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First published in 1909, this biography defends abolitionist John Brown against all detractors who saw him as a fanatic, fiend or traitor. It shows Brown as an unusual leader with a deeply religious outlook and a devotion to the cause of freedom for the slave.

Besides a selection of letters by the abolitionist himself, the original collection includes an excerpt from W. E. B. Du Bois's biography, John Brown, addresses by Frederick Douglass and Ralph Waldo Emerson, poetry by Louisa May Alcott, and more.

In the late 1850s, at a time when many men and women spoke out against slavery, few had the same impact as John Brown, the infamous white abolitionist who backed his beliefs with unstoppable action.

Writngs by and about John Brown, (born May 9, 1800, Torrington, Connecticut, U.S.--died December 2, 1859, Charles Town, Virginia [now in West Virginia]), militant American abolitionist whose raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia), in 1859 made him a martyr to the antislavery cause and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War (1861-65).

John Brown was tried in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County for treason, for conspiring with slaves to produce insurrection, and for murder.