On October 16, 1859, John Brown along with twenty-one men (five blacks and sixteen white) are going to capture the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, the reason was all in the name of abolishing slavery. The idea was that once the town was captures, slaves would come and join the up rise. This guerilla war started with two men cutting the town’s telegraph lines. Two men to remain behind for supplies and to arm the slaves. “The others seized a rifle works, the armory, and three hostages, including a local planter descended from the Washington Family” (Davidson & Lytle, p. 150). When people heard the gunfire and the church bells, they thought it was a slave insurrection (a violent uprising against the government). By late morning, Brown and his little …show more content…
John Garraty describes Brown as so deranged “that rather than hang him for “dreadful act” …. It would have been far wiser and more just to have committed him to an asylum” (Davidson & Lytle, p. 154). Another historian, Allen Nevins, takes the middle ground on Brown and states, “all questions except for slavery, Brown would act coherently and rationally” (Davidson & Lytle, p. 154). A more contemporary biographer, Stephen Oates, in 1970, said Brown was ““not normal” that he had an excitable temperament and was obsessed with slavery” (Davidson & Lytle, p. 154). Brown had a history of actions against slavery, five months earlier before the raid on Harper’s Ferry, “Brown led a band of seven men (including four of his sons) in a midnight raid on some proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek” (Davidson & Lytle, p. 156). Under Brown’s order, the men in the raid took their broadswords and hacked to death five people. With his obsession against slavery, could this lead John Brown to become insane? Brown’s lawyers will try to prove
“I felt for a number of years, Brown later wrote in a letter to a young abolitionist, a steady strong desire: to
When Brown was 55 he moved with his sons to Kansas territory after the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 overrode the Missouri Compromise, which resulted in the strict ban of slavery above a certain latitude. This was a huge deal to both pro-slavery and anti-slavery fighters for before this act was passed the United States only consisted of twenty-two states which were divided among the two groups of fighters. Winning this territory for slavery, or for those against it, could really make a statement. During the settling of Kansas the events of violent acts that occurred during the period (1855) is referred to as “Bleeding Kansas”. Violence pursued throughout the year 1855.
Conflict surrounds each one of us in our everyday life. However, some individuals are more vocal about their beliefs and take action, while others watch on the sidelines. The civil war was not supposed to happen, yet growing tension between the south’s and north’s economies will very much cause a large conflict. As seen in Brown’s actions, his faith a lot to do with the way he viewed the world around him, and he pushed it to an extreme of raiding the Harpers Ferry armory. In trying to argue this theory, many historians look towards the Jim Crow laws that were used in the South.
On October 16, 1859, John Brown lead twenty-one men, made up of both white and black men, to attack a federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. Brown’s plan was to steal weapons to give to freed slaves nearby and then return back to the mountains to do more raids to free more slaves. To do this, Brown and his men stopped man trains and took over many bridges to stop all people from coming in and stopping them. After this, Brown’ men got to the federal armory and took the weapons and captured hostages. John Brown thought that if the story got out about the weapons he stole, slaves would rebel against their slave owners and run away to meet him to join the fight.
I also researched information about John Brown’s life and family. I was impressed when the defense brought up interesting points like how he was mentally unstable and had a rough family life that caused him to commit this crime. The prosecution defended their claim by stressing that he had violated the law and was mentally sane enough to plan out everything. The defense constantly kept arguing that it was God calling him to do these acts, and I think they could have provided more solid
John Brown was just a man who wanted to end slavery. He believed that he was the chosen one. He wanted to change the country. John Brown was a misguided Fanatic. According to dictionary.com misguided fanatic means to be mistaken by religoius belife.
A detailed storyline of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry is needed in order to understand the sectionalism between the North and the South. The John Brown’s Raid sparked the war due to the fact that it created a great deal of sectionalism between the North and the South. The raid lasted for 36 hours and the consequences of the raid lasted longer than expected, even after Brown died (“John Brown’s Raid”). In order to get to Harper’s Ferry, Brown was required to change his name due to him being known as an abolitionist so he changed his name to Isaac Smith. Also to produce a more convincing disguise, he was driven to rent out a farm and that he was New York.
John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed that the only way to end the institution of slavery in the United states is through a violent insurrection--Truly he was a man of Action. Born on the 9th of May 1800, John Brown, who hailed in Torrington, Connecticut was born into an extremely religious christian family who ardently opposed slavery. From his youth it was instilled in him that slavery was wrong. Thus, this belief is what eventually led him to host several violent attacks in the means of putting an end to slavery. In October 1859, together with 21 followers, two of which his sons, John brown instigated an unsuccessful raid to a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia.
In 1859 Brown wanted to take revenge after forces stormed the town of Lawrence in the Kansas territory. He abducted and murdered five pro slavery settlers, known as the Pottawatomie massacre. He became famous for attempting to raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, so that he could use the weapons to free enslaved African Americans. In doing so he failed and was captured and sentenced to death. He justified his views by saying it was the right thing to do, others thought of it as a “noble
John Brown was an American abolitionist who was very religious. He fought for the freedom of slaves which he believed can only happen by using violence. He was considered a hero in the North and a terrorist in the South. He attacked 5 defenseless men and dismembered their bodies just as you would butcher cattle. On October 16, 1859, he led a rebellion with 21 men – 5 blacks and 16 whites – against Virginia slavery, he attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry but he was hurt and then captured, trailed, and before he was hanged on December 2, 1859 he stated, “… if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of
"His Speech to the Court at His Trial, 1859" John Brown's raid made the north and the south argue and complain about each other and more than normal. The north didn't seem to care about Brown's actions because he was taking the matter of slavery into his own hands and his beliefs were the same as his. The south was livid! How dare he take their slaves! It was a complete disaster in there eyes; he was helping black slaves get out of the south and up into Canada to be free from their masters.
John Brown was a man with a strong hatred for slavery who tried to lead a rebellion against it. After this he was called a “misguided fanatic” by Abraham Lincoln. Which leaves the question, was John Brown a “misguided fanatic”? I think John Brown was a misguided fanatic, or according to dictionary.com a, mistaken person with an extreme, uncritical enthusiasm, because he was so set in his rebellion that his mind couldn’t be changed even when told his plan wouldn’t go well, and although he was told his actions would be fatal he went on to do so . In The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Douglass states that there was no changing Brown
John Brown is the man who famously lead the Harpers Ferry raid and was captured and hung for his failed attempt. He was attempting to free the slaves in a town where they did not want to be freed. His failed attempt lead to the deaths of many of his own men and innocent townspeople. Why would anyone attempt such a task? Is John Brown Insane?
He saw groups of abolitionists go against people that were pro-slavery and it ended in a violent battle that was started by the pro-slavery side. This made him cautious but he didn’t yet want to start being violent unless someone else went after him. This quickly changed and he knew that the only way to prove his point was to engage in violent acts like the others. One of these acts involved John Brown going to Rochester and meeting with a man named “Frederick Douglass. His purpose was to enlist the famous black abolitionist's support for his plan to invade the slave South and wage a guerilla war from a base in the Appalachian Mountains” (Earle, John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry; May 8, 1858).
George Fitzhugh claimed that "The Negro slaves of the South are the happiest the freest people in the world." (Document H). John Brown a major person in the fight to end slavery "led a band of 18 men into Virginia to seize the federal arsenal there, distribute the captured arms to slaves in the area, and create a general slave uprising." (Document I).John Brown was executed and the aftermath of his death made tensions rise betwwen the North and South. "