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| | | In the two and a half days that the sophomore student body at Liberty High School studied the Civil War there was no surprise that this discussion lacked the same nuance as other lessons. There was no discussion at the inherently perverted nature of the American social, legal and political system that enslaved a men, yet championed for equal liberties and freedoms for all. The conflict was flat-lined to an issue over a collision between states' rights and the authority of the federal government. The lessons sustained the idea of American patriotism. The legacies of men who held their fellow men in a brutal form of demoralizing captivity, or were complicit in a system that allowed other men to do so, were left untarnished. Forever regarded in the minds of eager adolescences as those that vigorously supported the American notion that "All men are created equal". American superheroes. American patriots. | |
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> | Inspired to create my own path of patriotism, to fight for people that , from a young age I journeyed to be an attorney. In my adolescence, I didn't see the role as a lawyer in the fight for justice as limiting, but rather one, if not the only, legitimate means to ensure that the values in which these patriots had sung, were provided for all, not just their white male counterparts. Lawyering, I thought, was a tool to be a revolutionary advocate; emboldened by the law and legitimatized by education. | | | John Brown the Revolutionary
The core of early American idealism centers around a discourse of equality, life, and justice. The guarantee of inherent rights was in direct contradiction however, to these claims. At the time the Declaration of Independence was first circulated, even the great American patriot himself, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. | | | While textbooks and orations often focus on the tragedy of Harper’s Ferry, the reasoning of his actions and his non-violent actions are often not called into play. As an abolitionist taking part in the Underground Railroad, Brown helped in the liberation of hundreds of slaves, established the League of Gileadites, a group formed with the intention of protecting black citizens from slave hunters, and did everything in his power to ensure the end of slavery. What more could one ask for in a patriot? If Brown must be labeled a terrorist for the revolutionary act of self-defense on Harpers Ferry, then every single American citizen that participated in the act of terror by subjecting their fellow man to the brutalities of American slavery, or that were complicit in this system by not actively fighting it, affirmatively repudiating it, or by sitting back and “paying taxes” should be labeled as an American terrorist as well. A terrorist to every American man and woman whose ancestors’ blood taints the bedrock of American society. | |
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> | Lawyering for Change
Brown wasn't a lawyer, he didn't receive a legal education or carry thousands of dollars of debt nor was he provided with a "particular legal skill set" that made him more knowledgeable on how to overthrow an unjust system. Brown's violence involved violence and unlawfulness, no matter whether or not it was warranted. An individual that takes and oath to support the laws of the state and the Constitution can never be the revolutionary I dreamed to be, or that Brown was.
Advancing peace and justice as a lawyer appears to be anything but easy. Working within the law to advocate for change and dismantle the exact laws and institutions which granted your academic authority is terrifying to say the least, frighteningly debilitating. | | | Individuals opposed to the actions of Brown often point to Martin Luther King Jr., as a respectable man, that championed for social and legal change without the use of violence. Yet, these respectability politics are limited. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was maintained through the highly publicized and politicalized access to vicious attacks on people of color perpetuated by white supremacists. Now, while King has claimed that violence begets violence, his participation in illegal marches, sit-ins, and boycotts (at the very least), show that illegal actions often move and accelarate social movements and society towards justice. MLK writes that, “man-made law” is “no law at all,” when it is, “out of harmony with the moral law” and “is not rooted in eternal and natural law.” Legal action is not always the best action when freedom from a powerful oppressor is being pursued. A man-made law that oppresses another is not in sync with natural law and must be defeated, even if through "illegal" actions. John Brown, the patriot, embodied this ideal. American superhero. American patriot.
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