John Brown

John Brown is a biography written by W. E. B. Du Bois and published in 1909. It tells the story of the abolitionist John Brown, from his Christian rural upbringing to his failed business ventures and finally his "blood feud" with slavery as a whole.

Du Bois highlights the moment in Brown's childhood when he first became radicalized against slavery, the moment he pledged to destroy it. He describes Brown as a biblical figure: fanatically devoted to his cause, yet a man of rigid social and moral rules. He presents him simultaneously as revolutionary, prophet and martyr, and declares that his leadership lay not in his office, wealth or influence, but in the white flame of his utter devotion to an ideal.

The work continues the examination of the genealogy of Black Americans begun in The Philadelphia Negro (1899) and The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and refutes biological differences between Black and white people. Du Bois argues that Brown based his fight against slavery not on social Darwinism but on his personal values. A new edition appeared in 1997, with a new introduction and primary documents.