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. Violence inflicted upon other people cannot be justified unless it is in defense of one’s own life or the defense of a group of lives, such as a town where war has been waged upon it. In the case of John Brown, his raids were neither in self defense nor for the preservation of life for a people. Though it is a fact that many slaves were treated harshly and abused, there are many that were treated with kindness and respect, even given an education. The slaves, though oppressed, were not all in danger of losing their lives. John Brown’s use of violence is nothing more than bullying and intimidation, in attempt to persuade slave owners and their supporters to change their views. Some view John Brown as sel... ... middle of paper ... ...w one Biblical passage and ignore others in order to justify one’s actions. Works Cited King, Martin Luther Jr.; Teaching American History, Ashbrook Center, Ashland, Ohio, 2006-2012, http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/the-power-of-non-violence/ Foner, Eric, What Caused Abolitionists to Turn from Pacifism to Condoning Violence, Africans in America, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i2975.html Washington, Margaret, John Brown’s Heroism, American Experience, WGBH Educational Foundation, 1996-2010, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/brown/filmmore/reference/interview/washington06.html Stowe, Harriet Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 2011, https://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/hbs/ William Lloyd Garrison, Bio True Story, 1996-2013, A+E Television Networks, LCC. http://www.biography.com/people/william-lloyd-garrison-9307251
Brown had his mind made up to travel on the pathway to Harpers Ferry right when he was born and believed he is the only one that has to lead this battle. His parents were passionate Calvinists who taught their children to view life as an endless fight contrary to evil. The battle of John Brown was on a more personal level where he remembered a memory when he was five years old and his mother whipped him for stealing a vast amount of brass pins. In addition, the battle was somewhat on a political point as well because Brown and his family considered that the sincere had to be spectators against the bad people in America. They assumed that the biggest evil during their time has to be none other than the establishment of slavery. Therefore, the father of John Brown replaced their family residence in northeast Ohio into a stop on the Underground Railroad and made his son into a dedicated abolitionist. Brown’s developing participation in the movement in the 1830s and ’40s made him set his commitment as well as the rising nationwide fight over slavery’s position in a country supposedly devoted to equal opportunity. During this era, abolition...
Once I came to Concord I worked as a farm laborer for seven years and was able to “own a house and two acres of land.” (Gross 186) Never in my dreams would I dream that I would have this, but compared to the white man I do not have anything and live a modest life. I am not complaining because my wife and I are privileged in comparison to other blacks in concord. Within Concord, “A small plot of land, a good house, decent clothes, and a full stomach: this was the best blacks could do in the new republic, and it was not much better than John Jack had done in a land of slavery.” (Gross 186) During John Jack’s time, “slaves were a badge of status,” (Gross 95) but if they worked hard enough they could buy their freedom to become no voting members of society, and still not as respected as whites. “John Jack, after all, had to buy a freedom that was a birthright of every white man in town.” (Gross 96) So I don’t know why these people went to war against you for their freedom, but the don’t view everyone in this land
Abolitionism quickly gained popularity since 1821 when William Lloyd Garrison assisted in writing an anti-slavery newspaper, The Genius of Universal Emancipation, with Benjamin Lundy. In 1831, abolitionism continued to grow in popularity when William Lloyd Garrison started The Liberator. Although there remained not a need for slaves in the North, slavery remained very big in the South for growing “cash crops.” The majority of the abolitionists who inhabited the North organized speeches, meetings, and newspapers to spread their cause. Initially, only small revolts and fights occurred. However, major events along the way led to the Harpers Ferry Raid. For example, with Kansas choosing whether or not to become a free or slave state. That became the biggest event up until John Brown’s Raid. John Brown had always despised slavery, and this enhanced his chance as an organized revolt. The effect of his raid on Harpers Ferry affected what the South thought about abolitionists and the power that they held.
