"The Portent" is a particularly notable part of Melville's poetry collection Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War in that it deals squarely with a real historical figure, attempting to grapple with his radicalism and its subsequent aftermath. Brown was known as perhaps one of the most passionate abolitionists of his time. As part of the Underground Railroad, he helped slaves escape the South to freedom. He also befriended and worked with famed figures like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, who were impressed by the fervor of his devotion to the battle against slavery. A series of terrible events escalated tensions in the United States and pushed slavery to the forefront of political discourse. The first of these was the Fugitive Slave Act of 1950, which severely punished any Northern citizens who harbored or assisted escaped slaves. Then in 1856, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed for popular sovereignty in both states, opening the door to the possibility of the two states legalizing slavery. As a result, brutal pro-slavery advocates poured into the states to sway the vote. Finally, prominent abolitionist and Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner was viciously attacked with a cane by congressman Preston Brooks on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
In the wake of these events, violence in Kansas erupted as "border ruffians" raided towns in an effort to intimidate the local population. A particularly horrible instance of this pillaging occurred in Lawrence, Kansas, leaving large swaths of it in burnt ruins. Brown, pushed to the limits of his tolerance, lead a band of Free State supporters down to Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas, and dragged five slaveowners from their cabins in the night and murdered them with swords. This came to be known as the Pottawatomie Massacre. Brown became a man on the run from the law as the guerrilla war between the two sides continued on. Retribution from the "ruffians" came swiftly; Brown's son was shot dead and Brown began to sense that his death would come shortly. For his part, though, Brown showed no regret or remorse for the severity of his actions. In his view, the fight against slavery was a life and death moral struggle in which there was no middle ground.
Brown sought out the financial support of notable abolitionists (the "Secret Six") and amassed a cache of rifles and pikes. He hoped to lead a major slave revolt in the South. Brown attacked Harper's Ferry, an armory near Washington D.C., attempting to blockade the area. Brown had expected to be joined by a massive wave of escaped slaves but those reinforcements never arrived. During the course of the second day, Brown was overtaken by militia men and Southern soldiers, and his men (including some of his sons) were killed or captured. After a lengthy holdout, Brown was himself also captured by then-Colonel Robert E. Lee. He was sentenced to death on November 2, 1859 and executed on December 2 in Virginia.
Brown's death was mourned in the North and his martyrdom would go on to spark an even more intense passion for the fight against slavery. Author Henry David Thoreau eulogized him in the following words: "What a transit was that of his horizontal body alone, but just cut down from the gallows-tree! We read that at such a time it passed through Philadelphia, and by Saturday night had reached New York. Thus like a meteor it shot through the Union from the Southern regions toward the North! No such freight had the cars borne since they carried him southward alive." His legacy was also immortalized in the famous war hymn: "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on." This lyric treads much of the same territory as Melville's poem, remembering Brown as a figure who loomed large, even in death.
