Originally published at: 废奴革命家约翰·布朗战斗的一生 – 曙光
The Life of the Abolitionist Revolutionary John Brown
Editorial Board of League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Proletariat
The struggle for the liberation of the proletariat
When it comes to the Civil War and the abolition of American slavery, the first figure that probably comes to mind for many people today is the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. Often, when discussing this historic progress of abolishing slavery in the United States, this achievement is attributed solely to Lincoln. But in American history, there was another white man who dedicated his entire life and his family’s lives to the cause of freeing the black slaves. His uprising shook the foundation of American slavery fiercely, yet he is still slandered as a traitor to the United States—this person is John Brown. He was an outstanding farmer hero among the American people, but the bourgeoisie has strived to erase his name and deny his important role in the movement. For us Marxists, "it is necessary to re-study the entire history"[1]—to reverse the distorted history, carefully study the occurrence and development conditions of various revolutions in history, and use this knowledge to guide present and future revolutionary struggles.
The Historical Background of John Brown's Uprising and the American People's Fight Against Slavery
Contrary to the fantasies of many petty bourgeois mediocrities, America has never been a "beacon of freedom." From its founding, the United States established a joint dictatorship of the large bourgeoisie and the large slave-owning class, and it was a country that retained slavery for nearly a century. The American War of Independence only defeated the British colonizers and achieved national independence, but the bourgeois dictatorship in the U.S. was not fully established, and bourgeois democracy was extremely incomplete. The large slave-owning class controlled the government, military, laws, and other state apparatus for a long time. America’s first president, Washington, was himself a large slave owner, and among his four successors, except for John Adams, the other three presidents represented the interests of the large slave-owning class, leading to the emergence of the rampant "Virginia Dynasty" [2].
Slavery-preserving Presidents in American History
Since then, the presidency in the U.S. has almost always been held by the Democratic Party, which represented the interests of the American slave-owning class. Under the manipulation of the large slave-owning class, the U.S. government enacted a series of reactionary laws to maintain and expand slavery. In 1790, the ruling classes of the North and South agreed that all states, including newly admitted ones, would be divided along the 39°43′ north latitude into free states and slave states, with the line north being free states and south being slave states. In 1820, on the Missouri Compromise[3], the boundary between free and slave states on the western territories was set at 36°30′ north latitude, and Missouri was admitted as a slave state, further expanding the influence of the slave-owning class, with the legislation being called the Missouri Compromise due to concessions to the slaveholders. In 1850, under the manipulation of the Democratic Party, the U.S. Congress passed the notorious Fugitive Slave Law, which allowed Southern slave owners to hunt down escaped slaves in Northern free states, effectively extending slavery into the North. Under continuous concessions by the American bourgeoisie, the slave-owning class pressed forward, becoming increasingly arrogant, and the American bourgeois regime faced the danger of being completely overthrown.
Political Situation in the U.S. Before the Civil War
However, "every internal contradiction of things forms a series of twists and struggles. The result of the struggle is that the new aspect grows from small to large, becoming the dominant; the old aspect shrinks from large to small, gradually dying out."[4] When American slavery reached its peak, it was the most fully developed internal contradiction, and also the beginning of its demise. The continuous expansion of American slavery, on one hand, aroused dissatisfaction among the bourgeoisie; on the other hand, it provoked fierce resistance from the broad masses of American people, including the Black slaves.
The dissatisfaction of the American bourgeoisie with the development of slavery was because the objective needs of American capitalism made slavery an increasingly serious obstacle to its development. There were many factors in Southern slavery that hindered the development of capitalism. First, the rapid development of American capitalism led to a severe shortage of labor, which urgently needed to be met from all sides. On the eve of the Civil War, the number of Black slaves in the U.S. had reached over four million, providing a substantial labor force for American capitalism. However, these Black slaves were exploited and oppressed by Southern slave owners, chained by slavery, unable to be employed as free labor and integrated into capitalist production. This seriously damaged the interests of the American bourgeoisie.
