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John Brown: A Hero or a Terrorist, Essay Example

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October 16 th , 1859, the day when John Brown raided a U.S military arsenal located at the Harper’s Ferry in Virginia in anticipation of provoking a slave insurgence to free the African Americans. His plan was to use the weapons from the arsenal to launch a war against the South and end the slavery trade. In the course of this action, John Brown and his men killed 7 people. However, in the end, the raid was not successful and John Brown was hanged later on. John Brown was a known abolitionist. He fought hard to end the slavery and free the African-Americans from the hands of their masters. Even after the failed raid of the Harper’s Ferry, such actions from him and his men encouraged other abolitionist to continue the battle that ultimately led to a civil war (Barney, 112). Yet, people are asking whether or not his actions can be considered heroic or an act of terrorism.

The answer to this question is tricky by virtue of two opposing views. The North viewed John Brown as a hero while the South looked at him as a terrorist. It cannot be denied that his quest to abolish slavery was for a good cause. Not because it exhibited unequal rights among the people in the society but because it is an evil crime to interfere one’s right to freedom. Slavery did not just limit the right to freedom of the slaves but also encouraged lack of education, poverty and oppression. To fight for slavery in such a time was truly heroic. It meant freeing the people from oppression and giving them hope for a better future. However, a line should have been drawn when John Brown and his men started killing people who did not share the same idealism and views as with them. When he was planning the attack, it is important to note that no slaves joined him when he actually launched the attack. This can be rooted from the fact that the slaves knew that killing will not solve any problem. As a matter of fact, it only created fear and more chaos.

The end does not justify the means. For if it is, people will just keep killing each other due to differences in beliefs, race, religion and political affiliations. Although his contributions to the enlightenment of the people to defend for their own freedom cannot be disregarded, the means by which he conducted his ideologies constitute that of a terrorist act. There is no contesting that he inspired people to fight for their own freedom but it could have been done in a peaceful way. Even in the present day, does society encourages war? Does it encourage killing by virtue of religion? The answer is no.  It is understandable to fight for what someone believes in. But it should not be in the form of violence as it will just drag on until such time where innocent civilians who refused other beliefs and support their own will have to die to prove a point. It might sound idealistic but there is more than one way in solving conflicts than violence and killing. If only John Brown chose the other ways such as a peaceful revolt, then that would have made him a full blown hero and no one can ever argue that fact.

Barney, William. The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2001.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 27, 2023 | Original: October 27, 2009

John Brown was a leading figure in the abolitionist movement in the pre-Civil War United States. Unlike many anti-slavery activists, he was not a pacifist and believed in aggressive action against slaveholders and any government officials who enabled them. An entrepreneur who ran tannery and cattle trading businesses prior to the economic crisis of 1839, Brown became involved in the abolitionist movement following the brutal murder of Presbyterian minister and anti-slavery activist Elijah P. Lovejoy in 1837. He said at the time, “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery !”

Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington , Connecticut, the son of Owen and Ruth Mills Brown. His father, who was in the tannery business, relocated the family to Ohio , where the abolitionist spent most of his childhood.

The Brown family’s new home of Hudson, Ohio , happened to be a key stop on the Underground Railroad , and Owen Brown became active in the effort to bring former enslaved people to freedom. The family home soon became a safe house for fugitive enslaved people.

The younger Brown left his family at 16 for Massachusetts and then Connecticut , where he attended school and was ordained a Congregational minister. By 1819, though, he had returned to Hudson and opened a tannery of his own, on the opposite side of town from his father. He also married and started a family during that time.

Did you know? John Brown declared bankruptcy at age 42 and had more than 20 lawsuits filed against him.

Family and Financial Problems

Initially, Brown’s business ventures were very successful, but by the 1830s his finances took a turn for the worse. It didn’t help that he lost his wife and two of his children to illness at the time.

He relocated the family business and his four surviving children to present-day Kent, Ohio . However, Brown’s financial losses continued to mount, although he did remarry in 1833.

With a new business partner, Brown set up shop in Springfield, Massachusetts , hoping to reverse his fortunes. In addition to finding some business success, Brown quickly became immersed in the city’s influential abolitionist community.

He also became more familiar with the so-called mercantile class of wealthy entrepreneurs and their often ruthless business practices. It is in Springfield that many historians believe Brown became a radical abolitionist.

By 1850, he had relocated his family again, this time to the Timbuctoo farming community in the Adirondack region of New York State. Abolitionist leader Gerrit Smith was providing land in the area to Black farmers—at that time, owning land or a house enabled Black men to vote.

Brown bought a farm there himself, near Lake Placid, New York , where he not only worked the land but could advise and assist members of the Black communities in the region.

Bleeding Kansas

Brown’s first militant actions as part of the abolitionist movement didn’t occur until 1855. By then, two of his sons had started families of their own, in the western territory that eventually became the state of Kansas .

His sons were involved in the abolitionist movement in the territory, and they summoned their father, fearing attack from pro-slavery settlers. Confident he and his family could bring Kansas into the Union as a “free" state for Black people, Brown went west to join his sons.

After pro-slavery activists attacked at Lawrence, Kansas , in 1856, Brown and other abolitionists mounted a counterattack. They targeted a group of pro-slavery settlers called the Pottawatomie Rifles.

What became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre occurred on May 25, 1856, and resulted in the deaths of five pro-slavery settlers.

These and other events surrounding Kansas' difficult transition to statehood, made even more complicated by the issue of slavery, became known as Bleeding Kansas . But John Brown’s legend as a militant abolitionist was just beginning.

Over the next several years, Brown’s efforts in Kansas continued, and two of his sons were captured — and a third was killed — by pro-slavery settlers.

The abolitionist was undaunted, however, and Brown still advocated for the movement, traveling all over the country to raise money and obtain weapons for the cause. In the meantime, Kansas held elections and voted to be a free state in 1858.

Harpers Ferry

By early 1859, Brown was leading raids to free enslaved people in areas where forced labor was still in practice, primarily in the present-day Midwest. At this time, he also met Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass , activists and abolitionists both, and they became important people in Brown’s life, reinforcing much of his ideology.

With Tubman, whom he called “General Tubman,” Brown began planning an attack on slaveholders, as well as a United States military armory, at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia ), using armed freed enslaved people. He hoped the attack would help lay the groundwork for a revolt, but historians have called the raid a dress rehearsal for the Civil War .

Brown recruited 22 men in all, including his sons Owen and Watson, and several freed enslaved people. The group received military training in advance of the raid from experts within the abolitionist movement.

John Brown's Raid

The operation began on October 16, 1859, with the planned capture of Colonel Lewis Washington, a distant relative of George Washington , at the former’s estate. The Washington family continued to own enslaved people.

A group of men, led by Owen Brown, was able to kidnap Washington, while the rest of the men, with John Brown at the lead, began a raid on Harpers Ferry to seize both weapons and pro-slavery leaders in the town. Key to the raid’s success was accomplishing the objective — namely the seizure of the armory — before officials in Washington, D.C., could be informed and send in reinforcements.

To that end, John Brown’s men stopped a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train headed for the nation’s capital. However, Brown relented and let the train continue—the conductor ultimately notified authorities in Washington about what was happening at Harpers Ferry.

It was during the efforts to stop the train that the first casualty of the raid on Harpers Ferry occurred. A baggage handler at the town’s train station was shot in the back and killed when he refused the orders of Brown’s men. The victim was a free Black man—one of the very people the abolitionist movement sought to help.

John Brown's Fort

Brown’s men were able to capture several local slaveowners but, by the end of the day on October 16, local townspeople began to fight back. Early the next morning, they raised a local militia, which captured a bridge crossing the Potomac River, effectively cutting off an important escape route for Brown and his compatriots.

Although Brown and his men were able to take the Harpers Ferry armory during the morning of October 17, the local militia soon had the facility surrounded, and the two sides traded gunfire.

