John Brown : Abolitionist or Psychopath

Another event, Bleeding Kansas can mainly be said to have led to the Civil War because it led to the establishment of the Republican Party. Bleeding Kansas was when the U.S. gave Kansas the right for their citizens to vote whether they wanted Kansas to be a free state or a slave state. If Bleeding Kansas never happened, Kansas would have been a free state. What happened is that Missouri’s citizens wanted Kansas to become a slave state. So, they snuck into Kansas and voted slavery for Kansas. Missouri’s citizens then went around Kansas, and killed many people that did not vote slavery. Then In 1857, Dred Scott was a Virginia slave who tried to sue for his freedom in court.  The case rose to the Supreme Court, where it was said if a slave goes up to a free state which is illegal to have slaves, the slave would be free. Then came about The Scott Decision which court rules African Americans were not, nor could ever be, citizens of the United States. Congress cannot prohibit slavery and it was considered the worst Supreme Court decision in history. In 1859, the militant abolitionist John Brown seized the U.S. arsenal at Harper 's Ferry, VA. He commanded anti-slavery forces and planned to end slavery by killing slave owners and freeing their slaves. Twenty-one individuals take part in the raid but John Brown is soon captured and hung. A quote from a newspaper at the time by Alan Farmer, "The Harper 's ferry invasion has advanced the cause of disunion more than any other event

America was divided, a once united nation with similar goals and beliefs, was then starting to becoming split down the middle. Besides their differences in culture and in a way of life, the North and South began to become divided, especially over the issue of slavery. Many abolitionists came forth to support the anti-slavery or abolitionist movement, abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Many did all that they could to fight slavery which had been around for many years. When looked closely upon, “slavery is the condition of a person being owned by someone else, forced to work, and without personal freedoms...” (Powell) and taking away the will of many which only adds to how people are against such a treatment.

The presidential election of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil war. By 1860, the nation had been divided mostly up to that point regarding questions of states’ rights and slavery in the territories. Southerners were outraged over the plan by abolitionist, John Brown, to start a slave rebellion at Harper Ferry, Virginia. This event garnered headlines all over the nation in newspapers and magazines. On the other hand, the Northern Republic seemed equally anger by the Supreme Court decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Stanford, which declared free soil unconstitutional. The Northern Democrats, however, struggled to persuade the Americans that their policy of popular sovereignty still made since.

John Brown, an abolistionist who previously murdered five proslavery men in 1856, seized a federal arsenal in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. His plan was to start a slave uprising, however it failed and he was caught, he was hanged for treason. Document 7 states that both sides, North and South, were both basically surprised; however some Northerners "began to call Brown a martyr for the sacred cause of freedom." Southerners were outraged that such a man would do this, and mobs would even assault people who held or were suspected of holding antislavery opinions. It also scared Southerners (especially those who held slaves) because they were afraid of slave uprisings. This was one step to the Union

In 1859 John Brown finally felt that the time was right for the slaves in this country to rise up against the slave owners. He felt that slavery could only be removed by violence (John Brown, Harpers..., 2012) and was quoted as saying, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood” . On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. His goal was to start a slave uprising and grab guns and weapons at the armory. On that night twenty two men, led by John Brown, took control of the arsonal. While they were successful at first, U.S. marines surrounded the fort, killed a few of his men, and took prisoner the rest of the twenty-two (John Brown’s 1859...,

Throughout this time, the North was growing rapidly due to its industrial economy. They had more railroad mileage, industry, income, population, and ultimately more representation in Congress. In addition, the South was subject to high tariff laws that made it very hard for southern farmers to trade internationally. The result was a strong centralized government in the North, and an agrarian culture in the South that was solely dependent on slavery. Any attack against the institution of slavery in the South could potentially disintegrate the states in the South. In 1859, this fear became a reality as John Brown, an extreme abolitionist, led a raid on at Harpers Ferry. Although this uprising was brought down and denounced by Northern Republicans, slave owners believed that all abolitionists and Northerners shared the same radical views as John Brown.

