8 /10 1 Votes
4.7/5 Barnes & Noble LC Class PZ7.C912Ni 2008 Country United States of America | 3.2/5 Goodreads Language English Originally published 2008 ISBN 0-399-25054-9 OCLC 2007023648 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Genre young adult literary fiction Similar Ugly To Start With, Don't Forget Me - Bro, The Best American Short Stor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Night I Freed John Brown (2008) is a young adult literary novel by John Michael Cummings about growing up in historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in the 1970s.
Thirteen-year-old Josh uncovers family secrets involving his overly strict father, whose anger threatens to tear the family apart.
This debut novel is generally recognized as Cummings' most autobiographical work.
Overview and plot summary
2009 marked the 150th anniversary of John Brown’s famous abolitionist raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia (then Virginia) — an act of insurrection that grabbed national headlines and helped push the nation into Civil War. John Brown believed he could free the slaves, and job one was to arm them for their fight for freedom. Though Brown was hanged for treason, was he a madman? A murderer? Or was he a saint? The question, pondered and debated, lives on unanswered.
The Night I Freed John Brown tells of a mistreated 13-year-old growing up in Brown’s shadow in the modern-day town where the white preacher-turned-revolutionary was captured. Harpers Ferry is today also a national historical park.
When Josh defies his harsh, controlling father and takes part in the town’s annual play about John Brown’s celebrated treason trial, playing the role of Brown’s brave son who fought by his father’s side against federal troops, the novel's shy, sheltered hero is liberated by the experience.
The Night I Freed John Brown is a modern-day parallel on the historical events at Harpers Ferry.