To What Extent Was John Brown A Hero Or A Traitor

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A vast amount of John Brown’s fellow whites regarded him as a traitor because he associated with slaves. Moderates regarded him as an extremist and fanatic in the view of his action in the Pottawatomie massacre and the raids on Harper's Ferry. Due to the same actions, part of the slave population regarded him as a hero. I argue that the motive why he was and still is portrayed as both, hero and terrorist is more profound than just an association. If Brown was a radical slave owner most of his actions would have obtained praise, as those actions will maintain the power within most of the white community. John Brown was an American born when the institution of slavery was effective. Raised in a Christian Church and being near a significant amount …show more content…

His undertaking the massacre in Pottawatomie Creek and in the raid on Harpers Ferry promoted segmentation among the individual whom heard, viewed or read about his warfare against slavery. Brown claimed that slavery was an “abominable sin against God” and because of this of this, he consecrated his life to the destruction of slavery. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act Brown was largely involved in violent attacks one of them being the Pottawatomie massacre that occurred between May 24 and May 25, 1856. During this massacre, Brown with the company of some abolitionist settlers fought against several slave-owners part of the pro-slavery force in Kansas. The result of this was five pro-slavery causalities at the hands of John Brown and abolitionist settlers. Three years later, in October 1859 Brown was, yet again deeply involved in another violent incident, raid on Harper's Ferry. Harper’s Ferry was located in West Virginia and it served as a storage for guns and ammunition. Brown’s intentions were crystal-clear provoke a massive revolt that will end slavery. The plan was to undertake Harper’s Ferry and obtain the machinery necessary to liberate slaves. Once the slaves were freed he intended to recruit them thus creating an army. This army will grow in numbers every time the take a location similar to Harper's ferry and this will continue until the entire …show more content…

Disposing of slaves as commodities most of the population in the south gave their slaves the worst treatment possible. Forcing them into picking and planting crops, the most arduous jobs that no white will ever take part off. Conversely, the creation of the cotton gin exponentially increased demands for slaves in the cotton states compared border states. The south was the main producer of cotton for the whole country, furthermore, it not all sold to most of the states in the union but also produced cotton for countries like Britain. In order for the south to balance them with the demands of the union and outside countries, they forced more slaves into the south. Furthermore, they were forced to reproduce at such rate that some of them gained the nickname of “breeding states.”Between the years of 1850 and 1860 slave-owners made an invested heavily in slavery using a significant amount of money to buy children under the age of fifteen years old. Prior to this, there was almost always a prejudice of obtaining male workers for doing the hard labor and obtaining one or two females, depending on the family size, to help with housekeeping. However, at this time this prejudice was towards man as slave-owners in the south sought to increase the number of slaves without buying more slaves thus giving females superior usefulness. Slave-owners in the south wanted to profit from their investment

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