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
Freedom is defined as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.” Freedom is something that millions take for granted everyday and billions have died throughout history fighting for it. One group whose freedom was unjustly stripped from them were African Americans who were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and shipped to throughout the world to serve as Slaves. Two men who understood what it is like to have their freedom stripped away from them were Nat Turner and Fredrick Douglass. These two men grew up as slaves on southern plantations in the 1800’s, and spent their adulthood fighting for freedom through very different methods. This paper will examine the tactics, effectiveness, and impact of Turner and Douglass
Along with all the rural arts Brown was skilled at, one of his most conspicuous talents was profuse and painful failure. He made many attempts at work and every one turned into a disappointment. In 1837, Brown made his first public statement on human bondage and from then on continued to speak out against slavery. For three years, he traveled East beseeching abolitionists for guns and money.
John Brown was an American abolitionist, born in Connecticut and raised in Ohio. He felt passionately and violently that he must personally fight to end slavery. This greatly increased tension between North and South. Northern mourned him as a martyr and southern believed he got what he deserved and they were appalled by the north's support of Brown. In 1856, in retaliation for the sack of Lawrence, he led the murder of five proslavery men on the banks of the Pottawatomie River. He stated that he was an instrument in the hand of God. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured. Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859. He became a martyr for many because of the dignity and sincerity that he displayed during his popular trial. Before he was hanged he gave a speech which was his final address to the court that convicted him. And he was thankful to Bob Butler for letting him send that text in electronic form. "This court acknowledges, too, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed, which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament, which teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to the instruction. I say I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, I did not wrong but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingles my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say let it be done." (http://members.
“I act from a principle,” and “I say, break the law” are not only the names of two out of the five parts in this book, but the words by which John Brown lived so passionately everyday. At earlier times in his life he lived by his sword as well. The Sword and the Word illustrates John Brown’s own ideas and intentions and how he lived by them. A main issue of this book is that truly a man of his word who believed that morals should outweigh the law of the land, John Brown lived and died for the abolition of slavery and did as much if not more for that cause than many other slaves or free men.
In 1712, a group of slaves in Manhattan, New York set fire to a building owned by one of the slave’s masters. As whites responded to the fire the slaves killed them resulting in nine deaths and several injuries. (New York: The Revolt of 1712, n.d) The militia was called an all of the slaves were caught. Many were tried and executed.1 The governor at the time, Governor Robert Hunter included in his account of the event why he believed the slaves revolted. He stated in a letter the following, “when they (the slaves) resolved to revenge themselves, for hard usage they apprehended to have received from their master (for I can find no other cause).” (Colonial New York’s Governor Reports, n.d.)
The black abolitionists saw Brown “as one of the few whites who had successfully reached across the racial divide.” Charles Langston pointed out that Brown was the only white man that he felt, cared for the blacks as much as the black abolitionists did. Brown became a martyr for the cause and offered the ultimate sacrifice, his life. Brown gave his life because he believed that all men, white or black, deserved to be free, and should not be owned by another
In 1859, on October 16, John Brown, a white abolitionist, organized an armed band of men and captured a federal armory at Harpers Ferry, now in West Virginia. Brown took 60 men in the area as hostages, and hoped his actions would cause escaped slaves to join him in a rebellion to free other slaves. Brown kept control of the armory, and fought off militias until a brigade of U.S. Marines forced him to surrender. Brown was convicted of murder, slave insurrection, and treason, and was hung as punishment.
Brown was involved in various attacks together with his army.For instance Brown and his sons led attacks on pro-slavery residents.brown also just like other terrorist led to death of seven people and left ten injured when he attacked
John Brown, a militant abolitionist, raided Harpers Ferry on October 16th, 1859. On the night of the raid, Brown and twenty two men, including five black men, collected fifty slaves and disarmed the watchmen. They successfully took possession of the arsenal, rifle factory, armory and other government property (“John Brown’s Raid, 1859”). They were stopped when his ten hostages and remaining men became stuck in a stable, while a mob of angered citizens waited outside. The U.S. Marines charged in and killed several of the raiders. Brown was also
[5] Brown states, “Southern white men [had a compelling urge] to avenge even a hint of
“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.