John Brown Freedom Fighter

On October 16, 1859 John Brown led a group of men to Harper’s Ferry, Virginia and raided the Federal arsenal. Brown wanted to create an army of African-Americans that would in the end help release black slaves in the Southern states. Brown and his men manage to capture the arsenal but the town people of Harper’s Ferry surrounded the buildings and trapped Brown and his men. Brown had intended to steal the government’s weapons and start a rebellion on slavery in the south. Brown’s attempt to start an abolitionist movement caused the Southerners to believe that the North was in favor of the movement and helped start the Civil War between the North and

Is John Brown a hero or a murderer? While growing up in an ideal Christian family his parents, Owen and Ruth Mills Brown, raised their children of eight to obey the teachings of the Bible. The Browns would teach the importance of treating colored men with respect and to treat them just like regular people. As John Brown father was a known abolitionist during his time, he would follow into his father’s footsteps and become the man that the world knows today. Many believe that John Brown being how he was raised was brainwashed into becoming a strict believer of equality for all men or that religion was a cover up for being a mass murderer. Historians like Robert E. McGlone would even question was John Brown truly acting on his own will or was

Some believed that John Brown was a maniac more than a martyr, but history proves that he was more of a martyr. John Brown believed that all men should be considered equal and have the right to freedom. Beginning in his early childhood and all the way though his life, he had a passion to abolish slavery. Learning from a young age, that all men should have the right to freedom and equality, started a fire inside of John Brown. This was a burning passion to help free slaves and make the world a better place.

John Brown was very similar to Nat Turner they both believed that they were chosen by god to lead slaves into freedom and if that required a fight then that was what they had to do. John Brown had a goal and that was to abolish slavery throughout the united states. The trouble in Kansas began when the Nebraska Act was signed by President Pierce, this act engaged that people make a determination on whether Kansas territory should be free or slave. In hopes that Kansas would become free of slaves, the opposing side which was named Border Ruffians invaded their territory and forced the pro-slavery election. After John heard about the fear of Kansas becoming a slave state and after also hearing that the Border Ruffians ransacked the town of Lawrence

John Brown was a man who lived in the mid eighteen-hundreds and who fought against the evil of slavery. He had a very strong belief that slavery was unjust, and this is true, but he thought that in order to abolish slavery, violence would be the best method. That’s where he went wrong. John Brown led two attacks on slave owners and those who supported slavery, the first at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas on May 24th, 1856, and the second at Harper Ferry, Virginia on October 16th, 1859. At Pottawatomie Creek, joined by seven others, Brown brutally hacked to death five men with sabers. These men supported slavery but weren’t even slave owners themselves. On October 16th, 1859, Brown led 21 men on another raid on Harpers Ferry attempting to

John Brown's actions at Pottawatomie Creek and Harper's Ferry can be seen as acts of terrorism by a person or peoples opinion, but a closer study of modern and historic violent actions show he was a freedom fighter. Certainly, this is factual because there is no actual definition of terrorism, it is simply an opinion on someone's actions. Therefore, it is almost irrelevant for one be convicted a terrorist if no one can actually have a justified reasoning behind their choices.

John Brown was a misguided fanatic. He was admired by many abolitionists for standing up for the rights. However, was seen outrageous in the eyes of many Southerners. He has went far beyond outrageous and carried out a killing spree in order to prove slavery was wrong. He had a plan, however stirred in a lot of problems along with it gained him the name a “misguided fanatic”.

John Brown’s beliefs about slavery and activities to destroy it hardly represented the mainstream of northern society in the years leading up to the Civil War. This rather unique man, however, took a leading role in propelling the nation toward secession and conflict. Many events influenced Brown’s views on slavery from an early age. When he was older, his strong anti-slavery feelings had grown, and he became an extreme abolitionist. His raid on Harpers Ferry was one of the first monumental events leading up to the civil war.

