John Brown was a radical who believed he was led by god to evoke a war on pro-slavery activists and slave owners in order to diminish slavery. At the age of 59 Brown set out to put a team of anti-slavery abolitionist and free black men together, call them an army and execute his plan. However only 21 people enlisted mainly whites, 13, no slaves or free blacks joined. As surprising as this was to Brown it surprises me too. I wonder if the blacks were scared. Why didn’t they jump at every opportunity and chance to free those oppressed by the inhumane of slavery? Maybe they had their own plans to victory in the works. Brown still pursued his plan and went fourth with his 21 men. Although a follower of Christ, John believed the only way to overthrow …show more content…
They believed God called on them specifically and they were willing to do whatever it took to satisfy the lord. However they killed an overwhelming amount of whites which is really a contradiction to their following. The bible says “thou shall not kill” but they did the opposite. Turner and his army killed nearly 60 people men, women and children including his slave owners sleeping baby then threw the baby into the fireplace. Actions as such are hard to defend, making the best word to describe both army’s decisions as inhumane. I don’t believe Turner fully deliberated all his choices and next steps. His killing spree caused for slave owners all over to kill blacks on their plantation because they feared their slaves would catch the attention of other blacks and give them the idea to overthrow their own slave owner and join Turners army. Brown, under the impression that violence was the only way to achieve his goal killed many too. He was a white man and his actions seem to be more inhumane than Turners because he killed his equals. He was free and had access to the same people he killed there were ways around the high death toll both men
After careful consideration, I have decided to use the books dedicated to David Walker’s Appeal and The Confessions of Nat Turner and compare their similarities and differences. It is interesting to see how writings which has the same purpose of liberating enslaved Black people can be interpreted so differently, especially in the matter of who was reading them. Akin to how White people reacted to Turner’s Rebellion, which actually had promising results while most would see the immediate backlashes and to which I intend to explain more. As most would put emphasis on the Confession itself, I assume, I decided to focus more on the reactions and related documents regarding the Rebellion.
The similarity between Susan B. Anthony speech and Martin Luther King Juniors “I Have a Dream” speech is that they are fighting for the equality of America. Susan B. Anthony is fighting for women being able to vote like everyone else. Martin Luther King is fighting for the equality of African Americans. Both just want to see America as an equal place instead of discrimination against others based on race or gender. Even though their message has similarities the way they delivered them was different.
In order to be a hero, one must be courageous. Some people that are heroes are Susan B. Anthony and Harriet Tubman.
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.
It could be argued that the revolt was entirely reactionary and in response to the myriad of abuses propagated by the white, slave-holding society (Garrison). Slaves were treated as little more than chattel – subject to the caprice and whims of their owners. In one infamous case, a slave woman was executed for killing her master when he attempted to rape her. As a slave, the court literally did not recognize her as a woman but only as an item to be used and abused (Foner 410). Such callous treatment is difficult to fathom, and perhaps helps to put the slave’s rebellion into context; however, Turner’s actions were highly reprehensible in that his slaughter was not confined to those who had perpetrated these abuses, but was instead an indiscriminate massacre of the innocent and the guilty
In the 1850’s the Kansas Civil War, known as “Bleeding Kansas,” started and John Brown started becoming involved in this war leading a small group of men. He had remained fighting to create Kansas as a free state and led a raid known as the Pottawatomie Massacre in May 1856. This event turned into more of a show of their power than for getting revenge. With the involvement people changed their views on the abolition of slavery, “... many were losing faith in the electoral process as a means of destroying slavery- The Civil War was to prove them right- while some were increasingly inclined to believe that John Brown’s projected invasion...must be tried” (Boyer 7-8). He returned to Iowa and started on his next project, launching an attac...
They went to the extreme of fight in slave holders. They used physical intendment to force the southern and whoever didn’t want to listen to what they wanted out of their government’s institution. They wanted freedom rights one way or another .
