Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown

Thomas F. Curran; Peggy A. Russo; Paul Finkelman

doi:10.2307/30036953

Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown

The History Teacher ◽

10.2307/30036953 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 135

Author(s):

Thomas F. Curran ◽

Peggy A. Russo ◽

Paul Finkelman

Keyword(s):

John Brown

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Early letters of John Brown, Minim & Report to Propaganda, 1623, by Scots Minims

The Innes Review ◽

10.3366/inr.2001.52.1.63 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 63-79 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

John Durkan

Keyword(s):

John Brown

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Prophecies

10.1093/oso/9780190868161.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jason Phillips

Keyword(s):

Civil War ◽

White Supremacy ◽

Memory Studies ◽

Historical Consciousness ◽

Harpers Ferry ◽

John Brown ◽

Prophetic Imagination ◽

Southern Nationalism

Focusing on Edmund Ruffin, this chapter interprets the prophecies of secessionists. During a national craze for John Brown relics after the Harpers Ferry raid, Edmund Ruffin circulated Brown’s pikes to each southern legislature or governor to promote southern nationalism and secession. This chapter inverts memory studies to interpret how antebellum novels by Ruffin, John B. Jones, and Beverley Tucker forecasted civil war and elevated white supremacy. The prophetic imagination of secessionists like Ruffin empowered masters at the expense of women, yeomen, and slaves. By identifying themselves as conservative prophets rebelling against modern transgressions of timeless laws, southern nationalists adopted a historical consciousness that predicted a looming revolution to restore order and harmony. Their prophecies imagined bloodshed and destruction that exceeded the actual war and echoed earlier revolutions, particularly the American, French, and Haitian.

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