Went looking for the ghost of John Brown in eastern Kansas last weekend. Have you read Russell Banks' novel about Brown,
Cloudsplitter? It's a remarkable book. We drove along John Brown Road to
Pottawatomie Creek, where JB murdered those proslavery men, and at Osawatomie spent some time on the 'battlefield' where he and his crew fought off a force of Missourians. He's a strange figure in American history---he certainly can be seen as a jihadi, an ideological warrior, willing to kill and die for his beliefs, which were grounded in his interpretation of God's will...also as an American hero. Though I'm getting awfully tired of that phrase "American hero" these days.
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| The Pottawatomie Massacre happened at this bend in the creek. |
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| Post Office, Pottawatomie Twonship |
