"John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave." I remembered that from somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain when I saw that Wednesday, May 9 would be the 207th anniversary of the birth of John Brown. That is the first line of what was a famous marching song sung by the Union Army during the Civil War. There are apparently claims that the John Brown of the song is the abolitionist John Brown best remembered for his raid on Harper's Ferry. There are also claims that the John Brown of the song was a Union soldier from Boston, a member of a military glee club. When the song was sung, the John Brown who came to mind was apparently the more famous one, and the song took off from there. The lyrics of the entire song are available at Wikipedia.

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 in Connecticut and died by hanging December 2,1859 in Charles Town, West Virginia. Son of an abolitionist and an abolitionist himself, he was, at one point in his life, a conductor on the underground railroad in Ohio. Brown had very strong religious beliefs and very strong opinions on the evils of slavery. He also came from a family where insanity was fairly common. His religious beliefs fueled his antislavery opinions and he became convinced that he was representing the hand of God in his dealings with pro-slavery individuals. He became a well-known representative of the antislavery cause in Kansas when, under his command, five pro-slavery individuals were hacked to death with machetes.

His attempt to arm slaves and help them to rise up against slave owners was the defining moment of his life. He was aided and abetted by six prominent Northern abolitionists referred to as the "Secret Six". With a small band of men both black and white, he attacked a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry VA. He was not joined by vast numbers of slaves wanting to be free. Instead, he ended up surrounded and refused to surrender. When he was finally captured, he was tried for murder and treason among other things, found guilty, and hung. At that time, and in that place, he became a legend to some, a hero to others, and a nutjob to the rest.

The library has a number of resources which will help you to form your own opinion regarding John Brown. Biography Resource Center and World Book Online have informative articles about John Brown. The library also has a number of books in different categories which offer views of John Brown. If you are a fiction reader, you may be interested in Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks or Mine eyes have seen by Ann Rinaldi, or if you like poetry, Stephen Vincent Benet's John Brown's body, although an oldie, could still prove interesting.

The library also has some new biographies of John Brown. Patriotic treason : John Brown and the soul of America by Evan Carton was published in 2006. John Brown, abolitionist : the man who killed slavery, sparked the Civil War, and seeded civil rights by David Reynolds was published in 2005.