The racial shock of abolitionist John Brown
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9237458 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jay P Childers (0009-0005-8147-3372, University of Kansas, corresponding author), Lisa M Corrigan (Department of Communication, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 109 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 254-275 |
| Publication date | 2023-07-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00335630.2023.2187746 |
| OpenAlex | W4360619114 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Abolitionist John Brown remains a cultural touchstone over 160 years after his execution for leading the Harpers Ferry Raid in October 1859, largely because that event and Brown’s behavior after it played a part in leading the nation into civil war. To understand that legacy and his role in sparking the Civil War, this article examines the discursive field that animated around Brown within the context of the racial sensorium of his time. We argue Brown still attracts interest because he was a distinctive antebellum racial figure who catalyzed major shifts in the country’s racial sensory landscape by offering a mode of radical whiteness grounded in white mobility, the use of violence, electrifying words and deeds, and shockingly bold intimacies with Black people. Ultimately, by examining the discursive field that surrounded Brown from his time in Kansas to after his execution, we demonstrate how his radical sensibilities shifted the somatic politics of racial confrontation in the antebellum period and show that John Brown became an amplifying cultural force through which both Northerners and Southerners felt the question of slavery in new ways
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Civil rights · Context (archaeology) · Field (mathematics) · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Race (biology) · Racial politics · Racism · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · The Holocaust · White (mutation) · American History and Culture · Asian American and Pacific Histories · Gender Studies · History · Law · Race, History, and American Society
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |