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"And also [I wanted] to communicate the overwhelming moral power and courage and drive of John Brown to release blacks from slavery whether they wanted to be released or not. Just the force of the man to just push into this tavern, get into a gunfight, grab this kid, run off not paying attention to whether the kid is a boy or a girl, because his charge is to free all African-Americans. And because he's wearing these blinders, if you will, he just doesn't see things that he should see."

On Henry's characterization of Frederick Douglass as a "speeching parlor man"

"Frederick Douglass refers to himself as that. Frederick Douglass was a man who made speeches; Henry was a kid who had been out on the plains and firing weapons and getting drunk and meeting parlor folks and so forth. He doesn't have a great regard for the East Coast abolitionist in general, which makes him that much more interesting and that much more compelling and also, in my opinion, more real.

"The abolitionists were not like the rugged people out West and they were not like John Brown either. They were people who made speeches and did politics. So in this book, there's no space for that. This is a book about real people who did real things, some of which are fictionalized but much of which is real, or was real and really happened."

On the relationship between Brown and Douglass

"In real life, they were good friends and in real life John Brown went to Frederick Douglass and said, 'I'm gonna attack Harpers Ferry and if you come, thousands of blacks will come.' ... So it was important to show that they had a very close relationship and that John Brown trusted Frederick Douglass, but that at the end of his life, John Brown was very disappointed that Frederick Douglass did not accompany him to Harpers Ferry on that suicide mission."

Author Interviews

The Harpers Ferry 'Rising' That Hastened Civil War