Analysis Of John Brown's Attack On Harpers Ferry

John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry

1) On October 1859, John Brown’s attack on Harpers Ferry affected American culture in a way no other event in the Antebellum period did. The raid divided the country into two sections: the North and South; it was one of a great significant events happened in the United States. John Brown was a white abolitionist. He was executed on December 2nd, 1859 without fair trial and sentenced to hang. Brown became a legend during the period. He was a God fearing, but violent man and slaveholders saw him as fanatic, a murderer, and lunatic. To abolitionist like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, he is a courageous, noble, and a hero. Brown is an abolitionist with goal and purpose for fighting for what was right; however, he is a radical and dangerous extremist.

2) Brown’s religious belief is difference from the mainstream American religious beliefs at the time. Since he was

He was filled with the heavy anti-slavery sentiment when he saw the slaveholder beat a slave about his age when he was little. Brown later wrote that the beating transformed him into “a most determined abolitionist” and it leads him to “declared an eternal war” with slavery. (Earle, p.4) When Brown heard of Elijah P. Lovejoy murder in a prayer meeting in Hudson, he decided to devote the remainder of his life to the eradication of slavery. Other abolitionists only pray and sewing group. Brown’s “radical ideas about racial equality” set him aside from mainstream abolitionist. (Earle, p.8) Brown shocks other abolitionist when he invited African Americans to sit with him in the family pew. Additionally, Brown believes that he could speak for the African American (slave). He claims “to know what was good for black people better than black people themselves.” (Earle, p.10) Hence, Brown starts to liberated small groups in Missouri and help them escape to Canada. Later on, was creating a greater plan of