John Brown, who was an abolitionist, led a group on a raid against a federal armory in Harpers Ferry which at time was in Western Virginia. This was an attempt to start an armed slave revolt and abolish slavery. John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800 and was raised in Ohio. He came from an antislavery family which added to his want to free the slaves. He never succeeded at any business projects and resulted into his increased debt. In 1837 His life changed when he attended an abolition meeting in Cleveland, this was when he publicly announced his dedication to destroy slavery. The lead up to the attack at Harpers Ferry, the ultimate downfall of the attack, and John Brown’s death were what led to the Civil War and the end of slavery in America.
John Brown secured the support of six prominent abolitionists, known as the "Secret Six," and assembled an invasion force. During this time he also gathered funds to help support his people. His group or “army” grew to include 22 men, included five black men and three of Brown's sons. The group rented a property in Maryland which 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.
Since John Brown went through his death sentence so bravely, I believe that this could have been his purpose from the beginning, not to prompt a slave revolution but to be finished and hence, sacrifice himself to the root. If this is true, then he placed the lives of twenty-three other people in danger which consisted of sixteen people that were slaughtered in the invasion, one passed away from a disease while waiting for his trial, six that were hung for their contribution to the raid and as well as the deaths of Brown’s two sons.
John Brown did not live to experience an America where slavery does not exist. Like so many Americans who fought their whole lives to make this country a better place he is looked back upon as a criminal. As citizens of the United States, it is our duty to stand up for what is right. John Brown knew that force was necessary to put an end to slavery. It is a sad fact, but it is true. Throughout history people have fought and killed over almost everything. It is a part of our nature and in some cases conflict is unavoidable. The average person remembers the wars of the world as glorious and admirable. Why can we not look upon John Brown in the same way? We can and should.
Over the course of decades, the issue of slavery, a prominent topic that attributed to countless problems and controversies, served as a significant role in the United States by establishing a division of the anti-slavery North and pro-slavery South. Due to these distinct viewpoints and years of simmering tensions between the northern and southern sectors of the United States, the two apprehensive regions collided and conducted the Civil War, the deadliest conflict in American history. The outbreak of the American Civil War comprised of a series of events, but the four most significant events that triggered the rise of the war were the death of Elijah Lovejoy, the supreme court decision of Dred vs. Scott, the Harper’s Ferry takeover, and the
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.
John Brown could be many things: a heroic leader, a violent troublemaker, a deranged madman. We would not know which or why if historians did not know to look into Brown’s past in order to find the motives behind his radical actions. By divulging into the history of John Brown, historians are able to better understand how Brown forced the entire country to make the decision to support or go against slavery in the United States. Brown made America take a good, hard look at itself in order to both confront Brown’s own views and the internal cultural problems that have been building up throughout the decades.
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
John Brown was a man you lived in the mid eighteen-hundreds and who fought against slavery. John Brown had a very strong belief that slavery was wrong, and this is true, but he thought that in order to abolish slavery, violence would be the best way, that’s where he went wrong because violence cannot be justified unless it is in self-defense, Brown’s attacks were not in self-defense they were acts of revenge upon slave owners, therefore Brown’s attack had no justification. As pointed out before he went wrong when he led the raid at Pottawatomie Creek and the raid on Harpers Ferry.
While doing that, Brown created a plan that one night, a small group would capture the federal armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. There, the group would seize all the guns and escape. Slaves would then join the group, creating an army, and diminish slavery in the South. On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a procession into Harpers Ferry and the raid went perfectly as planned. By noon, however, the Virginia militia entered Harpers Ferry and closed the only escape route. At the end of the day, Brown only had five of the twenty-two men he began with available to continue fighting.
Back in the day, African Americans were considered as slaves. They were degraded, tortured, beaten, and was also known to be illiterate. A man by the name of William Wells Brown was a runaway slave who became very intelligent over the course of time. Brown was born to an African American slave woman named Elizabeth and a white man in Lexington, Kentucky in the year of 1814. After being enslaved for almost twenty years, this courageous man decided to make a run for his freedom. His escape was successful. He did work on a steamboat for a couple of years to remain low-key. Later on in life, Brown moved to the city of Buffalo. He was married by this time and had become a major part of society. He participated in the abolitionist movement. The abolitionist movement was a way for slaves and others who were against slavery to try to get rid of slavery. William Brown travelled to spread his inputs and thoughts. Some places included Cuba and Haiti. Because Brown was so active in the movement, people were threatening anyone who was apart of it. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed and a group of
Lasting from 1861 to 1865, the Civil War is considered the bloodiest war in American history. However, the Civil War had seemingly been a long time coming. There were many events that took place within the fifteen years leading up to the Civil War that foreshadowed the eventual secession of seven “cotton states” from the Union. The end of the Mexican-American War in 1848, the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and the outcome of the Presidential Election of 1860 all helped contribute to southern secession and the start of the Civil War; they each caused conditions that either strengthened the abolitionist cause, strengthened the pro-slavery cause, or strengthened both causes respectively; although the conditions made many Southerners want to leave the United States, the Northerners were adamant on going to war to preserve the Union.
John Fairfield was a white man, born into a family in Virginia who owned slaves; he never liked the idea of owning slaves, so he became friends with them. When he turned twenty he helped his friend escape by taking him to Canada. When he returned to his family’s farm, he learned his uncle planned to have him arrested so he ran away taking with him a few more slaves to Canada. For a few years he would continue to do this and in turn became one of a few “conductors” of the Underground Railroad. No one really knows how he died some say that he died protecting one of the slaves others say he faked his death to live in peace.
Douglass's life as a reformer ranged from his abolitionist activities in the early 1840s to his attacks on Jim Crow and lynching in the 1890s. For 16 years he edited an influential black newspaper and achieved international fame as an orator and writer of great persuasive power. In thousands of speeches and editorials he levied an irresistible indictment against slavery and racism, provided an indomitable voice of hope for his people, embraced antislavery politics, and preached his own brand of American ideals. In the 1850s he broke with the strictly moralist brand of abolitionism led by William Lloyd Garrison; he supported the early women's rights movement; and he gave direct assistance to John Brown's conspiracy that led to the raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859.
After months of planning, John Brown and his twenty-one “soldiers'; marched into the strategically located town of Harpers Ferry with the goal of starting a slave revolt which would lead to the abolishment of the institution of slavery. Within hours Brown and his followers had taken several hostages, and gained control of the armory, the arsenal, and the engine house. The following days consisted of skirmishes with the towns people and the arrival of the United States Marines. After a brief confrontation the Marines easily captured Brown and his few surviving followers. On October 27 the trail of John Brown began. Only five days later the trial came to a rapid conclusion, with the jury finding Brown guilty on all charges. Two days later Brown was sentenced to death. His execution followed precisely one month later, on December 2nd. Clearly, Governor Wise and the state of Virginia acted justly and fairly when they tried John Brown and executed him for his deeds at Harpers Ferry.
Also known as the Second Great Awakening, the Abolitionist Movement swept through the colonies in the early 1830’s. This was a movement to abolish slavery and to give blacks their freedom as citizens. Many men and women, free and enslaved, fought for this cause and many were imprisoned or even killed for speaking out. If it were not for these brave people, slavery would still exist today. The Abolitionist Movement paved the way in eradicating slavery by pursuing moral and political avenues, providing the foundation for the Underground Railroad, and creating a voice for African Americans.