Resources - Civil War Era

Popular songs offer a window into 19th-century life. Before television and MP3 players, song offered a popular form of entertainment. People commonly wrote new lyrics to familiar tunes, creating new songs that were easy to learn and reflecting changing times or local issues. Historians look at popular songs and how they changed to learn about concerns, humor, and experiences around the country.

This song, “John Brown’s Body,” was written in part to tease a soldier named John Brown who shared a name with the famous abolitionist. The song, however, grew to become one of the Union Army’s most popular marching tunes and the song changed in meaning to focus exclusively on the well-known Brown. As you listen to the song and read the lyrics, keep in mind that in the immediate aftermath of the 1859 raid Brown was not seen by most as a hero. Many northerners sought to distance themselves from Brown – some calling him “insane.”

• Listen to the John Brown Song

When we think of the Civil War we often think of the Fugitive Slave Act, the Emancipation Proclamation, and troop movements and battles. While these are all important aspects of the Civil War era, they do not answer fundamental questions about the daily lives of people living in this time. What did ordinary people think about John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry or the Emancipation Proclamation? What did ordinary soldiers experience?

This song’s elaborate lyrics define John Brown as a hero who died to free the slaves, whose actions foreshadowed the Civil War, and who directly supported the Union Army’s cause. This is particularly interesting because John Brown’s raid was planned against the federal government itself. This is indicative of how much the war changed people’s views about slavery and John Brown.

Keep this song in mind as you examine the material culture, images, and documents that reveal more about Virginia during the Civil War.