There were casualties on both sides, with four Harpers Ferry citizens killed, including the town’s mayor. A militia made up of men from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad arrived in town and assisted local residents in countering Brown’s attack.

Brown was forced to move his remaining men and their captives to the armory’s engine house, a smaller building that later became known as John Brown’s Fort. They effectively barricaded themselves inside.

The militia attack was able to free several of Brown’s captives, although eight of the railroad men died in the fighting. With no escape route and under heavy fire, Brown sent his son Watson out to surrender. However, the younger Brown was shot by the militia and mortally wounded.

Robert E. Lee and the Marines

Late in the afternoon of October 17, 1859, President James Buchanan ordered a company of Marines under the command of Brevet Colonel (and future Confederate General) Robert E. Lee to march into Harpers Ferry.

The next morning, Lee attempted to get Brown to surrender, but the latter refused. Ordering the Marines under his command to attack, the military men stormed John Brown's Fort, taking all of the abolitionist fighters and their captives alive.

In the end, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry ended in failure.

John Brown's Body

Lee and his men arrested Brown and transported him to the courthouse in nearby Charles Town, where he was imprisoned until he could be tried. In November, a jury found Brown guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, at the age of 59. Among the witnesses to his execution were Lee and the actor and pro-slavery activist John Wilkes Booth . (Booth would later assassinate President Abraham Lincoln over the latter’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation .)

After he was executed, his wife, Mary Ann (Day) took John Brown's body to the family farm in upstate New York for burial. The farm and gravesite are owned by New York State and operated as the John Brown Farm State Historic Site , a National Historic Landmark.

Slavery would ultimately come to an end in the United States in 1865, six years after Brown’s death, following the Union’s defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Although Brown’s actions didn’t bring an end to slavery, they did spur those opposed to it to more aggressive action, perhaps fueling the bloody conflict that finally ended slavery in America.

American Battlefield Trust. “John Brown’s Harpers Ferry Raid.” Battlefields.org . Bordewich, F.M. (2009). “John Brown’s Day of Reckoning.” Smithsonianmag.com . “John Brown.” PBS.org .

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Prologue Magazine

A Look Back at John Brown

Spring 2011, Vol. 43, No. 1

By Paul Finkelman

For Southerners, Brown was the embodiment of all their fear—a white man willing to die to end slavery. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness. (111-BA-1101)

As we celebrate the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, it is worthwhile to remember, and contemplate, the most important figure in the struggle against slavery immediately before the war: John Brown.

When Brown was hanged in 1859 for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, many saw him as the harbinger of the future. For Southerners, he was the embodiment of all their fears—a white man willing to die to end slavery—and the most potent symbol yet of aggressive Northern antislavery sentiment. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness, bringing down a terrible swift sword against the immorality of slavery and the haughtiness of the Southern master class.

In 2000, the United States marked the bicentennial of Brown's birth. At that time, domestic terrorism was a growing problem. Bombings, ambushes, and assassinations had been directed at women's clinics and physicians in a number of places; a bomb planted in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 summer Olympics had killed one person and wounded more than a hundred people; in 1995 a pair of right-wing extremists had planted a bomb at the Alfred A. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others.

During that bicentennial year, a number of historians and others talked about whether John Brown was America's first terrorist. Was he a model for the cowards who planted bombs at clinics, in public parks, or in buildings? Significantly, at least one modern terrorist, Paul Hill, compared himself to John Brown after he was arrested for murdering two people who worked at a women's clinic in Florida.

A year after Brown's bicentennial, the United States was faced with multiple terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The meaning of terrorism had changed. It was no longer the result of random attacks by an individual or two. Now it was tied to a worldwide conspiracy, coordinated overseas and meticulously planned. The American response was a "war on terror." In an age of rising incidents of terrorism, numerous scholars, and more important, much of the general public, have again asked if John Brown was America's "first terrorist."

Some Definitions of Terrorism

There are no complete or certain definitions of terrorism. Terrorists seek to "terrify" people and strike fear in the minds of those at whom their terror is directed. This, however, is not a complete definition. After all, few would consider soldiers in warfare terrorists, yet surely they try to make their enemy "fearful" of them. Starting with World War II, large-scale bombing has been a fact of modern warfare, but bombing of military targets is surely not an act of terrorism, even though the civilian population may be harmed or terrorized.

This aspect of warfare is hardly new. Siege warfare of the ancient and medieval world surely terrorized those inside castles or towns. Similarly, the long sieges of the Civil War, as well as decisions by both sides to strike at civilian targets that aided the war effort, surely terrorized populations. The trench warfare and artillery duels of World War I terrorized millions of civilians, but this was not essentially terrorism.

So, what beyond scaring or frightening people constitutes terrorism? How do we define the "terrorist?"

For terrorists, the "terror" itself, the act of violence, is the goal rather than simply the means to an end. Terrorists may hope for political change, but what they often want is to simply strike back at and harm those they oppose. The act of terror becomes the goal, with no expectation that anything else will follow.

This makes terrorism different from other kinds of illegal activity or violence. A kidnapper wants a ransom; a hostage taker usually has "demands" that should be met; a robber simply wants money or goods and might be willing to kill for them. But the terrorist often has no demands and no goals other than to terrorize. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols made no demands; they wanted nothing other than to kill and destroy. Those who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon only wanted to kill, destroy, and terrorize. They made no demands, asked for nothing, and by their own design would not have even been alive to negotiate for whatever they might have wanted.

Learn more about:

• The exhibit Discovering the Civil War .
• Selected online records relating to the Civil War .

Another hallmark of terrorists is indiscriminate killing; it helps spread terror. Terrorists generally do not care who they kill—adults, children, old people, women, men—although sometimes assassinations are an exception to this.

Terrorists are not concerned about collateral damage. Planting a bomb or shooting indiscriminately is a key indicator of terrorism. It does not even matter if some of those who die are sympathetic to the terrorists or of their own ethnic group. A number of American Muslims died in the attack on the World Trade Center because that is where they worked, but these collateral deaths were of no consequence to those who planned the attack. For terrorists, indiscriminate killing helps spread terror. Similarly, for terrorist killers there is no reason to spare lives or minimize death—every life is a legitimate target.

Terrorists usually attack nonmilitary targets and those who are unable to defend themselves. Often their victims are what might be called noncombatants in whatever ongoing struggle there is. One common aspect of terrorists is that they avoid direct contact and confrontation with those who are armed, especially the military. Tied to this, most terrorists plan their actions to have the greatest impact and to kill the most people.

Terrorists also act in secret and try to avoid anyone knowing who they are. They often wear masks and in other ways try to hide their identity. The classic American terrorist is the sheeted Klansman, with his face covered, killing, beating, mutilating, burning, and raping, to terrorize those who supported racial equality and black suffrage. Because they are violent and seek to kill, maim, or destroy property, terrorists naturally must be secretive. After their acts, however, they are likely to openly (but anonymously) brag about their crimes.

Terrorism also has a political context. This is particularly important to see when we try to make the distinction between terrorism and revolution. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson set out a series of principles that justified violent overthrow of the government. One was a "long train of abuses."

Even more important for Jefferson and his colleagues was the lack of access to the political process to change things peacefully. From the American perspective, in 1776, there was not a political solution to the crisis because Americans had no voice in the British government. In addition, the American Revolution was a response to attacks initiated by the British.

Thus, where there are no political avenues for change, violence—such as the American troops firing at the British—becomes revolution. But where the political processes are open, violence becomes terrorism. This was even true for the 9-11 terrorists. Nothing prevented them from politically organizing, demonstrating, and educating the American public about the changes they wanted. Their choice was to short-circuit the political options in favor of violence and terrorism.

With these general understandings, let us turn to John Brown, first to understand what he did, and second to see if it fits in the context of terrorism.

What Brown Did

Brown is connected to terrorism for two events in his life: the Pottawatomie raid in the Kansas Territory in 1856 and his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859. Both involved violence and killing. Both have led some people to claim Brown was a terrorist.

