Question

In what way did John Brown embody the Transcendentalist philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau? He died for a cause he believed in. He put family and religion above all else. He used any means necessary to fight an unjust law. He trusted his conscience regardless of what the laws said.

Answer 1

Answer: He trusted his conscience regardless of what the laws said.

Transcendentalism was a religious movement based in New England from the 1830s to the 1880s. Its dominant idea was that divine truth and religious knowledge could be known "intuitively." They argued that the truth and holiness of Jesus could be known "subjectively," simply by looking at his self-evidently true and good life.

The influence of transcendentalism can be clearly appreciated in John Brown's abolitionist views. The "self-evident" truth of the evil of slavery made it obviously abhorrent. There was no need for scholars to discuss its advantages and disadvantages, because for Brown, it was blatantly unjust. Moreover, the disregard for dogma and formal teaching that transcendentals had was the same attitude Brown had towards the law. He believed that the knowledge of what was fair and right came from his conscience, and this subjective knowledge was more important than what the law stated.