba, and even Russia. The Tribunal is essential reading for anyone interested in the Civil War era and the history of social protest movements. “Beautifully, even lyrically written, The Tribunal shows the kind of even judgment that can only arise from long immersion in the materials. The editors are aware of how complex a figure Brown is, and how easy it would be, but also how fatal, to take a tendentious line about him.” ― John Burt, Brandeis University “ The Tribunal is an illuminating and indispensable resource. The responses themselves are truly the best that history has to offer on John Brown … a dynamic and vibrant collection.” ― R. Blakeslee Gilpin, University of South Carolina “No one is likely to have the last word on John Brown, the abolitionist and leader of the 1859 Harpers Ferry raid that cut to the marrow of the slavery question and convinced many Southerners that the North had gone mad and wanted to incite slave rebellion. However, this superb collection of documents comes very close to doing so. In the wide sweep of texts collected here--150 speeches, editorials, letters to editors, pamphlets, poems, songs, and more, each neatly set in historical context by the editors--Northerners, Southerners, and foreign commentators are shown to be, in Frederick Douglass's phrase, both "curious and contradictory" in weighing the meaning of John Brown and his act. The documents display a mixture of awe and anger, hope and horror, at the man, especially after he went bravely to the gallows proclaiming the justice of his cause. And, as the documents further attest, Brown and his raid remained contentious in history and myth thereafter...To understand the power of conviction and the crisis of fear that brought on civil war, reading this brilliant collection is essential. From it, one will see that John Brown is not a-moldering in his grave. He haunts us yet today.” ― Randall M. Miller , Library Journal (starred review) “The life of John Brown, the militant abolitionist who helped trigger the Civil War by waging a holy war against slavery in the 1850s, raises provocative questions. Not least: Can someone who murders for a noble cause be embraced as a heroic freedom fighter? ... The Tribunal: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid , skillfully edited by John Stauffer and Zoe Trodd , allows us to experience firsthand the debate that Brown generated during his lifetime. Reprinted in this bountiful volume are dozens of 19th-century writings--letters, speeches, articles, poems, diary entries--that bring this important debate alive...[It] demonstrates just how central John Brown was to the cultural and political life of his time. Included in the book are powerful writings about Brown by some of the century's most notable people: Walt Whitman, Henry Ward Beecher, Jefferson Davis, Herman Melville, Stephen Douglas, Louisa May Alcott, Victor Hugo and Karl Marx, to name a few... The Tribunal doesn't whitewash Brown. To the contrary, it recognizes his flaws and provides a broad sampling of just criticism. But it reveals as well that those most hostile toward Brown were pro-slavery types who felt threatened by his forward-looking views. Some of Brown's strongest defenders were people like Thoreau, who had formerly espoused nonresistance but who came to realize that only violence could uproot an institution so deeply entrenched as slavery...Stauffer and Trodd should be commended for making available so many documents that were formerly hard to find and t