On the night of May 24, 1856, Brown led a raiding party of four of his sons, his son-in-law, and two other men to Pottawatomie Creek. For the most part, this raid was unplanned and almost spontaneous. Brown acted in retaliation for a raid on the free state settlement at Lawrence, the killings of free state settlers in Kansas, and persistent threats by the proslavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek. Brown and his men entered three cabins, interrogated a number of men, and eventually killed five of them, all with swords and knives. Some were killed quickly, while others, who resisted, were cut in many places. Brown and his men then departed.

Significantly, although Brown and his men killed five proslavery settlers, they did not kill all the Southern settlers they encountered. They spared the life of the wife and teenage son of one of the men they killed, even though these people could have identified the raiders. At another cabin, they interrogated two men and let them go, convinced they had not threatened free state settlers or been involved in violent actions against the free state settlers. At a third house they also spared the wife of one man, even while they killed him.

Three and a half years later, on the evening of October 16, 1859, John Brown and 18 "soldiers" seized the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's plans were fantastic—some would say insane. He would use the arms in the arsenal—as well as old-fashioned pikes he had had specially manufactured—to begin a guerrilla war against slavery. The core of his army would be the mostly white band of raiders who seized the arsenal. But soon, he hoped—he believed—he just knew—that hundreds or even thousands of slaves would join him in the fight against the "peculiar institution." He predicted that once word of his raid got out, slaves from throughout the region would appear at his side, as bees "swarm to the hive."

During his raid, Brown and his men had captured a number of slave owners in the area, including Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of President George Washington. Brown did not kill any of these captured men, and he went out of his way to protect them and make sure they were not harmed.

While in Harpers Ferry, the raiders killed a railroad baggage handler, who ironically was a free black, when he refused their orders to halt. In a firefight they killed a few townsmen, including the mayor. At one point Brown stopped a passenger train, held it for a while, and then released it. The train continued on to Washington, DC, where the crew dutifully reported to officials that Brown had seized Harpers Ferry. The next day, October 18, U.S. marines, under the command of Army Brevet Col. Robert E. Lee, captured Brown in the engine house on the armory grounds. By this time, most of the raiders were either dead or wounded.

Brown's trial in Charlestown, Virginia, began in October 1859. He was charged with and convicted of treason, murder, and conspiring with slaves to revolt. Severely wounded during his capture, Brown had to be carried into court and lay on a stretcher. (Harpers Ferry National Park)

Ten days later, Brown's trial began in Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia). He was charged with treason, murder, and conspiring with slaves to rebel. He was convicted on November 2 and sentenced to death. Before his sentencing, Brown told the court that his actions against slavery were consistent with God's commandments.

"I believe," he said in a speech that electrified many Northerners who later read it, "that to have interfered as I have done in behalf of His despised poor, is no wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood 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.'"

In the month between his sentencing on November 2 and his execution on December 2, Brown wrote brilliant letters that helped to create, in the minds of many Northerners, his image as a Christ-like martyr who gave his life so that the slaves might be free. Indeed, Frederick Douglass would later say that he lived for the slave, but John Brown was willing to "die for the slave." Brown welcomed his end, declaring: "I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose."

For abolitionists and antislavery activists, black and white, Brown emerged as a hero, a martyr, and ultimately, a harbinger of the end of slavery. Most Northern whites, especially those not committed to abolition, were aghast at the violence of his action. Yet there was also widespread support for him in the region. Northerners variously came to see Brown as an antislavery saint, a brave but foolish extremist, a lunatic, and a threat to the Union.

The future Republican governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, summed up the feelings of many Northerners when he refused to endorse Brown's tactics or the wisdom of the raid, but declared that "John Brown himself is right." But most Republican politicians worried that they would be tarred by his extremism and lose the next election. Democrats and what remained of the Whigs (who would become Constitutional Unionists), by contrast, feared that Brown's raid would polarize the nation, put the Republicans in power, and chase the South out of the Union.

For white Southerners, Brown was the worst possible nightmare: a fearless, committed abolitionist, armed, accompanied by blacks, and willing to die to end slavery. Indeed, in the minds of Southerners, Brown was the greatest threat to slavery the South had ever witnessed. Most Southerners had at least a vague fear of slave rebellions. But Southerners had convinced themselves that most slaves were content with their status and that, in any event, blacks were incapable of anything worse than sporadic violence. Brown, however, raised the ominous possibility of armed black slaves, led by whites, who together would destroy Southern white society.

Who was this lunatic, this mad man, this abolitionist hero, this saint, this martyr to freedom? Was he America's first terrorist?

Who Was John Brown?

In many ways Brown was a typical 19th-century American. He was born in Torrington, Connecticut, into a family of deeply religious Congregationalists who were Puritan in their heritage and overtly antislavery in their views. When he was five, the family moved to what was then the "West." They migrated to Hudson, Ohio, which was in the Western Reserve between Akron and Cleveland. The region was full of New Englanders, especially from Connecticut.

Brown grew up in an atmosphere in which everyone despised slavery. Both Brown and his father were early supporters of the new abolitionism that emerged in the 1830s. Brown's father, a prominent businessman with a large tannery, was involved in trying to make Western Reserve College into an antislavery stronghold. When that failed, the elder Brown supported the creation of Oberlin College as a racially integrated coeducational institution of higher learning with an antislavery bent.

Despite his father's association with colleges, Brown had little formal education. Early in his life he considered becoming a clergyman, and he returned to Connecticut to attend a preparatory school as a prelude to going to a seminary. But that possibility ended when he flunked out of the school. By age 20 he was married and a foreman in his father's tannery. His bride, Dianthe Lusk, gave birth to seven children before she died in 1832. Five of those children lived until adulthood. In 1833 he married Mary Ann Day, an uneducated 16-year-old, half his age. She would have 13 children, but only six would survive to adulthood.

In 1825 Brown moved to western Pennsylvania, where he was a successful tanner and a postmaster (under President John Quincy Adams). Despite his own poor education and struggles with schooling, he helped start a local school. A proper burgher of the community, he became a church leader and joined the Masons. In 1834 his business went bad, and he moved back to Ohio, starting a tannery in Kent. There he speculated in land and won a contract to build a canal from Kent (then called Franklin Mills) to Akron. He formed the Franklin Land Company with 700 acres for building houses.

As we recall Brown's future activities, it is fascinating to also contemplate the image of John Brown as a suburban developer. But the panic of 1837 changed everything. By the end of the year, Brown was bankrupt. For the next five years he dodged creditors before finally declaring bankruptcy in 1842 and losing almost everything he owned.

Up to this point in his life, Brown had done nothing to indicate he was particularly political or unusually antislavery. He was, in fact, a fairly conventional Jacksonian, trying to increase his status and wealth and always looking for the next opportunity: tanner, canal builder, suburban developer, and in the wake of the panic, bankrupt.

By 1844, Brown was back in the business world, raising sheep with a wealthy business partner in Akron. But his inept business skills did him in again, especially an attempt to sell 200,000 pounds of wool in England, which was an exporter of wool. Oddly, while his creditors sued him, no one accused him of dishonesty or lacking integrity. Even people whose finances were almost ruined by his behavior liked him.

John Brown in the 1850s. He had tried to succeed as a tanner, sheep rancher, suburban developer, and canal builder but was undone by failing economic conditions and his inept business skills. (127-N-521396)

View in National Archives Catalog

In 1854—at age 54—Brown was a failed businessman, an impoverished farmer with a few head of cattle in Ohio and some land in Upstate New York—at North Elba—that he had not yet paid for. That year five of his sons and his son-in-law moved to Kansas. In part they went to improve their economic status and find new, virgin soil for farming. But they also went to spread freedom in the West.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had organized the new Kansas Territory without banning slavery. Under that law, the settlers themselves would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. Thus, when the Browns moved to Kansas, they were making a political statement to help ensure that Kansas would be a free state.

