New York:A.S. Barnes and Company.1970. 190 pp. I act from a principle, and I say, break the law are not only the names of two out of the five parts in this book, but the words by which John Brown lived so passionately everyday. At earlier times in his life he lived by his sword as well. The Sword and the Word illustrates John Browns own ideas and intentions and how he lived by them. A main issue of this book is that truly a man of his word who believed that morals should outweigh the law of the land, John Brown lived and died for the abolition of slavery and did as much if not more for that cause than many other slaves or free men. You could say this book is a biography but it really focuses on certain aspects and parts of John Browns life. It uses a kind of story-telling format, but many of the information and facts of the stories are given to the reader in the form of notes that are to and from many people including John Brown. Staviss major thesis is Brown believing that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave, and that Brown fought for the freedom of the slaves and believed it was better he break inhumane rules and obey and follow God than to obey the law and sin.He followed his own set of principles and morals. He believed that a man should be honest, God-fearing, and loyal. If a man commits a crime he must be punished. Once he had a man re-arrested for the crime of theft where the man pleaded poverty. The man was thrown in jail but John Brown believed that the mans family should not suffer for his wrongdoing while he was in jail so John Brown regularly supplied his family with an abundance of provisions. Not only was John Brown honest and fair, but also he was courteous and generous towards others even outside his well-taken care of family. To prove his points, th...