Secondly, the American slave system was based on large plantation economies. Slave owners cultivated various crops and sold these to the British bourgeoisie as raw materials needed for British industrial development. Due to this characteristic, American slave owners depended economically on the British bourgeoisie, and the Southern U.S. became a colonial territory of Britain. Meanwhile, the industrial development of Northern America slowed due to the loss of Southern agricultural products, suffering severe suppression from British capitalism. Marx sharply pointed out: "Economically, the U.S. is still a colony of Europe."[5]
Moreover, due to the comprador nature of the American slave-owning class, politically they implemented a traitorous surrender line—constantly opposing the U.S. bourgeoisie’s efforts to raise tariffs on agricultural products in exchange for Britain lowering tariffs on American goods, maintaining low tariffs on British industrial products and opening the door to British industrial invasion. As a result, the slow and repeatedly suppressed tariff increases failed to effectively resist the dumping of British goods, causing the weak American national capital to be unable to compete with the powerful British capital. The American market was flooded with British products, and many British capitalists invested in the U.S., controlling many industrial sectors. There was a serious danger of the U.S. falling back into colonial status under Britain. This also severely damaged American bourgeois interests.
Although contradictions existed between the American bourgeoisie and the slave-owning class, the bourgeoisie, due to its own weakness, dared not use violence to resolve the problem, harboring illusions about peaceful solutions to these irreconcilable class contradictions. On one hand, many Northern capitalists had economic dealings with the South, such as importing raw materials from the South and granting loans; on the other hand, they feared the masses more than the slave-owning class, afraid that violence against the slaveholders would trigger uprisings among Black slaves, poor farmers, and workers, threatening bourgeois rule. Therefore, the task of thoroughly solving the American slavery issue must be borne by the American people, who had the deepest contradictions with the slave-owning class. Only the people's struggle could promote historical development and lead to the complete abolition of slavery in America.
Oppressed Black Slave
In the U.S., the direct victims of slavery exploitation and oppression were the vast Black slaves in the South. By the eve of the Civil War, the number of Black slaves had reached four million, forming an enormous force that could not be ignored. They had nothing and were subjected to brutal exploitation by American slave owners, living in cramped shacks, eating food worse than pigs and dogs, enduring heavy labor daily, and often suffering whippings and abuse from their masters, living extremely miserable lives. Wherever there was oppression, there was resistance. The oppressed Black slaves in America continually escaped to Northern free states seeking freedom, trying to break free from the shackles of slavery, and even staged numerous uprisings and revolts, directly fighting against the slave owners and severely undermining their rule in the Southern slave states.
Besides Black slaves, poor white farmers also long suffered exploitation by American slave owners. Many free farmers in the U.S. migrated westward due to land confiscation by large landowners, working hard to turn wasteland into fertile land and marshes into good farmland. However, greedy Southern slave owners coveted the fruits of these farmers' labor. They used various despicable means to seize large amounts of newly cultivated Western land, plunging farmers into poverty again. Therefore, deep contradictions existed between the poor white farmers and the Southern slave-owning class. John Brown himself was born into such a peasant family, making him one of the broad masses of impoverished farmers. For this reason, his heart was closely linked to the Black slaves and poor white farmers in America.
Amidst the surging people's struggles, the collapsing rule of the slave-owning class, and the increasing dissatisfaction of the bourgeoisie with the slave-owning class, contradictions among various classes in America erupted. As Marx said, American slavery had become "the greatest obstacle to the political and social development of the United States"[6]. American history had reached an era where a hero capable of leading the American people to eliminate slavery was needed but had yet to emerge. At this moment, John Brown, as an outstanding representative of the American people, fired the first shot to destroy slavery, becoming a great hero and an outstanding people's leader in American history, forever remembered by the American people.
The Life of John Brown’s Brave Fight to Destroy Slavery
John Brown
John Brown (1800–1859) was born in 1800 into a poor farming family in the North of the United States. Brown’s grandfather was a revolutionary soldier who heroically sacrificed in the American War of Independence, and his father was a steadfast abolitionist who participated in organizing the secret “Underground Railroad”[7] to assist fugitive slaves, often sheltering escaped slaves in his home. Under his father’s revolutionary influence, Brown developed a firm resolve from a young age to eliminate slavery and liberate all Black people. Growing up in a poor peasant family, Brown endured long-term hardships from the elements, which cultivated his resilient character. These qualities greatly influenced his later revolutionary practice.
Denmark Vesey
Although poverty forced Brown to drop out of school halfway, he did not give up learning. Instead, he overcame various difficulties, eagerly reading revolutionary books to absorb revolutionary spirit and learn cultural knowledge. Brown remembered the history of the American fight against British colonial oppression and the French Revolution against feudalism, and he also clearly understood that the bourgeoisie, promising “liberty, equality, fraternity” during revolutions, ultimately betrayed the people with new capitalist exploitation and oppression, plunging them back into misery without freedom. Therefore, for Brown, compared to the superficial “Founding Fathers” of the American bourgeoisie and slave-owning class, he admired Denmark Vesey, who led the Black slave uprising, even more than Washington, considering him a greater historical figure.
