Question

Can someone give me a summary of Fiery Vision By Clinton Cox so I can understand it better?

Answer 1

There you go I hope that helps :)

In the biography Fiery Vision, The Life and Death of John Brown by Clinton Cox, I noticed that John Brown spent more time fighting for slavery than with his family. In finding this, I was very intrigued to learn that someone would fight for something he believes in so much rather than be with his family in time of need. I think that he spent too much time on the cause. Slavery is in fact wrong but to me, family would come first. Brown's family struggled to survive and only saw him every so often, but he did write to his family all the time. On one of his visits, before Brown was really involved in the fight for slavery, he told his second wife Mary Anne Day to "consider herself a widow," and for his children to be "committed to the care of Him who fed the ravens." I think Brown was telling his wife not to get her hopes up of him coming home to her. John Brown loved his family so much, but rarely spent time with them. When he did get to see them, he was a true father. Brown always sang, "Blow Ye the Trumpet Blow" to his family. John, Jr. one of his sons, said ."..For thirty years there was a baby in the house, and he sang us all to sleep...with that same hymn." Brown raised his family around church and required them to worship in the cabin every morning. If Brown loved his family so much why did he leave them? To fight a greater cause, slavery.

In letters to his family, Brown wrote of the happenings and how much he missed his family. John Brown visited home as often as he was able to. On visits home, Brown's family was sick and poor. They could hardly keep up with the farm, so John Brown stayed for almost two weeks helping the family get back on track. He wrote Sanborn, one of the leading men in his group, to let him know. "The parting with my wife and young children lay heavy upon my heart. They were without income, supplies of clothing, provisions, or even comfortable house to live in or money to provide any such things." Throughout Brown's fight for slavery, he missed his family severely. He thought about them all the time, even at his death which he wrote to his pastor, ."..Broken-hearted wife and children would come to immediate want. May God reward a thousand fold all the kind efforts made in their behalf." The fight for slavery was worth it to John Brown even though he lost several of his children and his own life to the cause. When the family brought Brown's body back to the Brown's farm for burial, they sang "Blow ye the Trumpet." Even without John Brown, his family loved him dearly.

I would recommend this book to everyone because it was well written and had a lot of interesting facts. The book showed Brown in his ups and downs. It brought out the true side of John Brown in every aspect. I did not really notice any facts to be false in the book. I still think that John Brown needed to spend more time with his family and that they would have been better off, but then again, the slavery issue could have never been eased if it was not for him.