Osawatomie is a direct allusion to the eponymous battle waged by the abolitionist John Brown of whom Victor Hugo at the time of saving him from hanging says "Yes, let America know and think about it, there is something more frightening than Cain killing Abel, it is Washington killing Spartacus". By his call to the armed struggle to fight slavery Brown is part of a revolutionary culture which links him in particular to Auguste Blanqui.