“Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!” (“John Brown”) John Brown, known for his actions prior to the Civil War, spoke these words, and they truly show who he is. Brown, born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, fought for everything he believed was right all the way up until his death in 1859. He was known mostly as an abolitionist and a freedom fighter, constantly trying to liberate slavery. John Brown’s actions would lead him to having a role in Bleeding Kansas, as well as Harper’s Ferry. John Brown was born in Connecticut and was the fourth child of Owen Brown. Growing up, he would go to church with his family, but would later leave at the age of sixteen to Morris Academy to become a minister. He had to leave the college and return to his family to work in his father’s tannery due to eye inflammations. Finally, in 1836, John Brown finally settled down in Ohio with his second wife and lived a normal life. He then moved once again to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he would vow after the murder of a man named Elijah Lovejoy, “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery! (“Holy war”) After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, John Brown would create The League of Gileadites to protect escaped slaves from being captured and taken back to the south. Upon his departure from Massachusetts, he ordered them to act
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...,
“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 man who supported the abolition of slavery, and a man who also furthermore, fought for it. Unlike many abolitionists, John Brown, as an orthodox Calvinist himself, believed that the issue of slavery could only be fought by violence and bloodshed. In his last remarks on the day of his hanging, John Brown states, “I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with blood.” Even in an abolitionist meeting, Frederick Douglass, an African-American abolitionist, who is generally non-violent, declares, “slavery can only be destroyed by bloodshed.” I also agree that the issue of slavery can only be solved by violence and physical harm. Words wouldn’t stop a violent and conservative South. Slavery had already grown too large of an epidemic in the South to stop by ineffective medical treatment. A war to end slavery would have to take place in order for real action to occur. John Brown was a man who accelerated the upcoming of a civil war between the Union and the Confederacy. John Brown was a hero because he started the war. Brown spread the message to the North that action was needed, and it came soon. Soon after Brown was hanged in 1859, Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1861, and the civil war also began in
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
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
started. John Brown was an abolitionist, he wanted to overthrow the slavery system. They both
Jacob Jennings Brown was born on May 9th 1775 in Bucks County Pennsylvania. His parents Abi and Samuel Brown were Quakers, along with his nine siblings. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1790. After that he became a school teacher in 1795. When he quit being a teacher he moved up in New York where he was a successful farmer.
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.
The overall view of John Brown in the film, Santa Fe Trail, was dark and villainous. John Brown, as portrayed in the film, was as a scapegoat for all of the violence of Bloody Kansas. The storyline introduced John Brown in the year 1854 by proxy. Cadet Rader, a young West Point cadet who idolized John Brown for his anti-slavery political viewpoint, read one of John Brown’s anti-slavery pamphlets aloud to a barracks room full of cadets. Among those cadets was a young cadet from Virginia, named J.E.B. Stuart, who calls it, “inflammatory rot of treasonable policy.” Stuart informed Rader, “the South will settle it in their own
His views on cruelly ending slaving with violence and bloodshed only prove is madness. “Several of his colleagues also petitioned that the courts should look at Brown’s questionable mental state when it came to his actions.” With all the “violence” John Brown tried to create with his radical actions to end slavery, his actions did very little to end slavery. On the contrary, slave owners in the south treated slaves more barbaric because they started to feel threatened as his actions. Many thought his rebellion was going to succeed so many treated the slaves as the target. Many believe that his actions help stir up the civil war. In conclusion, John Brown tried to terminate slavery in savage ways many times and each time revealed his level of
During the 1850s, Douglas was in the fore front in abolishing slavery, which was threatening, to tear the country apart. In the beginning, Douglas felt that John Brown’s anti- slavery ideas and plans were suicidal and he refused to engage in a raid on Harper Ferry. Brown’s activities saw him captured and hanged, an act which