Terrorists, there are multiple different types. You can have terrorists that effect people, the environment, and more so now technological systems. A terrorist is a title that many people or groups of people receive easily from their extreme level of illegal acts. A man named John Brown got the title of a terrorist through many others opinions. Between the little actions he took and the big actions, he was seen as a terrorist. Though due to the complicated nature of terrorism, John Brown’s actions at Pottawatomie Creek and Harpers Ferry can more so be justified as an act of a pure freedom fighter.
Words like acceptable and forbidden have very obvious differences that would allow you to place something into one or the other. As for a terrorist
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Brown was raised in a Calvinist Christian home where his parents strongly disliked slavery. He was taught by his religion of only a right and a wrong and the wrong John Brown saw was slavery and the acts of the slave owners. It is obvious that not everyone shares the same religion in society and some times that can cause varied opinions on how a person is viewed. As John Brown grew older he had a sense of destiny or duty he had to perform in order to be suitable for the acceptance into Heaven. However, some say that he was made crazy by his dedication to the goal and that he was just like any other terrorist because of it. They saw John Brown as a reckless exception to the opinionated nation on anti and pro slavery, which was usual to them. Therefore that would give him an impression as a terrorist to the people because he was isolated to an extreme way of abolishing slavery that no one else dared to do. Nonetheless, if you clearly look at the surrounding events at that time, people who helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad did so said “extreme” acts that some didn’t dare to do either. Concluding that John Brown was only acting like others in his way for pleasing God not to scare others to change the …show more content…
Proving that John Brown was a freedom fighter is a difficult task, though there is another major factor other than fear that will support that claim. After John Brown was executed the realization of a solution towards ending slavery was right in the faces of the people because of John Brown. Even though his raid caused damage and fatalities that resulted in a traumatizing event, the people started to realize the type of action that needed to be done. A terrorist, by the definition of one who thrives to make change through fear, would not have died as openly as John Brown did. John Brown didn’t mind to die the day of his execution because, as said, he knew he made the impact on the people about what needed to be done. Whether or not they accepted it, the people finally saw the type of force that Brown had been trying to show others all along, and with that new sense of their position, the Civil War began. Some may argue that even though John Brown is said to have created the Civil War which stopped slavery, he still should be considered a terrorist for his history. Understanding the history of Brown’s actions, you can see that they were not the best way to help the slaves, but if John Brown didn’t do what he did or die how he did, would the War have even happened? Even if it did occur, it most likely would have taken longer for it to happen leading to more
Some may say that John Brown actually helped the gain of Lincoln’s presidency. His actions increased the Republican’s party’s chance of winning. Even after Lincoln was elected president, John Brown continued to shine. He managed to shake an image of insurrection in the minds of many of the South and North. In addition, he polarized the two dividing sections. Some saw Brown as a terrorist, whereas others saw him as a hero. His ideas where quarreled upon and talked about by many. With the Harper’s Ferry attack being the most prominent, his acts didn’t go away unnoticed. People, particularly in the North, began to see the big possibility of the North taking substantial measures to overthrow slavery. John Brown took abolitionism to higher degree that no other abolitionist took before. With his use of destructive protesting, a legitimate conclusion can be made that John Brown helped speed up the Civil War by wasting no time to take extreme action about abolishing slavery. If John Brown had not done his doings, the seriousness of slavery wouldn’t have been taken as quickly as it
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
Scott John Hammond convey a different transition in our American history, John Brown was fueled on freedom of religion and human race. According to the article John Brown: America's First Terrorist? , "For southerners, Brown was the embodiment of all their fears- a white man willing to die to end slavery. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness"(Finkelman). Folks from the North was well aware that Brown violent acts was the start of a revolution to end slavery and satisfy the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. On the other hand, the southerners differed his principle of "freedom" he was considered a threat to the union and a harm to society that need to be banished. Brown evaluated society according to the "laws
In “A Behavioral Analysis of John Brown: Martyr or Terrorist,” James N. Gilbert effectively argues that John Brown’s inhumane actions clearly conform to a modern definition of a domestic terrorist. Gilbert argues that Brown justified his inhumane actions by proclaiming adherence to high political and moral values. Gilbert is a professor and former chair of the department of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska-Kearney who specializes in criminal investigative theory. In fact, Gilbert authored Criminal Investigation, which is now it its eighth edition, as well as numerous journal articles. According to Gilbert, Brown lived during a time when both the political process and democratic values had been destroyed by slavery. Gilbert offers insight throughout his argument regarding Brown’s controversial actions as Brown was unalterably opposed to slavery. Overall, in his analysis, Gilbert successfully proves that Brown’s inhumane actions relate to a modern definition of a terrorist as Brown believed that terror and violence were the only ways to abolish slavery.
