John Brown was a fervent abolitionist who dedicated his life to the cause of ending slavery in the United States. He was involved in several violent confrontations with pro-slavery forces in the territories of Kansas and Missouri, where he earned the nickname “Osawatomie Brown” for his bravery and ruthlessness. He is best known for his daring raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, where he intended to seize weapons and ammunition and distribute them to enslaved people in the South. He hoped to ignite a massive slave revolt that would overthrow the slave system and create a new republic of free people. However, his plan failed, as he was quickly surrounded by local militia and federal troops, led by Colonel Robert E. Lee. He was captured, wounded, and taken to trial, where he was found guilty of treason, murder, and inciting insurrection. He was hanged on December 2, 1859, becoming one of the first martyrs of the Civil War. …show more content…
Some people hailed him as a hero or martyr who sacrificed his life for a noble cause. They admired his courage and commitment to the abolitionist movement. They saw him as a prophet and a liberator who acted on behalf of God and humanity. They also regarded his raid as a turning point in the history of slavery and the nation, as it provoked a strong reaction from both the North and the South. Other people denounced him as a terrorist or villain who used violence and terror to achieve his goals. They despised his fanaticism and lawlessness. They saw him as a traitor and a murderer who violated the Constitution and the rights of states. They also considered his raid as a disaster that did not accomplish anything but more bloodshed and division. To reconcile John Brown’s actions within the context of the ongoing debates over slavery during the antebellum era, one might consider the following
John Brown was the first violent abolitionist. He showed the the North was not afraid to physically fight for their beliefs. He became a martyr for the North
In the South, he was seen as a terrorist, an evil enemy comes from the North. In the North, at first, they saw Brown attacked Harpers Ferry as dumb and naive. But popular northerners like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau have a different view, they call him a hero who have die to fight against slavery. When the Union finally starts a war with Confederate States Army, along with the operation is the song that troops sing about Brown’s legendary: "John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave, / But his soul goes marching
He kills many people who just are in his way. On the night of May 24, 1856, the radical abolitionist John Brown, five of his sons, and three other associates murders five proslavery men brutally with knives and swords. Just four years later, he seizes the arsenal at the Harpers Ferry, take weapons from there, and destruct many properties of the town. By destructing properties and murdering many innocent people, he starts a guerrilla war. He kills many people and scares many others.
John Brown was an abolitionist who was a part of the anti-slavery movement. He led the Harpers Ferry Raid in hopes to ignite a spark in slave uprisings. Brown was not insane for his plans of raiding and supplying slaves with guns from the arsenal. The plan for the raid was not a spontaneous attack.
At the Farm John Brown trained 21 men in his army and planned their capture of the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. John Brown not only created his own army, but he was also giving slaves rifles and pikes. He did this hoping that the slaves would join his army and free more slaves. He also hoped that this would scare the slave owners. When it came time for his army to fight the slaves never showed up.
John Brown’s Raid was the effort by John Brown to initiate a slave revolt, and his first objective was to arm slaves by trying to take over the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry. John Brown and twenty other men who joined him, including three of his sons and about fourteen African-Americans, went into the town of Harpers Ferry. Brown split up the group into the two, this proved to be the biggest mistake of the whole operation, with one group going to capture Colonel Lewis Washington along with other hostages. The main group, led by John Brown, intercepted a train in hope that slaves in the next town would hear about the rebellion and join it, but no slaves heard about it. After intercepting the train, the group went on to seize the armory in Harpers Ferry.
John Brown fought slave owners to free slaves. He saw the wrong in the slave world. Brown had believed he was doing the right thing to do. For his actions, Brown had been hung with pleasure knowing he had a good impact on the slave world. He had tried very hard to free the slaves.
The topic of John Brown is controversial, because no one knows how to label him due to his violent actions, which involved the killings of multiple people. During the 1830s various antislavery activities were attempted, but to no avail did it work. Brown introduced a new method which involved the combination of violence with the idea of freeing slaves. Even with the people who preached for anti-slavery were not as unique as Brown. Unlike most said abolitionists at that time, Brown became friends with the blacks and slaves he came across and got to know them as a person.
Many people have no clue who John Brown was. John Brown was an American abolitionist who believed that slaves should be treated equally. John Brown was a white man who lived in the North and thought what was happening in the South would have to come to an end. Brown believed the only way to get rid of slavery in the South was violence. He brutally killed many slaveholders and their families in the South because they owned slaves.
Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, on May 9th, 1800, and he later died on December 2nd, 1859. He is most well known for his violent attempts to end slavery, like the instance of “Bleeding Kansas” in 1856. John Brown was said to have based his role in the abolition of slavery on his religious beliefs and values, as his faith greatly influenced him. When Brown was away from his family, he would frequently write letters to his wife-at-the-time, Mary Ann Day, and 20 children, explaining to them where he was, what he was doing, and most unbelievably, how he was remaining joyful and evermore faithful in the Lord. Brown wrote a letter to his family when he first discovered he was to be hung, and in his letter he wrote; “ I am, besides, quite cheerful, having (as I trust) "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," to "rule in my heart," and the testimony (in some degree) of a good conscience that I have not lived altogether in vain.
John Brown is a abolitionist who was against slavery and has made a big impact to the abolitionist movement for slavery. Many debate is John brown was a hero or a murderer. He planned to help the movement by opposing a raid on harper leas ferry and wanted to free slaves and help them fight back. However his decision left a different type of impact.
John Brown, a hero in the eyes of Northern extremists, his actions supposedly justified by God and the lives of five people which he stole. When John Brown and group of supporters attacked Harpers Ferry that killed a total of five men, it caused a controversial conflict of impressions towards him to this today. Brown’s exact intentions for abolishing slavery is vaguely known, but being a white male with all his rights and privilege, why was John Brown was so passionate about ending slavery if it wasn’t affecting him? Regardless, John Brown ended up killing five different men, and caused terror amongst others, the amount of people killed does not differ the effects it has caused to others. While some see John Brown as a fighter, the use of
According to (Document D), a New York Tribune editorial by Horace Greely portrays the idea that John Brown, a fanatic or abolitionist who is willing to give his life to help end slavery. John Brown had the idea that the world needed to turn their heads to an event that will make them consider their ideas whether the U.S. is actually what it is said to be. In the year 1859, he attack the armory at Harper’s Ferry to illustrate that slaves were not alone in the fight with the world. This type of man can be symbolized as a sword ready to slice of any negative thought. He was assure that slavery was not the way to treat black people, we was basically following the constitution stating that all men are created equal, and everyone deserves the right to the pursuit of happiness, he thought well why did this not apply to the slaves?
His target was a federal arsenal and hoped to arm enslaved African Americans. This act of violence alarmed the south and added to their fears of the Republicans. All of the men fighting with Brown wanted to start a revolt against slaveholders. Local citizens and federal troops were able to defeat Brown’s raid, but this didn’t prevent southerners from feeling threatened by abolitionists. Brown was eventually convicted of treason and murder, and was hanged for his actions.
“They then took my husband away…A lady who saw my husband’s body, said that there was a gash in his head and in his side; others said that he was cut in the throat twice.” (Source 10) John Brown was an abolitionist during the period known as “Bleeding Kansas”. Meaning he wanted to abolish slavery. He went to great extents to try and stop slavery, even murder. It is argued that John Brown is either a hero or a villain.