Kansas John Brown: Hero Or Hero?

disband” (Reynolds 204). He got cooperation stating that the proslavery faction would hurt the election in November and then Geary offered clemency to both sides.

After his time in Kansas John Brown started his journey east and was heralded as a hero by some abolitionists. He took this opportunity the next two years to raise money and gather weapons which he said were for the struggle in Kansas. Some doubted his story which was not completely true. He had decided years before that the only way to bring an end to slavery was if he could have the slaves fight for themselves. He was well versed in the slave revolts in the south as well as the maroon wars in Jamacia. His plan that he had been working on for almost twenty years was to attack slave

The plan was that Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc, and Francis Jackson Merriam were to guard the farmhouse and then later deliver the weapons stockpile to a schoolhouse for those who joined the cause. The others would march on Harpers Ferry where John Henry Kagi and Aaron D. Stevens would take prisoner the watchman at the Ferry bridge. John E. Cook and Charles Plummer Tidd would cut telegraph wires and then join up with the crew to free slaves. Watson Brown and Stewart Taylor would guard the Potomac bridge. Oliver Brown and William Thompson would guard the Shenandoah bridge. Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson and Dauphin Osgood Thompson would take over the fire engine house taking prisoner the guard located there. Albert Hazlett and Edwin Coppoc would take and hold the armory. Aaron Stevens, Osborne Perry Anderson, Lewis Sheridan Leary, and Shields Green would go into the surrounding countryside to free slaves. Things went as planned to start, they met all of the early objectives, holding in control desired locations. With the first delivery of captive slave owners and slaves, things began to unravel for Brown. He had thought that the freed slaves would be anxious to take up the fight, but just the opposite happened, they wanted no parts of it. There were no reports of blacks joining Browns efforts and this is what caused him to abandon his plan to make for the mountains. Some of his men try to talk him into leaving, but he refused thinking that there would be a rush of blacks and even some whites to join his cause, and if not, he had captives to barter with. At 1:25 am the eastbound Baltimore and Ohio passenger train was coming into town. Earlier the watchman Patrick Higgins had eluded capture and was able to warn the train of trouble before crossing the bridge. The conductor Phelps backed the train off the bridge but the baggage handler Shepard Hayward looking for Bill Williams walked