The revolutionary needs of reality further propelled Brown’s ideological awakening to a qualitative leap. From his youth, revolutionary movements against slavery surged in American society. In 1831, the famous Nat Turner slave rebellion broke out; although it was bloodily suppressed, it inspired more people to join the anti-slavery struggle. With the founding of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833, organized anti-slavery campaigns swept across the country, and the “Underground Railroad” helped many slaves escape. The slave owners hated the fight between Black slaves and abolitionists and resorted to counter-revolutionary terror. Slave-holders’ mobs attacked abolitionists everywhere, with rampant arrogance. In 1837, the famous nonviolent abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy was murdered by mobs. A female teacher in Brown’s hometown was killed for admitting Black children to school, and the school was destroyed by mobs. These brutal acts deeply educated Brown, making him realize that talking about kindness and morality with the cruel slave-owning class was wishful thinking—only violent revolution could smash the chains of slavery. At a memorial meeting for Lovejoy, Brown declared: “From now on, I will dedicate my life to destroying slavery.” Later, he educated his children and together they took an oath to “fight slavery with violence and weapons,” insisting they must keep this vow. From then on, John Brown became a steadfast fighter advocating violent abolition of slavery, aiming to unite Black slaves and all anti-slavery abolitionists through revolutionary violence. This was Brown’s lifelong, unwavering revolutionary goal.
How the Bourgeoisie Slanders John Brown and Why
Former slaveholder, constantly compromising with slaveholder forces after the war, Commander of the Union Army, and the 18th President of the United States Ulysses Grant
As mentioned above, it was not the weak bourgeoisie led by Lincoln that eliminated the evil black slave system, completed the second bourgeois revolution in the United States, and cleared the way for the development of American capitalism, but the vast American workers, poor farmers, and Black slaves. Brown was their outstanding leader. However, for more than a hundred years, the American bourgeoisie has been desperately belittling and slandering Brown in various ways, while vigorously praising bourgeois figures like Lincoln and Grant, even going so far as to exonerate reactionary slaveholders: one film after another portrays Brown as an "extremist" and "murderer" who "murdered innocents" (such as the movies "Santa Fe Trail" and "The Seven Angry Men") or excessively glorifies bourgeois politicians and military figures (such as the movies "Lincoln" and the TV series "Grant"). Reactionary songs that promote racial discrimination and summon the spirit of the slave system, such as "Oh! Susanna," "Dixie," and "Dixie's Land," have been widely circulated again. Especially pernicious are the anti-racialist works that viciously attack the Black slaves and the Northern Army composed of American laboring people, and romanticize the Southern slave-owning aristocracy, such as the novel "Gone with the Wind" and its film adaptation "Gone with the Wind." The reason why the American bourgeoisie does this is ultimately to oppose John Brown's revolutionary violence and his call for the working people, regardless of race or skin color, to unite in struggle against oppressors.
"The central task and highest form of revolution is armed seizure of power, and war is the solution to problems."[15] The rule of slaveholders is maintained by shackles, clubs, and whips, and the rule of the bourgeoisie is also maintained by military, police, courts, and prisons. They fear most that the broad masses, including Black people, will take up arms and riot to solve their problems of national and class oppression, so they spread illusions of peaceful reform, trying to steer all Black movements towards non-violence, turning them into political tools that can be tolerated and exploited by some bourgeois groups, such as the earlier "Black Lives Matter" movement. However, once the masses break out of their confined framework and arm themselves, they are the first to be targeted. For example, the Black Panther Party, which fought armed resistance in the 1960s and 70s, and even non-violent Martin Luther King, faced extreme bloody suppression and slaughter by the U.S. government and its agents!
"A nation that oppresses other nations cannot achieve liberation."[16] Just like religious issues, national and racial issues are always exploited by the ruling class to divide the oppressed. However, the fundamental interests of the working people are always aligned. In the fight against slavery, American workers and poor farmers overcame the racial prejudices promoted by the bourgeoisie and slaveholding classes, united with Black slaves, and achieved the great victory of smashing the slave system. John Brown, who dedicated his life and the lives of his three sons to the liberation of Black slaves, epitomizes this spirit of united struggle. This is also why the bourgeoisie desperately tries to erase Brown's achievements. Today, the American bourgeoisie still tries to use ethnic and racial conflicts to cover up class contradictions, with one faction advocating so-called "multiculturalism, equality, and inclusion," and the other openly promoting nationalism and racism.