John Brown was very similar to Nat Turner they both believed that they were chosen by god to lead slaves into freedom and if that required a fight then that was what they had to do. John Brown had a goal and that was to abolish slavery throughout the united states. The trouble in Kansas began when the Nebraska Act was signed by President Pierce, this act engaged that people make a determination on whether Kansas territory should be free or slave. In hopes that Kansas would become free of slaves, the opposing side which was named Border Ruffians invaded their territory and forced the pro-slavery election. After John heard about the fear of Kansas becoming a slave state and after also hearing that the Border Ruffians ransacked the town of Lawrence

During his trial, Brown was made a martyr in the North. Brown’s eloquent speech during his trial swayed the northern opinion. At first, Brown’s lawyers wanted him to accept an insanity plea, but, according to Tony Horwitz (2011) in his book Midnight Rising, “During the proceedings when Brown would make his plea, his lawyers tried to get Brown to accept an insanity plea; however, Brown said ‘I am perfectly unconscious of insanity, and I reject, so far as I am capable, any attempt to interfere on my behalf for that score’”, thusly, Brown rejected the insanity plea, in an attempt to make his cause more noble. If Brown had accepted the insanity defense, people would dismiss his cause as insane. He was sentenced to death as a result, but he had

Some may say that John Brown actually helped the gain of Lincoln’s presidency. His actions increased the Republican’s party’s chance of winning. Even after Lincoln was elected president, John Brown continued to shine. He managed to shake an image of insurrection in the minds of many of the South and North. In addition, he polarized the two dividing sections. Some saw Brown as a terrorist, whereas others saw him as a hero. His ideas where quarreled upon and talked about by many. With the Harper’s Ferry attack being the most prominent, his acts didn’t go away unnoticed. People, particularly in the North, began to see the big possibility of the North taking substantial measures to overthrow slavery. John Brown took abolitionism to higher degree that no other abolitionist took before. With his use of destructive protesting, a legitimate conclusion can be made that John Brown helped speed up the Civil War by wasting no time to take extreme action about abolishing slavery. If John Brown had not done his doings, the seriousness of slavery wouldn’t have been taken as quickly as it

Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry affected American culture more than can ever be understood. Tension between the North and South was building in the 1850's. Slavery among many other things was dividing the country into two sections. Brown was executed on December 2, 1859 for his murderous out-lash on society. Was his mind so twisted and demented that he would commit cold-blooded murder? The answer is no. John Brown was a man with a goal and a purpose. When he said that abolition could not be achieved without blood he was right. It is one of histories great ironies; John Brown's struggle preceded the Civil War by only 17 months. Thousands of people were killed in the Civil War, yet John Brown

John Brown’s beliefs about slavery and activities to destroy it hardly represented the mainstream of northern society in the years leading up to the Civil War. This rather unique man, however, has become central to an understanding and in some cases misunderstandings about the origins of the Civil War. The importance of Brown’s mission against slavery was colossal to accelerating the civil war between the North and the South. His raid on Harpers Ferry in1859 divided the United States like nothing else before, and could have been the main event leading to the Civil War.

On October 16th, 1859, John Brown led a group of twenty-one men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. His idea was to go from town to town arming black slaves hoping to spark a rebellion. The uprising was

According to Valerie Tarico many sacred texts, including the Bible, “protect” parts of the Iron Age — when people, especially priests, used God’s name and the scripture as a way to endorse their impulses, temper, and sense of superiority. Brown, a perfect example to what Tarico was saying, was using the Bible as a way to fuel his aggression so that he would be able to show the town of Hillsboro that his way of thinking is exactly the same as their God’s way of thinking. Reverend Brown seems to want his town to stay in this state of ignorance and when people get out of line and try to change the perfect little bubble he had created for himself he exploded. His agitation increased as ideas that were different and unknown to Brown began to enter his town and when he exploded the agitation that was building inside of his is filtered through the religion he is a part

John Brown was an African American slave abolitionist who caused much conflict with his radical views to overthrow slavery. One of his many defeats where he tried to defeat slavery with violence was the armed slave rebellion on Harper’s Ferry. “In a speech to the court before his sentencing, Brown stated his actions to be just and God-sanctioned.” Brown lived a life full of dispute; yet it was not until after Harper Ferry where his madness was confirmed. “Brown soon became a hero in the eyes of Northern extremists and was quick to capitalize on his growing reputation.” Brown’s radical abolitionist movements and wicked violent actions on slavery promoted his reputation in the north and were the cherry on the sundae to validate his insanity.

Seeing his fellow church members and his wife among women who were convicted and put to death for being witches makes Brown question himself. Yet, still Brown abhors transgression. Although he avoids Satan, however, he cannot forget how Satan influenced him with what he saw that night. He became " a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man" (Hawthorne 1244) and lived his life this way until death.