Book Review Of Midnight Rising Tony Horwitz

The book, Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz, was about John Brown and the upcoming events that led him to the raid of Harpers Ferry. John Brown was an American who strongly believed in the abolishment of slavery in the United States. The author’s purpose of this book was to go into depth about John Brown and what he did that contributed to spark the Civil War. When Tony Horwitz wrote about the loss of Brown’s children and it made him depressed, I liked that Horwitz mentions earlier losses and his emotions that later contributed to the loss of his children that resulted him to a highly commitment of slavery abolishment. At the beginning of the book, Horwitz mentions that Brown had a squirrel that he took care of, but then lost and the same with his mother, her death. “He nursed and tamed a bobtail squirrel and grew to dote on his pet. This too he lost … at the age of eight, he suffered a much greater trauma: the death of his mother in childbirth” (11). By mentioning this, the author sets up why Brown was so committed to abolish slavery. The loss of his children made Brown depressed and Horwitz mentions that Brown wanted to die. “I felt for a number of years, Brown later wrote in a letter to a young abolitionist, a steady strong desire: to

I liked the way he organized the book because it makes the book flow well with the events that lead to the outcome of John Brown. At the beginning, Horwitz mentions that John Brown’s grandfather was a Revolutionary War officer and Brown was descended from Puritans. “Brown was named for his grandfather, a Connecticut farmer and Revolutionary War officer” (9). “He descended from Puritans and Revolutionary soldiers and believed he was fulfilling their struggle for freedom” (3). I think the purpose of mentioning these extra details was to inform the reader that Brown had blood to lead and him being descended from Puritans, led him wanting the freedom of