During this period, Brown had gradually emerged as an unyielding opponent of slavery. He participated in the underground railroad and in 1851 helped found the League of Gileadites, an organization of whites, free blacks, and runaway slaves dedicated to protecting fugitive slaves from slave catchers.

In the 1840s Brown was in contact with such antislavery leaders as Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass. Yet as late as 1855 Brown remained a marginal figure in the antislavery movement and in all other ways historically insignificant. In 1855 Brown joined his sons and son-in-law in Kansas, settling along the Osawatomie River. In December 1855 he helped defend Lawrence, the center of antislavery settlers, from an armed attack by proslavery forces.

On May 21, 1856, though, when Brown was elsewhere, proslavery men sacked and burned the free-soil town, destroying the printing press there, burning buildings, and terrorizing the residents. Three days later, Brown and his band of free-state guerrillas killed five Southern settlers along the Pottawatomie River, decapitating some of them with swords. Later that summer, a proslavery minister, working as a scout for the U.S. Army, murdered Brown's unarmed son Frederick, shooting him in the heart at close range. His body, when discovered, was riddled with bullets.

Throughout the rest of 1856, Brown and his remaining sons fought in Kansas and Missouri. Some of these encounters were pitched battles between Brown's small army and proslavery forces, which were sometimes abetted by the U.S. Army.

By the end of 1856, Brown was one of the most renowned (and either hated or adored) figures in "bleeding Kansas," and in the East he became known as "Osawatomie Brown" or "Old Osawatomie." For some New England abolitionists he was approaching the status of a cult figure. Taciturn, blunt, gruff—and armed—Brown had become a symbol of the emerging holy crusade against slavery. Those in the East knew he fought against slavery, but few were aware of the exact nature of his role in the gory events at Pottawatomie.

Within two weeks after the incident, the play Osawatomie Brown appeared on Broadway. The play accused Brown's enemies of the massacre at Pottawatomie and suggested that the real killers had blamed Brown in order to discredit him. Moreover, ever since the massacre, James Redpath, an English journalist who later wrote Brown's biography, had been assuring readers that Brown was not responsible for the murders. Thus, when Brown went on a fund-raising trip to Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1857, no one saw him as a killer. At the time, he denied any role in the Pottawatomie murders, and his abolitionist supporters in the East gladly accepted his disavowal at face value. Brown's eastern contacts thought their donations to him would go to support the war against slavery in Kansas. Actually, Brown was already planning a raid on Harpers Ferry.

As early as 1854, Brown had been thinking, and talking, about an organized war against slavery in Virginia. His focus, from the beginning, seems to have been on Harpers Ferry, the site of a federal arsenal and armory. By 1857 his plans were beginning to take shape. In March 1857 he hired a Connecticut forgemaster to make a thousand pikes, allegedly for use in Kansas but actually to be given to slaves who he believed would flock to his guerrilla army once he invaded the South.

In 1858 Brown wrote a constitution for the revolutionary state he hoped to create. (Records of the Adjutant General s Office, 1780's-1917)

In January and February 1858 he spent a month at the home of Frederick Douglass, planning his raid and writing a provisional constitution for the revolutionary state Brown hoped to create. Brown begged Douglass to join him. Douglass was sympathetic to Brown's goals but believed the plan was suicidal: "You're walking into a perfect steel-trap and you will never get out alive," he told Brown. Nevertheless, Douglass introduced Brown to Shields Green, a fugitive slave from South Carolina who joined Brown—and whom Virginia authorities hanged after the raid.

In the early spring of 1858, Brown began raising large amounts of money for his raid, writing potential backers that he was planning some "[underground] Rail Road business on a somewhat extended scale." However, in person he made it clear that he intended to do more than merely help large numbers of slaves to escape. On February 22, 1858, Brown revealed his general plans—and his provisional constitution—to Gerrit Smith and Franklin Sanborn. Brown also contacted black leaders to help recruit free blacks. In March 1858 Brown met in Boston with the Reverend Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, George Stearns, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Franklin Sanborn. These five, along with Smith, made up the "Secret Six," Brown's primary financial backers. In June 1858, traveling as "Shubel Morgan," Brown headed west, raising more money and recruiting more raiders in Cleveland. While Brown continued on to Kansas, John E. Cook, one of his raiders, moved to Harpers Ferry, where he found work and learned what he could about the community, the armory, and the lay of the land. He also fathered a child and married a local woman.

In December 1858 Brown once again made headlines for his exploits in the West. He invaded Missouri, where he killed a slave owner, liberated 11 slaves, and brilliantly evaded law enforcement officers as he led the freed blacks to Canada. There Brown met a black printer, Osborne Perry Anderson, who would later take part in the Harpers Ferry raid. Although a wanted man with a price of $250 on his head, Brown returned to the United States, traveling and speaking in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Brown also contacted the "Secret Six" who were financing him.

In June 1859 Brown visited his home in North Elba, New York, for the last time, where he said good-bye to his wife and daughters. Brown probably knew that he was unlikely to see his family again, something he stoically accepted as a cost of his crusade against slavery. He was less accepting of his son Salmon, however, who decided he would not join his father on an apparently suicidal mission into Virginia.

Brown and his sons Oliver and Owen arrived in Harpers Ferry on July 3, 1859, and Brown rented a farm in Maryland, about seven miles from Harpers Ferry. He expected large numbers of men to enlist in his "army," but by September only 18 had arrived, including another of Brown's sons, Watson. By mid-October, a few more arrived.

On Sunday, October 16, Brown and his men began their raid. They made a strange assortment: veterans of the struggles in Kansas, fugitive slaves, free blacks, transcendental idealists, Oberlin College men, and youthful abolitionists on their first foray into the world. The youngest was 18. The oldest, Dangerfield Newby, was a 44-year-old fugitive slave from Virginia who hoped to rescue his wife from bondage. But most of the raiders were in their 20s, half the age of their leader, the 59-year-old Brown. Brown left three of his recruits to guard their supplies and arms at the farmhouse in Maryland. The remaining 18 raiders, 13 whites and five blacks, marched with John Brown to Harpers Ferry.

Brown's small army arrived in Harpers Ferry at night and quickly secured the federal armory and arsenal and later Hall's Rifle Works, which manufactured weapons for the national government. With the telegraph wires cut, Brown might have easily seized the weapons in the town, liberated slaves in the neighborhood, and then taken to the hills. Or he might have destroyed the armory and literally blown up the town.

Inexplicably, though, he remained in the armory, waiting for slaves to flock to his standard. They never came. Instead, townsmen and farmers surrounded the armory. These civilians were probably not strong enough to dislodge Brown, but they kept him pinned down. Although Brown tried to negotiate with the civilians, his emissaries, including his son Watson, were shot while under a white flag. By the morning of October 18, eight of Brown's men were dead or captured, and that same day militia from Virginia and Maryland arrived. President James Buchanan had dispatched U.S. marines and soldiers to Harpers Ferry, with Brevet Colonel Lee in command. Directly under Lee was another Virginian, Lt. J.E.B. Stuart.

That morning, marines stormed the engine house of the armory, capturing Brown and a few of his raiders and killing the rest. By the end of the raid, of the 22 who had been involved in the plot, 10 of Brown's men, including his sons Watson and Oliver, were dead or mortally wounded; five, including Brown, had been captured. Seven escaped, but two were later captured in Pennsylvania and returned to Virginia for trial and execution. The other five, including Brown's son Owen, made their way to safe havens in Canada and remote parts of the North. All but Owen Brown later served in the Union Army.

