Massey's John Brown eagerly endorses breaking apart the union of the United States. The movie was made on the eve of the United States' entry into World War II, and its tone and political subtext express a desire to reconcile the nation's dispute over slavery which brought about the American Civil War and appeal to white moviegoers in both the Southern and Northern United States. The American Civil War and abolition of slavery are presented as an unnecessary tragedy caused by an anarchic madman. Seen in many scenes, including one with a Native American fortune teller, the heroic protagonists such as Flynn's Jeb Stuart and Reagan's Custer are unable to conceive how the issue of slavery could make them bitter enemies in the near future, even though by 1859 hostility between the pro- and anti-slavery states had already reached a boiling point.