The Death Of John Brown

“Every villain is a hero in his own mind,” quoted Tom Hiddleston, an English actor best known for playing Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. From this quote it is understood that every person perceives “right” and “wrong” differently and will act according to their perception. People consider a person as either a hero or villain by looking at their actions. John Brown, was a white American abolitionist who believed that armed rebellion was the only way to overthrow slavery in the United States. With the evidence provided with different resources, such as the article John Brown: Villain or Hero? by Steven Mintz, it can be seen that John Brown is a villain.

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

Some may say Brown's childhood had a major impact on some of his violent actions that occurred later on in his life. When he was very young, he suffered the loss of his mother. As a result it began to harvest a bit of rage in his heart that would soon turn into a never ending spiral of rage. It wasn't long after this loss that Brown witnessed a slave being beaten. It was that moment that Brown began to pursue his goal of ending slavery.

Now everyone agrees that John Brown main goal was to abolish the slavery in the south, but some believe that he is a hero for dying for his cause or being a martyr.

Throughout history John Brown has been described as a terrorist, mentally ill, and a failure among other things. Because he stood strongly for what he believed in, and his goal was eventually achieved he can be seen for the most part as a hero. Brown was described as “an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans be free” (Chowder,6). Brown was a headstrong abolitionist who claimed that he was told by God to end slavery causing him to see himself as “a latter-day Moses” (Chowder, 6). With this, he stopped at nothing to fulfill these expectations. Brown’s heroism is displayed through how he was recounted by others during and after his lifetime, the actions though drastic he took when fighting for what he believed in, and

also the value of non-violent resistance supported by the transcendentalists and, There were many prominent figures in the Abolition movement that made great strides to freedom. Most took the route of political campaigning, but a few decided to take a more direct approach. One said individual is John Brown. John Brown was a white abolitionist born in Connecticut who simply grew tired of the pacifist approach and took up arms with a few volunteers against slavery.

The Civil War was a time full of many sad and terrible things. One of the most terrible things was slavery. Slavery was a big issue during the time. It was something many people argued about and the abolishing of it even became the goal of the Civil War. People who opposed slavery, abolitionists, fought and spoke out against slavery throughout the country. Some were more successful than others. I believe wasn’t successful as other abolitionist during his time because he was too quick to anger, he was probably insane; and he was financially irresponsible.

John Brown in my opinion was a freedom fighter, he worked hard for what he wanted and tried his best to succeed no matter what it took. He did do some things in life that he was not proud of but everyone makes mistakes in life, what he did cannot be replaced because we cannot replace innocent lives that were taken. John Brown as a child was against slavery and everything that involves with slavery. My personal definition of terrorism is a group of people that harm others to get something they want. Therefore I do not believe this is John Brown, here are some reasons why. As I said before as a child John was against slavery, he went through many experiences with slaves that made his think this way. As a child John had to watch a slave get beaten, he did not know what to do or think.

When John Brown was young, he witnessed an attack on a young slave boy, who was beaten with a shovel. The boy died, and Brown

Brown had a great faith in God. Success had eluded him up to this point. He had sired 20 children and had gone through two wives, but he still felt unfulfilled. In 1846, Brown was working as a wool merchant but nothing ever came of it. Before 1855, Brown had gone through a series of lawsuits and bankruptcies that halted his success. Gerrit Smith, a philanthropist friend of Brown's, was persuaded into giving a portion of the 120,000 acres of land he owned in upstate New York to Brown. This land would be open to refugee negroes. Brown lived on this land as a farmer for some time before realizing that people were just taking advantage of him.

The question of was John Brown a terrorist or a hero is more of a question asking for an opinion than a question asking for a clear, definitive answer. To a great deal (almost all) of the Southern slave owners, John Brown was definitely thought of as a terrorist because he was a white man who was willing to stand up and die for what he believed in, which was that the enslavement of blacks (negroes) was wrong morally and he did not care if he was killed because of it. John Brown was seen as a terrorist to some because of the fact that he was the man who had orchestrated a raid in which he ended up killing five men in Kentucky and had he captured the armory at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (now Harpers Ferry, West Virginia), he probably would have gone on a killing rampage of more Southern white slave- owners and in turn caused more fear and hatred from the slave-owners onto himself.

Thesis: John Brown was a man full of honor and passion when it came to the abolishment of slavery. Not only that, but he was a man who believed that his actions were justified by his beliefs and social standpoint. Even though, he was a strong willed man; capable of standing up for his philosophies on life, he was a man who acted upon his emotions, and killed, interrogated, and terrorized towns and people. Your beliefs and morality do not justify the amount of terror that you cause, and it does not justify the amount of blood you spill; John Brown was a terrorist.

In the summer of 2014, 18-year-old Michael Brown was fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. After the shooting, there had been conflicting reports by police and eyewitnesses about what exactly happened. Officer Wilson insist Brown was confrontational throughout the encounter, while eyewitnesses say Brown has his hands up trying to surrender before he was shot and killed. Following the Grand jury’s decision not to indict officer Wilson over the shooting of Michael Brown and similar cases of officer-involved shootings and brutality such as the death of Eric Garden in Staten Island, New York, politicians, family advocates, civil rights activists, and law enforcement officials have called for police across the country to adopt the use of body-worm cameras. Although there are many who feel police body cameras present a challenge to privacy and safety issues for both cops and civilians, by recording police-citizen encounters, it increases transparency and accountability of officers and the video recorded by body cams protect any false accusations, police misconduct, officials can get clear evidence of what happened instead of relying on hearsay.

The first of the three reasons that John Brown became a violent protester to slavery are as follows. In his mind, John believed that he was fulfilling their struggle for freedom in terms of the revolutionary soldier and puritan that he had descended from (3). In other words, the fight was already in him, he was trying to do good because he already saw what the puritans had went through to achieve their freedom. It was in his blood so to speak. The second of the three reasons is that John believed that God had called him to make do this for the slaves. John Brown was a very religious man as it talks about him going to church and evening going as far as making his children write down their sins they committed in the day. (17) The third and final reason for John browns turn to violence is the fact that he did not believe that a non violent tactic would work against the pro slavery people. The massacre of Pottawatomie was a true example of what John Brown believed was the correct way to handle this problem of slavery.

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.