Was John Brown An Abolitionist

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

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 thought that the way to overthrow slavery was through violence. John Brown also killed Pro slavery residents or to be more specific civilians that were pro slavery. He also justified his actions by saying it was the will of God, that he committed those murders according to Biography.com.

started. John Brown was an abolitionist, he wanted to overthrow the slavery system. They both

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.

During the eighteenth century, the opposition to slavery prior to forming the United States became increasingly stronger between the Northern and Southern territories. Prior to the 1830s, antislavery societies began to emerge from every corner to challenge the slave system and to help combat slavery. During this time, people had different ideas about how to confront the issue of slavery in the system and how to establish a freedom of oppression. In the eighteenth century, antislavery political activists believed the slave system would able to be changed through peaceful political reforms, while others felt that real change could only be achieved by violence. A radical white abolitionist named John Brown became a historical figure whose beliefs motivated the violent abolitionist crusade.

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.

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

Document 6 John Brown led a retaliation against slavery in the South, but was killed before he could follow threw with his plan. Even though his plan failed South feared that rebellions would rise up against them in the south. The south believed that the north was plotting slave uprising everywhere, which caused whites to murder other whites from the fear of losing

When John Brown made an army out of his followers, he planned to get more abolitionists together to fight against slavery and for the people’s rights. “On the evening of October 16, 1859 John Brown, a staunch abolitionist, and a group of his supporters left their farmhouse hide-out en route to Harpers Ferry, […] Brown had hopes that the local slave population would join the raid and through the raid’s success weapons would be supplied to slaves and freedom fighters throughout the country; this was not to be”. Although his raid was 26 hours, John Brown’s objective was to capture the slaves and to get the weapons for their defense; he captured the slaves and tried to free them so he was morally right although getting in to the arsenal without permission was legally wrong. Some

As Brown got older, he witnessed a slave being brutally beaten. Witnessing the beatings of the slave and his father helping the runaway slaves ignited Brown into becoming an abolitionist. Although he was an abolitionist, he was also a businessman. With his businesses, Brown found ways to raise funds and seek hiding places for runaway slaves (Commire). Brown said before God and a room full of witnesses that he dedicates his life to the abolishment of slavery (Current Events).

John Brown is a white male abolitionist in the mid 1800’s. He is probably the only one white male in this time period to be an abolitionist. The reason he was an abolitionist is because that was the way he was raised. He is born in the year 1800 in Torrington Connecticut. At the time Connecticut is not a slave state so with that and his family being very religious. He was raised to to know that slavery is evil and is a sin. So growing up in this religious manner you can already start see that he is going to grow up to hate slavery. It makes it worse when he sees a young slave being brutally beaten by his owner at twelve years old. He already hates slavery but seeing the gruesome beating makes it worse. Now that you know some of John Brown’s

Abolitionist John Brown being born into an antislavery family fostered his desire to lead a black rebellion meant to end the institution of slavery. According to the History Channel website (2014), in 1837 he began the journey after going to his first abolition meeting in Cleveland where he publicly professed his desire to end slavery. He immediately started devising a plot to incite the rebellion. This plot was propelled into motion on May 21, 1856, when supporters of proslavery ambushed the town of Lawrence an abolitionist town causing Brown to vow for revenge.

During the 1850s, Douglas was in the fore front in abolishing slavery, which was threatening, to tear the country apart. In the beginning, Douglas felt that John Brown’s anti- slavery ideas and plans were suicidal and he refused to engage in a raid on Harper Ferry. Brown’s activities saw him captured and hanged, an act which