Charles Brockden Brown Wikipedia/John Trumbull, Wikimedia CommonsMurder, suicide, spontaneous combustion, sleepwalking, ventriloquism: these are some of the sensational events in the novels of Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1810). As the United States’ first professional author, Brown is the Founding Father of the nation’s literature. He is, according to one biographer, “the most important American author no one has ever heard of”. His fiction was deeply engaged with politics and culture after the American Revolution. His novels are important to our understanding of the nation’s early decades – and the current US political environment.Brown was born into a Quaker family in Philadelphia just before the American Revolution. As a young boy, he witnessed the chaos of independence in the nation’s first capital. His father was arrested for refusing to swear an oath of allegiance. After training as a lawyer, Brown turned to literature in his mid-twenties to make an income, first contributing to literary magazines, then publishing four gothic novels in the space of two years (1798-1800).In 1776, Thomas Jefferson had claimed in the Declaration of Independence that all men were entitled to “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The First Amendment of the new constitution of the United States guaranteed “freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances”. By the time Brown wrote his novels, however, the optimism of the Founding Fathers had come under threat. Crises exposed the limits of their ideals. Physical violence was common – from mob violence to insurrections over tax in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-4 and Shays’ Rebellion of 1786-7. The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, legislated in response to the radical politics of French and Irish immigrants, enabled president John Adams to deport foreign residents and suppress speech critical of him. Furthermore, Yellow Fever outbreaks in Philadelphia, which killed some of Brown’s friends, made life itself uncertain. These outbreaks feature in Brown’s novels Ormond (1799) and Arthur Mervyn (1799-1800). Declaration of Independence – John Trumbull (1819) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons American gothicBrown’s novels anticipate the work of better-known American gothic writers, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who show the darkness of the human psyche. Many of the tales of Poe and Hawthorne have supernatural climaxes.But the horror of Brown’s work is the real violence, psychological torment and corruption that Americans faced in urban centres and along the frontier. The psychological extremities of his fiction cannot be divorced from their American setting. In the preface to his second novel Edgar Huntly (1799), Brown argues that the “incidents of Indian hostility, and the perils of the Western wilderness” are the most suitable topics for American gothic literature.Brown’s first novel Wieland: or, The Transformation (1798) offers a clear analogy for an early nation in turmoil. Its subtitle is “An American Tale”. Written as a series of letters by its heroine Clara Wieland in the early 1770s, the novel depicts a Philadelphian family plagued by unlocatable disembodied voices. As the novel progresses, these voices become increasingly violent and manipulative. Seeming to emanate from Clara’s closet, they make thuggish threats towards her. In the midst this confusion, Clara’s brother Theodore claims he has heard the voice of God ordering him to kill his wife and children, an instruction he carries out. Uncertain of the cause of her brother’s actions, Clara confronts Frank Carwin, an itinerant stranger who has been visiting them, having recently spent time living in Europe. Carwin confesses that he is a “biloquist” or ventriloquist, who has spent the preceding months tricking the family, but denies he is responsible for Theodore’s violence. In a pessimistic conclusion, Theodore commits suicide from guilt and Clara leaves America for Germany.Children of the revolutionA story centred on mysterious outsiders, murderous patriarchs and the power of the voice, Wieland holds up a gothic mirror to political questions of the 1790s. These included national and civic identity, and the role of free speech. The “transformation” of the novel’s subtitle can refer to Carwin’s multiple vocal performances, Theodore’s abrupt shift from loving husband and father to murderer, and America’s development from colony to nation.Brown saw himself as a politically engaged writer and believed in the role of fiction to educate the public. Wieland has been interpreted as a warning against political radicalism and violent conduct. For some scholars, meddling Carwin is a “child of the Revolution”. He is a self-made man who wreaks havoc on the young nation with his excessive vocal freedom. Brown’s message is that this anarchy must be halted. The government should forge a unified national identity rather than allowing for radical individualism.Alternatively, some scholars interpret Wieland as a progressive critique of nativism and reactionary politics. In this view, Brown warns his post-Revolution readers against suspicions of the democratic freedom of movement and speech that Carwin represents. Instead, it is Theodore who must shoulder the blame for his extremist violence. The Wieland family are held responsible for not correctly identifying the source of the voices before it is too late. Charles Brockden Brown – James Sharples (1798) Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Wieland’s themes of nativism, paranoia and free speech persist. As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the Trump administration’s authoritarian actions reveal that the Founding Fathers’ promises continue to be undermined by the nation’s dark side. Americans are still living in Brown’s world of social and political uncertainty and instability. Suspicion is still directed against migrants, white male violence is overlooked, and those who speak the truth of the nation’s history are censored. Today, Wieland serves as a prescient parable of the failure or impossibility to correctly judge and protect against deception. Falling for ventriloquism today may seem far-fetched. But believing online misinformation and manipulation is not. The problem is only exacerbated by the rise of convincing generative AI productions. Sara Sligar’s recent novel Vantage Point (2025) modernises Brown’s novel, depicting Clara as the victim of deepfake and hologram technology, and Theodore as a Senate candidate, who refuses to believe his sister’s claims of innocence and becomes increasingly paranoid.Brown’s novels continue to serve as cautionary political tales. They warn against the civic failure of manipulating and harming others. They urge readers and citizens to seek out alternative explanations and use common sense in the face of inexplicable events. These interrogations of civic responsibilities are as alive in the 21st century as they were for Brown in the 18th.Hannah Lauren Murray does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.