ABSTRACT

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.

摘要

废奴主义者约翰·布朗因 1859 年 10 月领导哈珀斯费里袭击事件而被处决，160 多年来仍然是文化试金石，很大程度上是因为该事件以及布朗在事件后的行为在导致国家陷入内战中发挥了作用。为了理解这一遗产以及他在引发内战中所扮演的角色，本文考察了在他那个时代的种族感觉背景下围绕布朗活跃的话语场。我们认为布朗仍然引起人们的兴趣，因为他是一位独特的战前种族人物，他提供了一种基于白人流动性、暴力的使用、令人震惊的言行以及令人震惊的大胆亲密行为的激进白人模式，从而催化了该国种族感官景观的重大转变与黑人。最终，