Despite the relentless slander and vilification by the American bourgeoisie, Brown's reputation remains untarnished, and his historical contributions cannot be erased. "The superiority of privilege cannot always guarantee success in slander."[17] This is a law of history. People have not forgotten Brown. American labor movement leader Eugene Debs said: "Old Brown is not dead; his spirit is with us, and every year we lay new wreaths for him." Brown's ideas of revolutionary violence and his spirit of united struggle continue to inspire American workers of all races in their fight against capitalism and imperialism. A new socialist America without national or class oppression will surely triumph.
"The evil colonialism and imperialist system thrived with the enslavement and trafficking of Black people, and it will also end with the complete liberation of the Black race."[18]
Long live the people's hero John Brown!
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Engels: "Engels to K. Schmidt (August 5, 1890)," Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 37, People's Publishing House, 1971. ↑
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"The Virginia Dynasty" is named after the fact that the first, third, fourth, and fifth Presidents of the United States were all Virginians, leading to a monopoly of the presidency by Virginians for a time. This phenomenon was likened to a feudal dynasty by Americans at the time. Additionally, the 9th, 10th, and 12th Presidents before the Civil War were also Virginians, broadly considered part of the "Virginia Dynasty." The "Virginia Dynasty" reflects the dominance of the large slave-owning aristocracy in early American politics, with most early presidents coming from Virginia, which was also the stronghold of the Southern slave-owning class. ↑
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Missouri joined the Union in 1820. At the time, Missouri was south of 39°N latitude and should have been a slave state according to previous regulations. However, most residents were free citizens, and according to the bourgeois principle of "popular sovereignty," it should have been a free state. When bourgeois laws and democratic principles conflicted, fierce contradictions erupted between the bourgeoisie and the slaveholding classes. The final result was the Missouri Compromise, in which the bourgeoisie compromised with the slaveholding class. Under the compromise, Maine was carved out of Massachusetts as a free state, and Missouri joined as a slave state, with the boundary between free and slave states moved to 36°30′N latitude. ↑
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Mao Zedong: "On Contradictions," Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 1, People's Publishing House, 1967. ↑
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Marx: "Das Kapital," Volume 1, Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 23, People's Publishing House, 1972. ↑
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Engels: "Letter to J. W. V. Weidemann (November 24, 1864)," Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 31, People's Publishing House, 1972. ↑
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"Underground Railroad" was a secret organization formed spontaneously by fleeing Black slaves and some poor white farmers. Its purpose was to assist Black slaves in escaping from the American South to the North or Canada. Participants would use their homes as "stations," providing shelter and food for fleeing slaves and guiding them to the next station until they reached freedom outside the Southern region. John Brown's family was among the participants. ↑
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John Brown, cited from Du Bois: "John Brown," People's Publishing House, 1976. ↑
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John Brown, cited from Du Bois: "John Brown," People's Publishing House, 1976. ↑
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Marx: "Letter to Engels (around January 11, 1860)," Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 30, People's Publishing House, 1974. ↑
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Marx: "Letter to Engels (August 7, 1862)," Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 30, People's Publishing House, 1974. ↑
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"Copperhead" refers to Northern bourgeois businessmen, factory owners, and bankers who colluded with the Southern slaveholders during the Civil War. Due to their deep interests with the Southern slaveholding class, they betrayed the revolution, supplied poor-quality logistics to the Union army, and secretly sold large quantities of arms and supplies to the Southern slaveholders. They even incited chaos within Congress, sabotaging and interfering with Lincoln and other bourgeois war hawks' plans. They were the traitorous agents, spies, and traitors infiltrating the Northern government, causing severe damage. The American people strongly oppose the rampant treachery of the "Copperheads" and have protested fiercely, forcing the bourgeoisie to crack down on these reactionaries and purge the traitors from the Union government. ↑
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Mao Zedong: "On the United Front," Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 1, People's Publishing House, 1967. ↑
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https://www.nps.gov/people/jefferson-davis.htm. ↑
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Mao Zedong: "On War and Strategy," Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 1, People's Publishing House, 1967. ↑
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Engels: "Letters from Exiles," Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 18, People's Publishing House, 1964. ↑
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Lenin: "What Is 'Friends of the People' and How Do They Attack Social Democrats?" Selected Works of Lenin, Vol. 1, People's Publishing House, 1955. ↑
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Mao Zedong: "Declaration Supporting the Struggle of American Blacks Against Racial Discrimination," August 8, 1963. ↑