Brown's grave at his family farm in North Elba, New York, became a pilgrimage site. (Library of Congress)

Brown's capture on October 18 set the stage for his trial and execution. Severely wounded, Brown had to be carried into court on October 25 for a preliminary hearing and on October 27 for his trial. The judge would not even delay the proceedings a day to allow Brown's lawyer to arrive. The trial was speedy. On November 2 Brown was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed on December 2, and on December 8 he was buried at the family farm in North Elba, near Lake Placid. Many Northerners interpreted the hasty actions of the Virginia authorities in trying and executing Brown as another example of Southern injustice. The apparent lack of due process in his trial thus contributed to the Northern perception that Brown was a martyr. The most absurd aspect of the trial was the charge against Brown. He was indicted and convicted of "treason" against the state of Virginia. But as Brown pointed out, he had never lived in Virginia, never owed loyalty to the state, and therefore could not have committed treason against the state. Most Southerners, however, saw Virginia's actions as a properly swift response to the unspeakable acts of a dangerous man whose goal was to destroy their entire society.

By the time of his execution, the entire nation was fixated on this bearded man who spoke and looked like a biblical prophet and whose deeds thrilled—whether with fear or admiration or both—an entire generation.

Indicative of this fixation is a shared aspect in the otherwise divergent responses of Wendell Phillips and Edmund Ruffin—the great abolitionist orator and the fire-eating Virginia secessionist. In the year following the raid, each of them prominently carried and displayed a "John Brown pike" that Brown had ordered from the Connecticut foundry. For Phillips the pike symbolized the glory, and for Ruffin the horror, of a servile insurrection led by a resurrected Puritan willing to die to overthrow slavery.

Terrorist, Guerrilla Fighter, Revolutionary?

Brown's actions in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry were clearly violent. He killed people or at least supervised their death. But was he a terrorist? At neither place do his actions comport with what we know about modern terrorists.

The Harpers Ferry raid was his most famous act. Brown held Harpers Ferry from late Sunday night, October 16, until he was captured on the 18th. He was in possession of almost unlimited amounts of gunpowder and weapons. He had captured prominent citizens, most famously Colonel Washington. He stopped a train full of passengers and freight.

What would modern terrorists have done in such circumstances? They might have let the train go, only after they had robbed all the passengers to fund further acts of terror, and then blown up the bridge as the train crossed from Virginia to Maryland. They might have planted explosives on the train and let it proceed, as terrorists did in Spain a few years ago. What did Brown do? He boarded the train, let people know who he was, and was seen by people who might later have identified him. Then he let the train continue on to Washington. These were not the actions of a terrorist.

While in Harpers Ferry, Brown might have blown up the federal armory (or indeed most of the town) after taking as much powder and weapons as his men could carry. He might have broken into homes of prominent people and slaughtered them. Brown did none of these things. He waited, foolishly for sure, for the slaves in the area to flock to him. He was caught in a firefight with local citizens, and he was captured by the U.S. forces. He proved to be a disastrous military leader and a failed "captain" of his brave and idealistic troops. But he never acted like a terrorist. He ordered no killings; he did not wantonly destroy property; and he cared for his hostages. This is simply not how terrorists act.

The events at Kansas are similar. Brown targeted a number of individuals who had been leading—violently leading—proslavery forces in the area.

At the home of James Doyle, the raiders did not kill his 16-year-old son or his wife, Mahala, even though both could have identified Brown and his men. Brown's men killed Allen Wilkinson, but not his wife, Louisa, who recognized one of Brown's sons from his voice. Mrs. Wilkinson was ill at the time, and after killing her husband, Brown asked her if there would be neighbors who could help care for her.

Surely, as Robert McGlone notes, it might seem "bizarre" that Brown was concerned about her health after he had just killed her husband. But her husband was guilty of attacking free state men and threatening the Browns, and so he was (in John Brown's mind) justly executed. But his wife was innocent and not punished. This was not the behavior of a terrorist.

Kansas—Bleeding Kansas as it is known—was in the midst of a civil war. Between 1855 and 1860 about 200 men would be killed in Kansas. Not all were politically motivated, and historians disagree on what constitutes a "political" killing. But even the most conservative scholar of this violence finds 56 killings that were tied to slavery and politics. I think this number is low, and that most of the 200 deaths were actually politically motivated and tied to slavery and Bleeding Kansas. But the actual number of political killings is less important than the understanding that in Kansas there was a violent civil war being fought over slavery; men on both sides were killed. Brown's actions are most famous because there were five killings, and he strategically used swords, rather than guns, which would have alerted neighbors. This is the nature of guerrilla warfare. It is brutal and bloody, but it is not terrorism.

There is also a political context. In Kansas there was no democratic government. Elections were notoriously fraudulent and violent. The majority of the settlers were from the free states, but the national government recognized a minority government that was proslavery. That legislature made it a crime to publicly oppose slavery. There was, at least under the formal law, no free speech in Kansas for abolitionists. This was also true in Virginia, when John Brown raided Harpers Ferry. He could not have gone to Virginia to denounce slavery or even urge Virginians to give up slavery. Thus, in this sense Brown was not fighting against democratic institutions in a free society; rather he was fighting against an unfree society that denied him basic civil liberties and, in Kansas, even the right to have a fair election.

Remembering, Honoring, John Brown

So, what in the end can we make of John Brown? If he was not a terrorist—what was he? He might be seen as revolutionary, trying to start a revolution to end slavery and fulfill the goals of the Declaration of Independence. As proslavery border ruffians tried to prevent democracy in Kansas, and were willing to murder and assault supporters of freedom, John Brown surely had a right to defend his settlement and his side. Brown did not carefully plan the Pottawatomie raid the way Terry Nicholas and Timothy McVeigh planned the Oklahoma City bombing. He reacted to specific threats and the sacking of Lawrence by a proslavery mob. This was not terrorism, but a fact of warfare in Bleeding Kansas. Nevertheless, modern Americans are uncomfortable endorsing his vengeful violence in Kansas, however necessary it may have been.

Similarly, no one, not even the slaveholders, could deny that slaves might legitimately fight for their own liberty. If slaves could fight for their liberty, then surely a white man like Brown was not morally wrong for joining in the fight against bondage. Thus Harpers Ferry is in the end a blow for freedom, against slavery. Who can deny the legitimacy of such a venture, however foolish, poorly designed, and incompetently implemented? But in a society of democratic traditions, Americans recoil at the idea of violent revolution and raids on government armories, even when, as was the case in Virginia in 1859, democracy was something of a sham, and there was neither free speech nor free political institutions.

In the end, we properly view Brown with mixed emotions: admiring him for his dedication to the cause of human freedom, marveling at his willingness to die for the liberty of others, yet uncertain about his methods, and certainly troubled by his incompetent tactics at Harpers Ferry.

Perhaps we end up accepting the argument of the abolitionist lawyer and later governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, who declared "whether the enterprise of John Brown and his associates in Virginia was wise or foolish, right or wrong; I only know that, whether the enterprise itself was the one or the other, John Brown himself is right."

Paul Finkelman received his B.A. from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. He is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School. He is the author or editor of more than 25 books and over 150 scholarly articles. His legal history scholarship has been cited by numerous courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Note on Sources

The very best discussion of Brown in Kansas is found in Robert E. McGlone, John Brown's War Against Slavery (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

The quotation from Brown's speech in court is from Life and Letters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia, ed. Franklin B. Sanborn (1885), p. 585. Quotations of Frederick Douglass and Brown are from Stephen B. Oates, To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown, 2nd ed. (Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1984), p. 335. For more on Brown's self-created martyrdom, see Paul Finkelman, His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1995), pp. 41–66.

For the conservative estimate of the number of political killings in Kansas, see Dale E. Watts, "How Bloody was Bleeding Kansas? Political Killings in the Kansas Territory, 1854–1861," Kansas History, 18 (1995): 116–129.

John Andrew's declaration that "John Brown himself is right" is quoted in Owald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800–1859: A Biography Fifty Years Later (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1943), p. 557.  

(1800-1859)

Who Was John Brown?

