Send us a text In this episode, Lou recalls the important role of Boyd B. Stutler (1889-1970), "the godfather of John Brown scholars." Lou sketches Stutler's life, from his youth as a newspaperman and one of the youngest mayors in his era, to his role as a war time correspondent and veterans' magazine editor. Above all, Stutler was the key figure in gathering John Brown materials, primary and secondary, and became the expert on Brown in the twentieth century. Yet, as Lou observes, Stutler was a ...
May 23, 2021•38 min
Send us a text In this John Brown birthday episode, Lou presents a reflection upon the "reunion" meeting at John Brown's farm that took place on July 4, 1860, before the Brown family sold the property and relocated to California three years later. Based on an account published in William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator (July 27, 1860), Lou reflects on this meeting--attended by as many as one thousand people--its leading spirits, its family significance, even the fact that Brown had both a grave m...
May 06, 2021•54 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Send us a text In this episode, Lou discusses the historical and cultural context of Charles Sheldon's 1910 poem, "God's Angry Men," which compares the biblical liberator Moses with John Brown. Opening with a reading of the poem by actor Norman Marshall, Lou revisits Sheldon as a clergyman in the "social gospel" tradition, and also features a couple rare vignettes of John Brown getting quite angry, and then traces the theme into the 20th century, featuring another so-called "angry man." Hey frie...
Apr 05, 2021•19 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Send us a text In the first installment of a feature called "Letters and Friends," Lou meets (via zoom) with the wonderful scholar and author, Margaret Washington of Cornell University, author of a number of important works, especially Sojourner Truth's America (2009). The conversation, built around a letter by John Brown to his wife, Mary, in January 1858 (transcribed in abbreviated form below because of space restrictions), reflects upon Brown, Douglass, as well as some interesting insights on...
Mar 27, 2021•51 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Send us a text In this episode, Lou reflects upon the story of John Brown's involvement in the Masons, first his membership and then his drastic turnabout in becoming an antagonistic opponent of the "Worthy Brotherhood." Not only is this a peculiar aspect of Brown's biography, but it raises some questions, including if Masons then and now continue to claim John Brown as a brother Mason. Evidently, some have and some still do. In a storyline that begins with John Brown as a man in his twenties an...
Mar 10, 2021•43 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Send us a text In this episode, Lou pays a zoom visit to the award-winning folk musicians and activists Terry Leonino and Greg Artzner, the duo known as Magpie . Since 1973, Terry and Greg have brought their unique sound and remarkable versatility to audiences everywhere, featuring traditional and vintage Americana to contemporary and stirring original compositions. With two strong voices in harmony and superb instrumental arrangements, their sound is powerful and moving. Award-winning recording...
Feb 24, 2021•57 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Send us a text How many John Browns can you think of? In this episode, Lou shares some reflections on biography and how John Brown has been portrayed in biographical and cultural terms since his death in 1859 and up through today. While this episode is about Old Brown, there is some reflection on Old Abe, but rest assured, it's all in good fun. Or is it? I doubt the Lincoln Squirrel is laughing. Hey friends, click on this link to get your JOHN BROWN TODAY Podcast Mug! Feedback? https://www.speak...
Feb 16, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Send us a text In this episode, Lou reviews America's "Good Terrorist": John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid , by Charles P. Poland, Jr., Ph.D. "[W]hile this is a new book," Lou observes, "there is something very old about it, a refurbished version of the old anti-Brown story that was so pervasive from the early-to-mid-20th century—that old hackneyed tale of John Brown that still haunts the popular narrative." An extended review, Lou examines the author's problematic theme, that Brown was a te...
Feb 03, 2021•42 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Send us a text What can be learned by looking at a person's bookshelf? In this episode, Lou reflects upon John Brown's early business and financial difficulties and argues that despite the simplistic and often manipulative way that writers have portrayed this theme in Brown's biography, few if any biographers have taken an adequate look at both Brown's business life and the economic circumstances of the United States that impacted him. Lou argues that Brown was not categorical failure in busines...
Jan 22, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Send us a text One of the most incredible stories related to John Brown that really is not about him is the story of Alexander Milton Ross, a Canadian public figure of the nineteenth century. Ross was most widely known and celebrated in the later nineteenth century because of his antislavery activities and his reputation as a leading abolitionist figure prior to and during the Civil War. However, Ross was a fraud--at least as far as his claims to have been a close associate of John Brown, and pr...