Brown's attack on Harper's Ferry affected American culture more than can ever be understood. Tension between the North and South was building in the 1850's. Slavery among many other things was dividing the country into two sections. Brown was executed on December 2, 1859 for his murderous out-lash on society. Was his mind so twisted and demented that he would commit cold-blooded murder? The answer is no. John Brown was a man with a goal and a purpose. When he said that abolition could not be achieved without blood he was right. It is one of histories great ironies; John Brown's struggle preceded the Civil War by only 17 months. Thousands of people were killed in the Civil War, yet John Brown

John Brown’s beliefs about slavery and activities to destroy it hardly represented the mainstream of northern society in the years leading up to the Civil War. This rather unique man, however, has become central to an understanding and in some cases misunderstandings about the origins of the Civil War. The importance of Brown’s mission against slavery was colossal to accelerating the civil war between the North and the South. His raid on Harpers Ferry in1859 divided the United States like nothing else before, and could have been the main event leading to the Civil War.

In fact, Hammond states that, “some would call him a tragic hero, flawed only in his insistence on purity in thought and action coupled with a mystical detachment from the political realities oh his day.” (591) Hammond views Brown as a hero in which he fought for his beliefs and acted on the highest principles which were expressed by the founders of the American nation. Hammond rationalizes Brown’s inhumane actions of violence with moral and religious conviction. Therefore, in his analysis, Hammond insists that Brown’s commitment to higher political and moral goals conformed to the basic principles of human freedom and political and legal equality. However, Brown easily could have fought for his beliefs without invoking fear and terror. Even though Brown may have had good intentions regarding the abolishment of slavery, his good intentions did not lead to good actions. Therefore, Gilbert effectively proves in his analysis that Brown perfectly fits the definition of an irrational terrorist as his violent actions conform to a modern definition of

John Brown who led the Raid on Harpers Ferry, was also a part of the Pottawatomie Massacre that occurred in 1856 in Kansas which led to the death of five men who were pro-slavery. On January 16, 1859 John Brown along with eighteen other people captured the arsenal of Harpers Ferry and pushed out to get the slaves to rise up, but the rising of slaves didn’t happen. Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee and J.E.B Stuart and soldiers arrived the next day to surround the place, which left Brown and his men cornered. Brown was asked to give up and just surrender, which he didn’t. So, when Brown refused to do so and the standoff went on, in the end some of Browns men ended up dead and a soldier was killed. In two days Browns raid was over, the same raid that Fredrick Douglass said was not going to go well and should be left alone. Abraham Lincoln spoke on the raid after, expressing his opinion of it as being ridiculous. Northerners at first disapproved of John Brown actions, but then they began to respect what John Brown did and started to see him as hero. John Brown was set on trial and was hung. The South was angered when others say Brown as an hero, and the Baltimore Sun published saying the South, “could not live under a government, the majority of whose subjects or citizens regard John Brown as a martyr and a Christian hero, rather than a murderer and a robber” (“Political Origins of The Civil War”) John Brown raid helped bring the South to seceding, but it was not the major fact that pushed the States, even though it did play a role. “The straw that broke the camel’s back,” so to speak, was the election of President Abraham Lincoln. (“Unit IV: Crumbling Loyalties and Dividing the

However, this was all part of his plan to try and stop slavery. He tried to free slaves and kill their owners every time he had the chance, and build an army along the way. This didn’t work out because there was no one to back him up. This caused John Brown to be captured and executed

It is very clear that some of John Brown’s views on slavery were different from those of mainstream Abolitionists, however they both had the same fundamental ideas. John Brown wanted, more than anything, the slaves to be freed and was willing to die in efforts of making it so. Brown stated during trial that he, “never have had any design against the life of any person, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel.” I believe Brown when he claims that he didn’t want to have to use violence and that

John Brown was a white American born in the 1800s when the institution of slavery was entrenched. Since he was raised in a Christian Church and was near a significant amount of abolitionists, he was influenced to become a leader of the abolitionist movement. He regarded slavery as “an abominable sin against God” (Oates 20). Owing to the fact that he could not go against his spiritual beliefs, Brown did his utmost to stop it, inciting violence, riots, and revolts against the institution of slavery. For many of his fellow whites, he was no more than a traitor, and to the moderates, his actions were out of line. Although he was a passionate abolitionist, his approach to end slavery was debatable considering his acts portrayed him as both a hero and a terrorist. Brown