John Brown was born in a Calvinist household and would go on to have a large family of his own. Facing much financial difficulty throughout his life, he was also an ardent abolitionist who worked with the Underground Railroad and the League of Gileadites, among other endeavors. He believed in using violent means to end slavery and, with the intent of inspiring a slave insurrection, eventually led an unsuccessful raid on the Harpers Ferry federal armory. Brown went to trial and was executed on December 2, 1859.

John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, to Ruth Mills and Owen Brown. Owen, who was a Calvinist and worked as a tanner, ardently believed that slavery was wrong. As a 12-year-old boy traveling through Michigan, Brown witnessed an enslaved African American boy being beaten, which haunted him for years to come and informed his own abolitionism.

Though the younger Brown initially studied to work in the ministry, he instead decided to take up his father's trade. Brown wed Dianthe Lusk in 1820, and the couple had several children before her death in the early 1830s. He remarried in 1833, and he and wife Mary Ann Day would have many more children.

Ardent Abolitionist

Brown worked in a number of vocations and moved around quite a bit from the 1820s to the 1850s, experiencing great financial difficulties. Brown also took part in the Underground Railroad, gave land to free African Americans and eventually established the League of Gileadites, a group formed with the intention of protecting Black citizens from slave hunters.

In 1855, Brown moved to Kansas, where five of his sons had relocated as well. With the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, there was conflict over whether the territory would be a free or slave state. Brown, who believed in using violent means to end slavery, became involved in the conflict; in 1856, he and several of his men killed five pro-slavery settlers in a retaliatory attack at Pottawatomie Creek.

Harpers Ferry Attack

In 1858, Brown liberated a group of enslaved people from a Missouri homestead and helped guide them to freedom in Canada. It was also in Canada that Brown spoke of plans to form a free Black community in the mountains of Maryland and Virginia.

On the evening of October 16, 1859, Brown led 21 men on a raid of the federal armory of Harpers Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia), holding dozens of men hostage with the plan of inspiring a slave insurrection. Brown's forces held out for two days; they were eventually defeated by military forces led by Robert E. Lee . Many of Brown's men were killed, including two of his sons, and he was captured. Brown's case went to trial quickly, and on November 2 he was sentenced to death.

In a speech to the court before his sentencing, Brown stated his actions to be just and God-sanctioned. Debate ensued over how Brown should be viewed, deepening the divide between North and South and having profound implications for the direction of the country. Several of his colleagues also petitioned that the courts should look at Brown's questionable mental state when it came to his actions. Brown was executed on December 2, 1859.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: John Brown
• Birth Year: 1800
• Birth date: May 9, 1800
• Birth State: Connecticut
• Birth City: Torrington
• Birth Country: United States
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: John Brown was a 19th-century militant abolitionist known for his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859.
• U.S. Politics
• Astrological Sign: Taurus
• Death Year: 1859
• Death date: December 2, 1859
• Death State: West Virginia
• Death City: Charles Town
• Death Country: United States

We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us !

CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: John Brown Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/activists/john-brown
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: April 19, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
• ...I believe to have interfered as I have done...in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right.

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History Resources

Who Was John Brown?

By fred freitas.

"Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic." —Frederick Douglass

The late 1840s and the 1850s were a turbulent and complex time in American history as the country ground inexorably toward civil war. Abolitionist and pro-slavery positions hardened both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line as events built toward a bloody confrontation. John Brown would be a catalyst that triggered the violent reaction. As he wrote just before his execution: "I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done." As David W. Blight says in his review of David S. Reynolds’s book John Brown, Abolitionist , "John Brown did not make it easy for people to love him - until he died on the gallows. Perhaps no other figure in American experience straddles the blurred line between myth and history, legend and reality, quite like the domineering, violent, Calvinist abolitionist who attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859 and provided, in a way, the Pearl Harbor of the Civil War." "The Good Terrorist." Washington Post (4/24/05), p. TO1.

This lesson introduces middle school students to John Brown and attempts to separate history from myth and the man from the legend.  

Aim/Essential Question

Who was John Brown and what was his role in triggering the Civil War?  

This lesson should follow homework assignments and classroom discussions on the causes of the Civil War and events that led to the war.

• Lyrics and music for "John Brown’s Body"
• Extended Timeline Activity Sheet  (Word document)
• "Historic Character I Am" Poem - John Brown  (Word document)
• "The Road to War" by Chandra Manning, Gilder Lehrman Institute
• Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court , University of Missouri, Kansas City
• Semi-Annual Report of VMI [Virginia Military Institute] Superintendent Francis H. Smith Submitted to the Governor, 1860 January 16 , Virginia Military Institute
• John T. L. Preston letter to his wife describing John Brown’s execution, December 2, 1859 , Virginia Military Institute
• Letter from John Brown to his son, Owen , Gilder Lehrman Collection
• Newspaper articles printed at the time of the Harpers Ferry raid , Furman University
• "What Shall the South Do?" Wilmington, North Carolina, Daily Herald . December 5, 1859 , Furman University
• "Address" [excerpt from sermon] by J. Sella Martin, December 2, 1859 , George Mason University
• "The Fatal Friday" Chicago (Ill.) Press and Tribune , December 2, 1859 , Furman University
• Students will review the immediate causes of the Civil War.
• Students will analyze documents about John Brown from multiple perspectives of various people from America’s past.
• Students will assess John Brown’s role in this period of American history.

Choose one of the following activities:

• How does Frederick Douglass respond to the question he raised?
• Do you agree or disagree with him? Why?
• What is the song about?
• What details about John Brown does the song provide?
• Ask the students to record their responses in their journals.

Extended Timeline Activity (activity used with permission of Nancy Taylor): Children can learn a great deal by bringing a timeline to life. This activity can help them take ownership of the historical material they are studying, make relationships between facts and ideas, think critically, and develop empathy. Bringing a timeline to life can be accomplished by having the children play roles and use first-person narratives. The teacher may do this by using dates, facts and quotes. A student narrator reads the assigned facts from the timeline while the other students stand along the timeline or go up to it when it is their turn to speak. When a student hears a fact from the timeline that fits the quotes or facts that he or she has gathered, the student reads that material to the group. If time permits, the children can script their own dialogue to fit the facts on the timeline.

• On one classroom wall create a large timeline extending from 1760 to 1860.
• Cut out the dates and events from the Extended Timeline Activity Sheet and distribute randomly to students.
• Ask students to convert their events into first-person accounts. For example, a student might be given: "1800: John Brown is born in Torrington, Connecticut. Owen, his father, hated slavery and believed holding humans in bondage was a sin against God." The student might convert this to: "Today my son John was born. I hope and pray to God that he will grow up in a country where there will be no slaves."
• When all students are ready, the student narrator reads the first event and description. This is followed by the first student walking to the timeline and reading his or her first-person account. Continue until all events are finished.

Divide your class into mixed-ability groups of four. Provide each group with the essay "The Road to War" by Chandra Manning.

Each group reads and discusses the article. On a large sheet of poster paper, a recorder lists the main points of the article. The teacher then conducts a whole-class discussion of the article, recording each group’s responses on the blackboard. Groups should add any new facts to their lists.

Divide your class into eight groups. Provide each group with one of the eight primary source documents listed and a document-analysis sheet. This analysis sheet may be one that your school uses or you may use the National Archives Written Document-Analysis sheet. Each group reads its document, completes a document-analysis sheet, and gives an oral presentation of its findings to the whole class. Whole-class discussion should focus on the different perspectives on John Brown that were revealed in the document analyses.

Assessment: Write and share with the class a "Historic Character I Am" Poem - John Brown. (See "Historic Character I Am" Poem - John Brown sheet.)

Summary Questions

• Why is knowing about John Brown and the opposing views about him important in understanding the events leading to the Civil War?
• Respond to this question and explain your answer: Did the Civil War bring about the equality between races that John Brown gave his life for?

