John Brown

by W.E.B. Du Bois • 1909

This new edition of Du Bois's John Brown includes the text of the original 1909 edition and is accompanied by a major introduction that underscores Du Bois's intellectual and emotional debt to the martyred abolitionist. John David Smith's introduction asks new questions about Brown's influence on Du Bois's emerging thoughts on race and society. Smith also provides contextualizing documents, including letters from Brown to his family and Frederick Douglass's account of his last meeting with Brown.