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 was a cold-blooded killer. Although John was trying to abolish slavery, violence was not the way to go. According to Robert E. Lee according to Robert E. Lee., John killed a lot of men. He killed 10 raiders, and captured 7. Although they were people who were for slavery, she should have never killed them. Martin Luther King didn't like slavery either but he found another way to stop it and that was by his protesting not killing. According to Fredrick Douglas, John's plan to abolish slavery was not that appealing. I don't think John was looking at both sides of things. I think all John was thinking was kill people who are for slavery but he didn't think about he could abolish slavery with his words and not his swords. According to
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”.
The first reason why John Brown was not a terrorist is because the acts he has devoted to and the reasons why he committed them, does not make him a terrorist. One of the acts he was devoted to was killing anybody that came in his way at Harper’s Ferry. That is not terrorism because he is not striking
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.
Brown’s father was a significant influence on him, and his religious credence had shaped the type of person he was. Throughout his childhood, John Brown had traveled with his father and encountered several slaves. He began to understand the suffering that the slaves had lived through. Later in his life John Brown had began to feel that his life destiny was to free the slaves. He had believed he was specifically chosen by God to take action and complete God’s test. In 1855 John Brown received a letter from his son, John Brown Jr. The letter made note, “I tell you the truth, when I say that while the interest of despotism has secured to its cause ... armed to the teeth with Revolvers, Bowie Knives, Rifle and Cannon...they are not only thoroughly organized, but under pay from Slaveholders. The friends of freedom are not one fourth of them half-armed...We need [firearms] more than we do bread.” The danger that his family had faced in Kansas due to the invasion of pro-slavery border ruffians prompted John Brown to take action. Anyone who spoke out against slavery in Kansas had been faced with the threat of imprisonment or even
His views on cruelly ending slaving with violence and bloodshed only prove is madness. “Several of his colleagues also petitioned that the courts should look at Brown’s questionable mental state when it came to his actions.” With all the “violence” John Brown tried to create with his radical actions to end slavery, his actions did very little to end slavery. On the contrary, slave owners in the south treated slaves more barbaric because they started to feel threatened as his actions. Many thought his rebellion was going to succeed so many treated the slaves as the target. Many believe that his actions help stir up the civil war. In conclusion, John Brown tried to terminate slavery in savage ways many times and each time revealed his level of
The people who thought he was a hero believed strongly in the abolitionist cause. Brown helped fight against slavery, because he believed in equal rights, but he didn’t believe there was a peaceful way to solve this, and so he used violence. I to agree with him that you needed some kind of violence to end slavery, however he killed many innocent people which was wrong. He was someone who did lot’s of very bad things, but he did them for a clearly good cause. In John Brown’s address it states “I intended, certainly, to have made a clean thing of that matter, as I did last winter when I went into Missouri, and there took Slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moving them through the country, and finally leaving them in Canada.
When we think of terrorist, we might think of radical Islamic individuals or groups who would take pride in killing anyone who is not Muslim. Even more, there are antagonistically people who want nothing more but to destroy the lives of innocence people because of their belief system. Take an individual like Theodore Kaczynski for instance; he was a former University of California at Berkeley math professor. Otherwise known as the “Unabomber,” he was indeed a terrorist because he used explosives that killed three people and wounded eighteen others in a span of almost two decades. Even more, his brother David Kaczynski was responsible for his capture.
The word freedom fighter comes to mind when people here the name John Brown. Another word is terrorist. I will be persuading you to think that john brown is a freedom fighter, and not a terrorist.
“Terrorist”, is defined as “a person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” Terrorists who conduct these heinous crimes usually justify their actions due to morals, religious convictions, or political views. John brown was an American abolitionist who believed and advocated that armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States, which was a political aim. He considered the United States incapable of reform and he believed violence was the only solution to end slavery. Therefore John Brown was an Irrational Terrorist.