Cloudsplitter: A Novel,” by Russell Banks, is a 750-page missive that tells the story of John Brown’s lifelong fight against slavery through his son, Owen’s, eyes. The author lived in Keene, New York, ...

Editor’s note: For those who are wondering about the retro title of this black-history series, please take a moment to learn about historian Joel A. Rogers, author of the 1934 book 100 Amazing Facts ...

Of the day following John Brown’s raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Va., in 1859 — now understood by scholars and schoolchildren alike to be one of the precipitating events of the Civil ...

Last Sunday was the 163rd anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, which for me was an excuse to flip through W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1909 biography of Brown for the first time in years. The ...