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Slavery view mid 1800s
Slavery view mid 1800s
Southern perspective on slavery
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John Brown was an anti-slavery renowned abolitionist in the mid-1800’s. He was famous, or in other’s opinions infamous, for his violent roles in the Pottawattamie Massacre and the Raid on Harpers Ferry. He got his anti-slavery ways from his father. His first attempts to end slavery failed, but when he heard about “Bleeding Kansas”, he and his sons went to fight for a free, anti-slave country. His sons died heroically, and he was hung. I believe John Brown was a martyr who was fighting for an important cause.
John Brown was born around the 1800’s in Connecticut. His strong hate for slavery probably is rooted from his Calvinist father. When Brown could take action he did, he believed that God’s words led him. His first attempts at putting a halt to slavery failed, so he knew he had to bite back stronger than ever. Therefore, innocent pro-slavery blood had to be spilled to grab the attention of slaves, plantation owners, and slave supporters. It was the only way. The uproar that his violent acts caused was devastating, I would say he started the Civil War.
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He knew eventually he would die, either a hero or a traitor in people’s minds. But he also knew he would “die in faith” because he believed his actions were “God’s will”. He did not feel “degraded by my imprisonment, my chains, or prospect of the Gallows”, quoted in a letter to his friend Reverend H. l. Vaill. He even finished the letter cheerfully stating, “I send, through you, my best wishes to Mrs. W I and her son George, and to all dear friends.” John Brown knew that something had to be done about slavery in the South. I believe that if Brown wouldn’t have made such bold, strong actions, slavery may still be here
Douglass and Thoreau both felt as though the government as well as society turned a blind eye to the mistreatment of human beings, especially during slavery. He saw freedom being celebrated, but it just reminded him of how so many were willing to continue on not dealing with all of the wrong that had taken place. Regardless of what he saw before him, he refused to forget. Douglass felt that “to forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking,”. Instead, he chose to deal with the subject of American Slavery, in which he brought out the idea of individuals supporting what was wrong rather than what was
John Brown was a man who lived in the mid eighteen-hundreds and who fought against the evil of slavery. He had a very strong belief that slavery was unjust, and this is true, but he thought that in order to abolish slavery, violence would be the best method. That’s where he went wrong. John Brown led two attacks on slave owners and those who supported slavery, the first at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas on May 24th, 1856, and the second at Harper Ferry, Virginia on October 16th, 1859. At Pottawatomie Creek, joined by seven others, Brown brutally hacked to death five men with sabers. These men supported slavery but weren’t even slave owners themselves. On October 16th, 1859, Brown led 21 men on another raid on Harpers Ferry attempting to take possession of the U.S. arsenal and use the weapons in a revolt against slave owners, gathering up an army of slaves as he made his way south. Brown’s attacks were not in self-defense, they were heinous acts of revenge upon slave owners, and therefore his attack had no justification.
The fact that he never wanted the South to break away from the United States as it would a decade after his death, his words and life's work made him the father of secession. In a very real way, he started the American Civil War. Slavery was the foundation of the antebellum South. More than any other characteristic, it defined Southern social, political, and cultural life. It also unified the South as a section distinct from the rest of the nation. John C. Calhoun, the South's recognized intellectual and political leader from the 1820s until his death in 1850, devoted much of his remarkable intellectual energy to defending slavery. He developed a two-point defense. One was a political theory that the rights of a minority section in particular, the South needed special protecting in the federal union. The second was an argument that presented slavery as an institution that benefited all involved. John C. Calhoun's commitment to those two points and his efforts to develop them to the fullest would assign him a unique role in American history as the moral, political, and spiritual voice of Southern separatism.
In conclusion the election of Lincoln as president in 1860 caused a civil war because it was falsely perceived by the south that Lincoln would threaten the state’s constitutional right to slavery. This false idea was due to a rift between the northern and southern states in both an economic and ideological manner. That is the north was based on industry and generally was opposed to slavery. But the South was an agricultural society which ran on slavery and, due to Nat Turner’s Insurrection and John Brown’s stand at Harper’s Ferry, was fearful of the north’s involvement in the governing of states as well as being opposed to this on the basis of state’s rights. The election of Lincoln caused the south to succeed from the union causing civil war.
