John Brown Thesis

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.

Referred to as a “antislavery zealot” by some and as a “heroic hand” by others, John Brown was certainly one who stained history with blood. John Brown’s conduction of anti-slavery raids to fight “fire with fire”, triggered by his radical ways to fight the tyranny that was slavery,Brown impacted the whole country. During this time most anti-slavery supporters were peaceful and only tried to fight slavery “morally”, however John Brown lead many anti slavery raids his most famous and the one which he would have to pay with his life being, the Harpers Ferry Raid. The seizing of federal armory and arsenal with a group of men with just a mere hope of the local slave population helping him in order to reach success and create a nation wide effect failed miserably when the slavery population frightened did not join his raid. Captured, John Brown delivered one of the most enticing and alluring speech during his trial, his last speech, his address to the court in which he admits his actions in his “crusade” to fight slavery as well as patronizingly accepts his punishment without regret or remorse. In his speech he address one objection, being that if he was fighting on behalf of the rich, high class and those who supported and benefited from the tyrant slavery system,he would have been rewarded and praised instead of punished, proving that once again the tyrant, oppresing, racist and discriminating federal government was being run by bias men who aimed to keep the inhuman hierarchy

John Brown was a cold-blooded killer. Although John was trying to abolish slavery, violence was not the way to go. According to Robert E. Lee according to Robert E. Lee., John killed a lot of men. He killed 10 raiders, and captured 7. Although they were people who were for slavery, she should have never killed them. Martin Luther King didn't like slavery either but he found another way to stop it and that was by his protesting not killing. According to Fredrick Douglas, John's plan to abolish slavery was not that appealing. I don't think John was looking at both sides of things. I think all John was thinking was kill people who are for slavery but he didn't think about he could abolish slavery with his words and not his swords. According to

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

13. They believed slaves were necessary and important and felt it was necessary to pass laws to control their freedom. John Brown attacked an army post in Harper's Ferry, Virginia (VA). His trial divided the north and south. He was captured, convicted and hung.

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.

John Brown who led the Raid on Harpers Ferry, was also a part of the Pottawatomie Massacre that occurred in 1856 in Kansas which led to the death of five men who were pro-slavery. On January 16, 1859 John Brown along with eighteen other people captured the arsenal of Harpers Ferry and pushed out to get the slaves to rise up, but the rising of slaves didn’t happen. Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee and J.E.B Stuart and soldiers arrived the next day to surround the place, which left Brown and his men cornered. Brown was asked to give up and just surrender, which he didn’t. So, when Brown refused to do so and the standoff went on, in the end some of Browns men ended up dead and a soldier was killed. In two days Browns raid was over, the same raid that Fredrick Douglass said was not going to go well and should be left alone. Abraham Lincoln spoke on the raid after, expressing his opinion of it as being ridiculous. Northerners at first disapproved of John Brown actions, but then they began to respect what John Brown did and started to see him as hero. John Brown was set on trial and was hung. The South was angered when others say Brown as an hero, and the Baltimore Sun published saying the South, “could not live under a government, the majority of whose subjects or citizens regard John Brown as a martyr and a Christian hero, rather than a murderer and a robber” (“Political Origins of The Civil War”) John Brown raid helped bring the South to seceding, but it was not the major fact that pushed the States, even though it did play a role. “The straw that broke the camel’s back,” so to speak, was the election of President Abraham Lincoln. (“Unit IV: Crumbling Loyalties and Dividing the

Similarly to the heroes of today in the military where they kill bad people for the rights of others, John Brown and his group killed slave owners in order for slaves to gain their natural and human rights. John Brown was obsessed about the issue dealing with the brutality of slavery and how wrong slavery is. Since slavery was the only thing that went though his mind, he quickly came up with the plan to free as many slaves as possible. John’s method included violence because he thought it was the only way. This plan included taking the federal arsenal, killing slave owners and arming the slaves to fight for other slave’s freedoms.

The John Brown Raid also was a factor in the situation. Many Northerners thought of John Brown as Hero but the Southerners thought otherwise. John Brown organized a raid in hopes that slaves would come to it and he would lead a massive slave uprising, but sadly it failed and he was executed. (Document

On the other hand the South believed that his action was treason and had absolutely no justifications because he was stealing their property. As John Brown pleads to the court in Document 10, he states, “I deny everything but what I have all along admitted,—the design on my part to free the slaves.” He is so extraordinarily blinded by his moral belief, that he could not see the damage he created. People like himself caused the Southerners to hate and fear the North even more so, driving them farther apart. In document 11 a senator from Mississippi explains the fear, “The North is accumulating power, and it means to use that power to emancipate your slaves.”

John Brown was a hero. His reasoning for raiding Harper’s Ferry was that he wanted to abolish slavery. Events that led to the raid was the Dred Scott case and how a slave sued for his freedom because his master took him to Wisconsin, a free state. The Supreme Court ruled against Scott and said that black people whether they were free or not couldn't sue because they weren't citizens and that slaves were property and that they could be taken anywhere. Other news was the new territories and deciding on whether “it be slaving owning or free (video 0:14).” Which started the Kansas protest that was once peaceful turned violent. This was the start of John Brown and him wanting to end slavery because he was chosen to by God.The plan was to take control

When John Brown made an army out of his followers, he planned to get more abolitionists together to fight against slavery and for the people’s rights. “On the evening of October 16, 1859 John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry, […] Brown had hopes that the local slave population would join the raid and through the raid’s success weapons would be supplied to slaves and freedom fighters throughout the country; this was not to be”. Although his raid was 26 hours, John Brown’s objective was to capture the slaves and to get the weapons for their defense; he captured the slaves and tried to free them so he was morally right although getting in to the arsenal without permission was legally wrong. Some

The Northern abolitionists also rallied behind the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, and the raid on Harper’s Ferry. The Dred Scott v. Sandford decision in 1857, quickly became a topic of controversy amongst abolitionists after the Supreme Court ruling stated that Dred Scott would remain a slave after being taken to free states by John Emerson, the man who owned Scott. A year later, John Brown, a radical abolitionist, led a group of men and took control of a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. While the government convicted and hung Brown, the sacrifice made, evolved into a point behind which many abolitionists rallied as Brown became known as “the first white man to die for slavery”. The Dred Scott decision and the Harper’s Ferry raid

The presidential selection of 1860 set the stage for the American Civil war. By 1860, the nation had been at odds mostly up to that point regarding questions of states’ rights and slavery in the territories. Southerners were livid over the preparation by an abolitionist, John Brown, to establish a slave uprising 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 infuriated by the Supreme Court verdict in the case of Dred Scott v. Stanford, which affirmed free soil unconstitutional. The Northern Democrats, however, struggled to convince the Americans that their guidelines of popular sovereignty still made sense.

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.