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The opera concerns the events surrounding the abortive attempt by John Brown, a passionate abolitionist, to end American slavery. His friend Frederick Douglass, the charismatic black leader, plays a prominent role. There is a love story at the heart of the opera. One of Brown's sons was engaged to a girl from a Quaker family; she wants him to leave Kansas, a battleground for the struggle against slavery. She is devastated by her brother's murder by Southern invaders, our national conflict mirrored in her personal torment. Brown's execution at Harpers Ferry was a national sensation, the catalyst that accelerated the explosion of Civil War. As the opera closes, Douglass proclaims, “You cannot bury him! As long as men love freedom, John Brown will never die.”
While writing his libretto, Mechem consulted with historian Stephen Oates, then the foremost authority on Brown. Oates wrote of the finished text: “The painstaking efforts to be historically accurate, as well as artistically creative, should stand as a model. It captures perfectly the conflict and tragedy at the heart of the John Brown story. I was deeply moved.”
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