Reputational Politics and the Symbolic Accretion of John Brown in Kansas

Abstract

Traveling south on United States Highway 169 from the Kansas City metropolitan region, drivers are confronted with a sign begging them to stop in the small town of Osawatomie and visit the preserved frontier home of famed abolitionist John Brown (Figure 1). The sign draws attention to the memorialization of the man and his legend, a memorialization that has been evident in Osawatomie alone for 100 years now and extends to other locations throughout the state. It also indicates an area of cumulative response to Brown: a park with other elements that has been dedicated to this historic figure. It does not, however, note either the contestation surrounding Brown’s life and image or the debates underneath the history and landscape surrounding his legacy throughout the state and even country. John Brown is one of the most contested figures in American history, locally in Kansas and nationally due to his time in New York, Ohio, and West Virginia. 1 Debates over Brown’s meaning have been carried out