Extension Activities

• You have been chosen to design and create a new monument dedicated to abolitionism and John Brown. What will you design? How will you portray John Brown—as a hero or villain? What symbols will you use? Remember you must be historically accurate—meaning you must include only events that happened.
• You are either the chief prosecutor or chief defense attorney at John Brown’s trial. Prepare your closing statement to the jury.
• Interested students who wish to explore more about John Brown online can visit the following websites:
• John Brown's Holy War , PBS
• The Raid on Harper's Ferry , PBS
• Nineteenth Century Documents Project , Furman University

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John Brown: Hero or Villain? DBQ

Use this Lesson alon

Lesson Objectives:

• Students will be able to evaluate the impact of John Brown’s approach to the abolition of slavery by examining primary sources to determine whether he was a hero or a villain.
• Students will be able to apply elements of the arguments over John Brown to modern-day controversies.

Expand Materials Materials

• Handout A: John Brown Background Essay and Timeline
• Handout B: Student Document Handout
• Handout C: DBQ Document Organizer

Expand More Information More Information

For additional study, see Paul Finkelman, “John Brown: America’s First Terrorist?”  Prologue Magazine , 43 no. 1 (2011):16–27.

Expand Warmup Warmup

Begin by walking students through Handout A: John Brown Background Essay and Timeline and accompanying discussion question. Distribute Handout B: Student Document Handout.

Expand Activities Activities

Guided by the  Key Question , students analyze the documents alone, with a partner, or in small groups, as best suits the teacher’s classroom.

Key Question: John Brown sought to destroy slavery. In the methods he chose to carry out this goal, was he a hero or a villain?

Students synthesize the documents by working in small groups to fill in  Handout C: DBQ Document Organizer  and then draft a thesis in response to the  Key Question . Depending on time available for this lesson, the teacher may also require students to develop an outline, and/or a rough draft of the essay individually or in small groups.

Expand Wrap Up Wrap Up

The teacher may assess student work using methods such as:

• Peer review of thesis/outline/essay
• Reflection on thesis/outline/essay
• Self-grading or teacher assessment with  DBQ rubric  from the College Board

Related Resources

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

Was John Brown a Terrorist?

John Copeland and Lewis Leary were the last two men to join John Brown’s small band gathering on a Kentucky farm in October 1859. Both free Blacks, they arrived just one day before Brown launched his raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Copeland and Leary were natives of North Carolina, related by marriage, who moved to Oberlin, Ohio, a town founded around a college in 1833 that became a haven for abolitionists by the 1850s. They met Brown in 1858 and decided at the last minute to join his ill-fated effort to seize weapons at the arsenal and distribute them to enslaved persons he hoped to recruit from nearby plantations. Leary suffered a fatal gunshot during the raid, and Copeland, who insisted that he was merely doing what George Washington had done during the American Revolution — fighting for his freedom — was hanged two months to the day after the raid.  

Blacks began attending Oberlin College in 1835 following an influx of students from Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati who struck a unique bargain with the financially struggling college in 1834. These “Lane Rebels” left Cincinnati after Lane’s trustees banned anti-slavery activities on campus. They agreed to enroll at a newly formed theological school at Oberlin on three conditions: One, the board would respect students’ freedom of speech. Two, the college would not interfere with the theological school’s administration, and third, Oberlin would accept Black students. In 1835, Oberlin fulfilled that  last commitment by admitting two students of color, Gideon Quarles and Charles Henry Langston. 

Oberlin served as a station on the Underground Railroad. Local abolitionists took advantage of state legislation protecting those accused of being fugitive enslaved persons until a newly elected Democratic state legislature repealed a law granting fugitives the right to seek a writ of habeas corpus in Ohio courts. When John Price, a fugitive enslaved person, was arrested in September of 1858 and held in a Wellington, Ohio jail, a sizable bi-racial group of students and Oberlin townspeople seized Price and smuggled him to freedom. President James Buchanan insisted that the perpetrators of the jailbreak be prosecuted. Although 37 people were indicted, Charles Henry Langston was one of only two men tried for aiding Price’s escape. Langston was convicted but received a light sentence when the judge responded emotionally to Langston’s arguments about the injustice of slavery. It is unknown — likely unknowable — why Leary and Copeland decided to join Brown’s ill-fated mission in Virginia; but perhaps it was the successful rescue of John Price that inspired them. 

For over 15 years, I have been a member of a history book club — affectionately known to its members as the Hysterical Book Club. Members rotate selecting a book and hosting a monthly dinner/discussion. Last month’s selection was Tony Horowitz’s Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War . Horowitz, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who died in 2019, was a skilled storyteller who knew how to leave his readers shaking their heads at the “too good to be true” stories woven throughout American history. He concludes Midnight Rising with that kind of tale. Lewis Leary, the free Black man from North Carolina who joined Brown at the last minute, left his home, wife and infant daughter in Oberlin without telling his wife where he was going. Upon learning of his death, supporters of Brown raised some money to provide support for Lewis’s widow Mary, who later married Charles Henry Langston. The couple moved to Kansas, where Mary raised her grandson. She took the boy to Osawatomie, KN , where Brown and several of his sons slaughtered a group of pro-slavery settlers and fought unsuccessfully to protect the town from being burned by pro-slavery forces..  She told him the tale of John Brown in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry, showing him a bullet-riddled shawl she said her first husband had worn during the raid. The boy, named for his grandfather, became one of the most gifted American poets of the twentieth century, Langston Hughes. His ode to the Brown Raid, “October the 16” begins: 

You will remember

Chapter 14 in T eaching American History’s Documents and Debates in American History and Government, vol. 1, 1493-1865 , asks American history students to consider how John Brown should be remembered. Indeed, the chapter’s first Discussion Question asks: Was John Brown a martyr, a madman, or both? It is perhaps an unanswerable question — one destined to be debated forever in book clubs and American history classrooms.  We debated it in my history book club, and our only conclusion was that it might help students reach a conclusion to separate the question into two questions. First, was he a terrorist in Kansas when he dragged pro-slavery settlers from their beds and killed them with broadswords—yet not a terrorist in Harpers Ferry, because he was fighting for the liberation of an oppressed people? Second, did he achieve martyrdom by his efforts to free enslaved people and   dying for the cause? Or, by embracing violence as a tactic of abolitionism, did he cross an imaginary line dividing noble cause and terrorism? 

The documents in this chapter, John Brown’s Raid , cleverly engage students in the timeless question—Do the ends justify the means? They include a fascinating correspondence between abolitionist Lydia Maria Child and pro-slavery Governor Henry Wise of Virginia; opposing assessments of Brown by Horace Greeley and Frederick Douglass; and the lyrics of John Brown’s body — a testimony to his martrydom.  Document E, an excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address in 1860, helps students appreciate context. Did Lincoln structure his remarks at Cooper Union to protect his chance to win  the Republican nomination for President? 

Documents in this chapter include:

A. Lydia Maria Child, Governor Henry Wise of Virginia, and John Brown, Correspondence, October 1859

B. D. H. Strother, A Southern Planter Arming His Slaves to Resist Invasion, November 19, 1859

C. Horace Greeley, “The Whole Affair Seems the Work of a Madman,” October 19, 1859

D. Frederick Douglass, “John Brown Not Insane,” November 1859

E. Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union Address, February 27, 1860

F. William W. Patton, Lyrics to John Brown’s Body, December 16, 1861

We have also provided audio recordings of the chapter’s Introduction, Documents, and Study Questions . These recordings support literacy development for struggling readers and the comprehension of challenging text for all students.

Teaching American History’s We the Teachers blog will feature chapters from our two-volume Documents and Debates with their accompanying audio recordings each month until recordings of all 29 chapters are completed in August of 2021. In today’s post, we feature Volume I , Chapter 14: John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry.  On July 27, we will highlight Chapter 28: Carter and Reagan Respond to an Economic Crisis , from Volume II of Documents and Debates in American History . We invite you to follow this blog closely, so you can take advantage of this new feature as each recording becomes available.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Historical Figures — John Brown

Essays on John Brown

John brown essay topics for college students.