Jan 10, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Send us a text Spoiler Alert! If you have not seen the popular movie, "Emperor," you may want to watch it before you listen to this podcast. In this episode, Lou discusses the somewhat mysterious life of Shields Green, a.k.a. Emperor, one of John Brown's Harper's Ferry raiders. As Lou recounts, it was the making of the "Emperor" movie that prompted him first to want to write a little article, which surprisingly led him down a historical rabbit hole in search of the little known figure of Emperor...
Dec 29, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Send us a text In this episode, Lou takes a "deep dive" on understanding John Brown as a person, from describing his physical and personality traits to an extended discussion about Brown's religious views and his inclination to take up for the underdog. Arguing that Brown certainly is different from popular portrayals, Lou unpacks a biographer's perspective on "the Old Man" that challenges some conventional notions and introduces new insights to a man that is typically misrepresented as unbalanc...
Dec 20, 2020•36 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Send us a text In this episode, Lou discusses the hostile book about John Brown by the late scholar, Otto Scott, The Secret Six: John Brown and the Abolitionist Movement. Scott was a skillful researcher and writer who devoted his life to working for the corporate world, but contributed heavily to racist, right-wing, and white nationalist Christians. His work on Brown is a screed, a work of propaganda that is based on discredited sources and fashioned to suit the agenda of racists and neo-Confede...
Dec 12, 2020•27 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Send us a text In this episode, Lou shares the climaxing chapter in John Brown's story--his death, and tells how his body was carried to Philadelphia, Pa., in route to burial in the Adirondacks. Centering the story on Philadelphia, Lou reflects on Brown's previous visits to the City of Brother Love, including the decisive role that Frederick Douglass played in Brown's disappointed effort to enlist free black men from the city. Reflecting on matters of race, too, this episode provides a glimpse o...
Dec 06, 2020•32 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Send us a text In this episode, Lou considers one of the most controversial themes in the John Brown story: the Pottawatomie killings of May 1856. Lou argues that there is a standard bias in the way many narrators deal with the controversial Kansas episode, when Brown and his men killed five proslavery neighbors along the Pottawatomie Creek. All too often, popular narratives on Brown have barely begun before the "Pottawatomie massacre" is invoked, reinforcing notions of Brown as a "terrorist." A...
Nov 30, 2020•31 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Send us a text In this episode, we explore the origins of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," reflecting upon the myths and realities of the "white liberal" abolitionist orientation of writer Julia Ward Howe and the pacifist abolitionist elites, and their motivations for rewriting "The John Brown Song." Viewing the "The Battle Hymn" as an intentional replacement on the part of the abolitionists, we consider the raw liberationist ethos of "The John Brown Song" and why it was replaced, and the sign...
Nov 22, 2020•24 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Send us a text In this episode, we meet the forgotten journalist, Edward "Ned" House, who was the clandestine reporter for Horace Greeley's New York Daily Tribune at the time the paper was banned in Virginia following John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Tribune, an antislavery Bohemian, worked as the Tribune's theater critic, but because he held Democratic party credentials, he was able to go to Charlestown and cover John Brown's last days, from late October until the day of the abolitionist's ...
Nov 15, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Send us a text In this episode, "The Good Lord Bird," both the novel by James McBride and the SHOWTIME series adaptation by Ethan Hawke are considered with respect to the relation of fiction to history. There is a difference between the use of fiction in collaboration with history and the use of fiction to rewrite history, Lou contends, and in the case of Old John Brown, "The Good Lord Bird" is particularly worrisome because its portrayal is offered as satire but will inevitably inform viewers q...
Nov 10, 2020•18 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Send us a text In this podcast, Louis DeCaro Jr. welcomes listeners and introduces himself with some reflections about the significance of John Brown in history, especially relating to the black struggle for justice. DeCaro then discusses the story behind Brown's damaged reputation in history, particularly how white society was miseducated and why. Hey friends, click on this link to get your JOHN BROWN TODAY Podcast Mug! Feedback? https://www.speakpipe.com/JOHNBROWNTODAY...
Nov 08, 2020•30 min•Season 1Ep. 1