In 1856 the same group attacked the Kansas territory where Brown and his family resided, which much like anyone would he saw as a threat and attacked in revenge killing 5 pro-slavery activists. Not much later the activists retaliated killing Browns son (Utter 1883). Brown and a group of men planned to go to Harpers Ferry, Virginia and seize the U.S arsenal. His plan was funded by various wealthy northern abolitionists and on October 16, 1859 his plan started to come into action. After the two-day battle back and forth between Browns men and the U.S Marines, seventeen people had died and Brown was arrested and put to trial, which led to the jury decision on November 2, 1859 for him to be hanged for murder and treason. Brown was from there on known as the first white man to die for an Africans freedom. He was called an abolitionist martyr for the sake of freedom. Browns deep roots of religion are one of the most obvious reasons for his actions. Slavery was an unjust system taking away basic God given rights of life, liberty, and happiness. Being a follower of Christ means that you devote yourself to teaching and living by Gods design, so when he was taught that this action was against the God he so loved how could he stand for it? When he was brought up under religion and firm discipline of course he would see it as unjust when he was exposed to the white
. .’, concludes James Oakes’ book with the aftermath of the Civil War and Lincoln’s assassination. Oakes discussed the respect Douglass gathered for Lincoln over the years and the affect his assassination had on both himself and America as a whole. Oakes even brushed over Douglass’ relationship with Andrew Johnson, the president succeeding Lincoln. Analyzing his experience with the new president, it was safe to say that Andrew Johnson had no consideration as to what Douglass and Lincoln previously fought for. Johnson did not have the same political skills as Lincoln did, and he did not retain the same view for America that Lincoln did. It was obvious that Douglass held Lincoln at a higher standard than Andrew Johnson, stating that he was a “progressive man, a humane man, an honorable man, and at heart an anti-slavery man” (p. 269). Oakes even gave his own stance on Andrew Jackson, “It was a legacy that Andrew Johnson could ever match. When all of Lincoln’s attributes were taken into consideration - his ascent from the obscurity to greatness, his congenial temperament, his moral courage - it was easy for Douglass to imagine how much better things would be ‘had Mr. Lincoln been living today’.” (p. 262). It is hard to imagine the pre-war Douglass to have said something like that as opposed to an older, much more reserved Douglass. With the abolishment of slavery, so came much discrimination. Without
In Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me: Chapter 6, he talks about John Brown. He says most textbooks don’t include John Brown’s full story. In high school, I was taught that John Brown was a radical abolitionist who gathered a small army and attempted to lead a slave revolt. He captured a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry to get tools for the slave rebellion he attempted to lead. The slaves didn’t get the memo and he was captured there. They later hung him but he died being known as a martyr. Loewen reinforced all of these ideas. He also said a few things I didn’t know. One thing he said that I didn’t know was why Brown was the person he was. He said because Brown made friends with a black boy early in life, that made him realize that all black people
Just who was this man that could make southern mobs attack northerners, regardless of their views of slavery and make the fear of slave insurrection strengthen? His name is John brown and one might say that this former slave and black abolitionist just wanted to end slavery by causing violence between the north and the south. But to his men, his only intention was to start a general slave insurrection. For example he went to Harper 's Ferry and raided an armory with the intention of starting an armed slave army. Soon Brown became doubtful of this plan a couple of months into it and as he warned his co conspirators that it might fail. But even if it failed he would hope that it would lead to the destruction of slavery. After getting caught and
By the year of 1860, the North and the South was developed into extremely different sections. There was opposing social, economic, and political points of view, starting back into colonial periods, and it slowly drove the two regions farther in separate directions. The two sections tried to force its point of view on the nation as a whole. Even though negotiations had kept the Union together for many years, in 1860 the condition was unstable. The presidential election of Abraham Lincoln was observed by the South as a risk to slavery and many believe it initiated the war.
This reputation was greatly enhanced when Brown and his sons led a brutal mission against the proslavery population, which resulted in five innocent proslavery settlers being mutilated and murdered. After staying in Kansas for a while longer, Brown returned to the North where he gave many speeches and fund raising meetings based on the abolishment of slavery.
I would re-review the case to finally determine that John Brown was not being traitorous against the government. He was going against the law to fix what he believed was wrong. He wasn't in it for personal gain. Brown was a true idealist. I was always raised to fight for what I believe in, however wrong in the methods he was, I would still give him the chance to explain himself to a jury.
One critical event leading up to the Civil War was The Raid of John Brown. John Brown had the need to inspire slaves to break free because he thought they didn’t deserve to be held captive. He knew that slaves wouldn’t have the courage without someone with white power helping them. Brown decided he would be the one to inspire the slaves to break away. In Harper’s Ferry, VA, there was a raid on the Federal Arsenal completed by abolitionist. The abolitionist invaded the Federal Arsenal for all of the weapons. The weapons would be used to fight the south and free slaves.
“I am ready anytime. Don’t keep me waiting.” This is just one quote from John Brown he had many more quotes but this is the one I picked to tell you about. This quotes states that John Brown was ready to go to war anytime, and he would go into war anytime with his army John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. His father was a tanner, shoemaker, and farmer who had 16 children by three wives. John Brown created social change by wanting to help win justice for enslaved black people, Bown insisted that he had a divine quest to take vengeance, John had Raid on Harpers Ferry.
By trying to trick them, the South rebelled as soon as Lincoln became president and launched what is today known as the Civil War. The secession of the United States was the cause of the Civil War. The Southern Confederates were furious at the Northern Union for trying to abolish slavery. When Lincoln was elected president, he tried to once and for all abolish slavery in the North as well as the West. He tried to contain slavery to its geographical area to keep it from spreading anymore north, but the South erupted in rebellion and eventually went to war against the North in the Civil War.
86 years old, passed away at the Overlook Massachusetts Health Center on Wednesday, March 7,1875 from a brief flu illness. He was born on February 10, 1789 in Salem, Massachusetts.