As a college student, choosing the right essay topic is crucial. It not only sets the tone for your entire paper but also allows you to explore your creativity and personal interests. This page aims to provide you with a variety of essay topics related to John Brown, ensuring that you find the perfect topic for your next assignment.

Essay Types and Topics

Argumentative essay topics.

• The impact of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
• The role of violence in John Brown's abolitionist activities
• John Brown's legacy and its relevance in modern society

Paragraph Example:

An argumentative essay on John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry must carefully examine the historical context and the impact of this event on the abolitionist movement. As such, it is important to consider the various perspectives and debates surrounding this pivotal moment in American history. This essay seeks to provide a balanced analysis of the raid and its implications.

It is evident that John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry ignited intense debates about the moral and ethical implications of using violence to achieve social change. While opinions on Brown's actions remain divided, it is undeniable that his legacy continues to inspire discussions about the nature of activism and the pursuit of justice.

Compare and Contrast Essay Topics

• John Brown and Frederick Douglass: A comparative analysis
• The impact of John Brown's actions compared to other abolitionists
• John Brown's ideology versus other prominent figures in the abolitionist movement

Descriptive Essay Topics

• A day in the life of John Brown
• The landscapes and settings associated with John Brown's activities
• The emotional impact of John Brown's legacy on local communities

Persuasive Essay Topics

• Why John Brown should be celebrated as a hero
• The relevance of John Brown's principles in contemporary social justice movements
• Challenging misconceptions about John Brown's character and motivations

Narrative Essay Topics

• An eyewitness account of John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry
• A fictional retelling of John Brown's life from the perspective of a supporter
• The impact of John Brown's legacy on future generations

Engagement and Creativity

When selecting an essay topic, consider your personal interests and the aspects of John Brown's life and impact that intrigue you the most. By choosing a topic that resonates with you, you can engage more deeply with the subject matter and produce a more compelling essay.

Educational Value

Each essay type offers unique opportunities for developing critical thinking and writing skills. Argumentative essays encourage you to analyze historical events and engage in persuasive writing, while descriptive essays allow you to hone your descriptive abilities. Compare and contrast essays help you develop analytical thinking, and narrative essays enable you to explore storytelling techniques and personal reflection.

John Brown Hero

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Discussion on Whether John Brown Was a Terrorist

The life of john brown and his role in the anti-slavery movement, john brown – a slavery abolitionist with terrorist methods, john brown: the battle between martyr and madman, let us write you an essay from scratch.

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Review of a Plea for John Brown by Henry David Thoreau

The life of john brown and his impact on civil rights movement, john brown's life and fight against slavery.

May 9, 1800

December 2, 1859 (aged 59)

Involvement in Bleeding Kansas; Raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia

Abolitionism

Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. At young age, Brown witnessed an enslaved African American boy being beaten, that moment created his own abolitionism. Brown experienced great financial difficulties from the 1820s to the 1850s.

Brown established the League of Gileadites, a group for protecting Black citizens from slave hunters. Brown believed in using violent means to end slavery. In 1856, became involved in the conflict, known as Pottawatomie massacre.

In 1858, Brown liberated a group of enslaved people from a Missouri. By early 1859, Brown was leading raids to free enslaved people. In 1859, Brown led 21 men on a raid of the federal armory of Harpers Ferry in Virginia, but they were defeated by military forces led by Robert E. Lee. Brown was captured, and on November 2 he was sentenced to death.

Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, at the age of 59.

Six years after Brown’s death, slavery ultimately came to an end in the United States in 1865. Brown’s action helped to hasten the war that would bring emancipation.

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John Brown: Terrorist or Freedom Fighter

Introduction, evidence of terrorism, evidence of freedom fighting, mcpherson’s opinion, most convincing arguments.

John Brown was an abolitionist who chose to liberate slaves by force. His actions were extremely controversial, and to this day, they can spark a debate about their righteousness. James McPherson describes this conflict of perception in his essay Escape and Revolt in Black and White . This paper will examine the presented evidence for Brown being a terrorist and a freedom fighter, as well as how McPherson and I view John Brown.

McPherson states that the image of Brown as a Terrorist became most prevalent in the south of the country (37). For example, he presents Robert Penn Warren’s biography of Brown titled “John Brown: The Making of a Martyr.” Warren was a prominent southern writer, and his views on Brown were very negative. He wrote that Brown’s war was only a reason to steal money and property from people of the American South (McPherson 37).

According to a modern expert on criminal justice, James Gilbert, the actions of John Brown, can be considered terrorism due to their unlawful nature and use of violence (McPherson 38).

In response to the opinion that John Brown was a terrorist, a more complex line of thinking emerges. Vice President’s Task Force on Combating Terrorism presented an argument that not only Brown’s actions would be considered terrorism under the law of the time but so would the actions of Robert E. Lee because both men used violence to fulfill their ambitions. Both saw their own actions as just and not unlawful (McPherson 39). This argument leaves only the ideas they fought for as the differentiating factor between their violence, and Brown’s ideas were much more akin to freedom fighting, rather than terrorism. Brown used violence against a violent and inhuman regime. This, by all accounts, is considered heroic in most cultures.

McPherson devotes the majority of the essay to examine the events of John Brown’s actions, as well as both sides of the arguments around him. However, he does not openly write about his feelings on this question. It is possible to assume that McPherson sees Brown as a freedom fighter because he chooses to end the essay on a relatively positive note about him. His final quotes come from an admirer of Brown, and the essay ends with only a few neutral sentences (McPherson 39).

I found the arguments presented by David Reynolds to be the most convincing. He is quoted as saying that Brown was a “terrorist for freedom” (McPherson 39), which I find to be a very accurate description of a freedom fighter. Brown’s actions were clearly violent in nature, but its goals were undoubtedly just in their nature. Slavery is not a morally defensible institution. No action in support of it can be seen as a positive, even if it became a tradition in the area. Therefore, I find Brown to be a freedom fighter, similar to those who opposed the Nazi regime in occupied territories during World War II. It is likely that they would also be labeled as “terrorists” by the unjust and cruel Nazi regime.

John Brown is a controversial figure, but perhaps he should not be. The men that he killed were diehard supporters of slavery, and even in the 1800s, their actions were considered barbaric by a large part of the world. McPherson’s essay presents the idea that despite the violence he used, it could be seen as an act of freedom fighting against a regime of bondage and indignity.

McPherson, James M. This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War . Oxford University Press, 2009.

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John Brown: Hero or Villian: Persuasive Hooks

• Writing Guide

Persuasive Hooks

• Notes for Reading Selections
• Citing in your writing
• NoodleTools
• "What John Brown Did In Kansas"
• The Pottawatomie Killings
• Affidavits regarding the Pottawatomie Massacre
• John Brown's Speech to the Court at his Trial

Database To Search John Brown

This site will have great information for you on John Brown. Chose the American History Database. Search John Brown in the Search Box.  

• PDF of Persuasive Hooks

A good hook for a persuasive essay would have a great and deep impact on the reader’s mind. In the first few sentences use some facts, statistics, definition or an anecdote so that the writing seems interesting to the reader and he is compelled to continue reading your article. In the rest of the article add supporting details as well as outline the arguments for the remaining part of the essay.

Quote from famous literature/other source

Rhetorical question

Interesting statistics

Humorous or philosophical musing

Attention-Grabbing statement

Credit: http://hooksforessays.com/persuasive-essay-hooks/

Interesting Statistic This is something that people would likely not know and makes them want to read on to find out why.

a.       The pentagon has twice as many bathrooms as are necessary (Source to follow here).

a.       My mother always said, “The ultimate responsibility always lies within you, and the opportunities are the ones you create.”

b.      John F. Kennedy once said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” (If the quote is widely known, you do not have to include the source.)

c.       Quotation: Hillary Rodham Clinton once said that “There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard” (Source to follow here).

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