Turner took his religion seriously. He was a preacher and he preached at many different black churches. The white slave owners like the fact that he was a preacher because they thought that they could learn better from one of there kind. As a young man, he began having visions that he believed were from God. Turner had three visions prior to the rebellion in 1831. In 1821,he had his first vision, after he had run away. He had hid in the woods and he was determine...
Slave rebellion had not dissipated even after years had passed since Turner’s last insurrection. David Walker was son of a slave born free in North Carolina; he wrote a pamphlet Walker’s Appeal which infuriated southern slaveholders. Also, Harriet Tubman became the most famous conductor of the Underground Railway and led many slaves to freedom. Next, Frederick Douglass became the most famous black man of his time. On the 4th of July he gave an Independence address: “What have I or those I represent to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?” (qtd Zinn 182). He also worked alongside William Lloyd Garrison a white abolitionist and editor of The Liberator. Additionally, John Brown a white abolitionist advocated the use of violence to disrupt and destroy the institution of slavery. He later was executed by the State of Virginia with the approval of the national government. Therefore, we start to see intellectual blacks fight for freedom and equal rights. Not only were they wanting to engage in armed insurrections, but also more ready to use political devices—the ballot box, the Constitution—anything to further their cause (Zinn
On August 13 Turner felt that since the sky turned green, this was the sign for him to do what he was called to do. On August 21, Turner met his men in the woods to make their plans and started their plan to rebel. The next morning, Turner and a group of slaves set out to the Travis farm where they started their killing spree. By August 22, word of the rebellion had gotten out to the whites and Turner's force became weak. Turner was determined to finish what he starts so the next day Turner and his group attempted to attack but were unsuccessful. The remaining force then met the state and federal troops in which one slave was killed and many escaped, including Turner.
The Civil War is often thought of as white northerners and southerners fighting over the freedom of African American’s. African American soldiers would fight on both sides of the war. The eventual acceptance of African American’s and their contributions to the Union Army would be pivotal in the Unions success. African Americans were banned from joining the Union Army in the early part of the Civil War. President Lincoln feared that African Americans in the Army would persuade certain states, such as Missouri, to join the Confederacy. Once African American soldiers could join the Union Army they would contribute to almost every major battle of the Civil War. 180,000 African Americans served in the Union Army in 163 different units, and 9,000 served as seamen in the Union Navy.1 President Lincoln stated, “Without the military help of the black freedmen, the war against the South could not have been won.”2
...e Massacre, hatched a plan designed to create an uprising of slaves against their masters. Brown led twenty men, and took over an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown failed to spread the word of his plan to the slave population, and the siege turned into a standoff. Eventually, half of Browns men were killed, and Brown with the rest of his group were captured. Brown was quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for treason. Despite the colossal failure of his plan, Brown helped his cause when by becoming a martyr in the abolitionist movement.
John Brown was a key person in slave history. He planned on overthrowing slavery in the south. Brown and his followers invaded harpers ferry Virginia in October 1859. Brown and his followers ended up killing people during the raid. Brown was captured and was charged with treason. Brown and his men succeed by rising the emotions of the people who supported slavery and who opposed slavery. Brown and two of his followers where found guilt and hanged. Northerners mourned the death of John brown while the southerners were upset by the way the northerners ma...
John Brown became a legend of his time. He was a God fearing, yet violent man and slaveholders saw him as evil, fanatic, a murderer, lunatic, liar, and horse thief. To abolitionists, he was noble and courageous. John Brown was born in 1800 and grew up in the wilderness of Ohio. At seventeen, he left home and soon mastered the arts of farming, tanning, and home building.
Turner went through all of this because he claims it was the Lord’s calling for him. I believe there was something mentally wrong with Turner because of this. He must have been so fed up with how slaves were being treated he had these irrational thoughts about killing these people, including his own owner who had done no harm upon him. Back then slavery was the norm, but no I do not see it as the slaves had to accept that. I see it as the white men and women should either one, have seen it coming and to be prepared, or two not own slaves