The Cost of Liberty

This essay, by Alexander Livingston, analyzes Du Bois’s 1909 biography of the abolitionist John Brown as a work that reveals Du Bois’s beliefs about the meaning and limitations of sacrifice in politics. Published amid a national movement toward the “Lost Cause” narrative of the Civil War, John Brown was an indictment of this mentality, pushing readers to continue the fight for racial equality. As with many of Du Bois’s works, central to the book is the concept of sacrifice by all citizens for the good of the democracy. Using the death of John Brown as a symbol of the sacrificial burdens faced by people of color, Du Bois reframes the racialized economy of the Jim Crow era and recasts black Americans as sacrificial agents instead of victims.