This
portrait is of a middle aged John Brown. This is most likely
how Brown appeared when he visited Chatham in 1858. At that
time, it was not only wise for him to seek volunteers and
supplies in Canada, but also necessary for his own survival
and desire to remain at large.
This picture shows an artist’s depiction of an old
John Brown who has slipped into the abyss between conviction
and insanity. Though Brown was probably not insane, the
picture demonstrates how Brown’s image was etched
onto the nation’s consciousness after the raid. Some
viewed him as a hero and others as a madman, but all were
convinced of his incredible historical significance.
The
painting is of John Brown’s fateful march to the gallows.
Following his execution, and particularly following the
end of the Civil War, historians and artists were anxious
to seize upon the imagery associated with Brown’s
ill-fated raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry,
WV. Abolitionist scholars and Civil Rights giants like Frederick
Douglass were determined to remember John Brown as a martyr
and his actions in light of the outcome of the Civil War
and the almost cathartic hope and enthusiasm that sprung
from the early reconstruction period.
Today, the authentic John Brown and the true motivations
for the raid remain shrouded in the inevitable obscurity
of the past. What seems certain is that the “real”
John Brown was a paradoxical man who somehow embodied both
our collective best and worst.
John Brown went through numerous changes in his life. As he
aged and his notoriety grew, particularly after Bleeding Kansas,
he found it necessary to grow a beard and alter his appearance
to escape detection by the authorities who sought his arrest.
