Tag: History

JOHN BROWN’S BODY IN PERSPECTIVE

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

Yes, most American kids know the song, or did, but few know the fuller history.

What most shocked the nation at the time of the 1859 raid John Brown led on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, wasn’t so much that it happened as the fact it happened from the antislavery side of the struggle.

Slavery, after all, is a violence-prone institution. Most of the nation’s military officers, in fact, came from slaveholding states, for good reason.

The admission to Kansas as a state of the union threatened to tip the balance of power in the nation to the slave owners, who already had more congressmen per voter than did those in the free states. The conflict grew fierce in what became Bloody Kansas. This was, let’s not forget, class warfare pitting cheap slave labor against working-class white families. Sound familiar? The entire frontier was at stake.

When a proslavery posse led by the sheriff sacked the free-soil settlement of Lawrence in 1856, the injustice was too much for abolitionist Brown, who parted ways with the majority of the antislavery side, the ones who expected to prevail through peaceful democratic persuasion. In response, he led an attack that killed five slavery supporters.

His opponents throughout the South were startled by violence in response to violence. Makes me wonder about the current gun-control debate in our own time, for one thing. Throughout the nation, this was a wakeup call, one that led to great panic as well.

After the assault at Harpers Ferry failed, Brown was convicted and executed on charges of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia (note the imposition of sovereignty by the state rather than the nation) and for inciting a slave insurrection. Plantation owners had every reason to fear as a racial minority in some districts.

There are those who call Brown our first domestic terrorist, though that conveniently overlooks those who sacked Lawrence. What he did do most effectively was raise the emotions that erupted in secession and civil war.

As we’re seeing, emotions and politics can be a volatile mixture, especially when a nation and its wealth are so divided.

STEPPING OUT OF THE PRESENT

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Strolling around older neighborhoods of a community like mine, it’s quite possible to feel yourself moving through another era. Imagine horses instead of cars and let the utility lines overhead fade from sight. I find a tinge of time travel is especially likely to kick in around dawn or sunset.

Mentioning that to my wife prompts memories of her own experiences while working in a museum comprised of a district of historic houses in nearby Portsmouth. For her, the sensation would settle in during late afternoons in the tourism shoulder season as she’d step from the kitchen into the outdoors. No wires in the air, no traffic, no tourists to spoil the perfect scene. Truly harmonious and timeless.

Maybe even a vision of the future in an eco-friendly environment.

A WAKE-UP CALL FOR SELF-DEFEATING IDEALISTS

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 1 Comment

The realm of politics, as has been observed, has much in common with making sausage. It’s messy, even bloody, seldom includes premium ingredients. And there’s butchery at points.

Look, if Donald Trump wins the White House, everything Jill Stein stands for in a Green Revolution’s toast. It doesn’t take long to destroy the hard-gained agencies we have, much less to strip-mine hillsides and rip up forests. That’s why a vote for Stein is a vote against a Green agenda — it’s blatantly a vote against Hillary Clinton. If you think there’s no difference in the major parties on this issue, you’re deluding yourself. Or listen to what Trump thinks about real women like Clinton and Stein.

There’s a huge gap, too, between articulating policy and implementing it, as well as moving from the ivy tower into nitty-gritty management overseeing a host of federal agencies. You want to get anything done, you’re going to get dirty. It’s the nature of working with others. It’s the reality of winning battles, too.

Radical movements have a history of fragmenting, as Christopher Hill notes looking at the waves of ferment during the English civil wars and Protectorate.

Let’s not do it again. Rally around Hillary Clinton and regroup later, on the high ground.