{"id":440,"date":"2015-08-21T17:59:30","date_gmt":"2015-08-21T17:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/ushistory1os2xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=440"},"modified":"2022-08-09T03:56:40","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T03:56:40","slug":"john-brown","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/chapter\/john-brown\/","title":{"raw":"John Brown","rendered":"John Brown"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul class=\"im_orderedlist\">\r\n \t<li>Describe John Brown\u2019s raid on Harpers Ferry and its aftermath<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"260\"]<img src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/883\/2015\/08\/23202626\/CNX_History_14_04_Brown.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of John Brown is shown.\" width=\"260\" height=\"366\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. John Brown, shown here in a photograph from 1859, was a radical abolitionist who advocated the violent overthrow of slavery.[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm139811184\">Events in the late 1850s did nothing to quell the country\u2019s sectional unrest, and compromise on the issue of slavery appeared impossible. Lincoln\u2019s 1858 speeches during his debates with Douglas made the Republican Party\u2019s position well known; Republicans opposed the extension of slavery and believed a Slave Power conspiracy sought to nationalize the institution. They quickly gained political momentum and took control of the House of Representatives in 1858. Southern leaders were divided on how to respond to Republican success. Southern extremists, known as \u201c<strong>Fire-Eaters<\/strong>,\u201d openly called for secession. Others, like Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis, put forward a more moderate approach by demanding constitutional protection of slavery.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>John Brown<\/h2>\r\n<section id=\"fs-idm156767264\" data-depth=\"1\">\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm150877520\">In October 1859, the abolitionist John Brown (the same guerilla fighter from the Bleeding Kansas situation), decided that more radical, violent approaches were best appropriate for ending slavery. He and eighteen armed men, both Blacks and Whites, attacked the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry,\u00a0in what is now the state of West Virginia. They hoped to capture the weapons there and distribute them among enslaved persons to begin a massive uprising that would bring an end to slavery. Brown had already demonstrated during the 1856 Pottawatomie attack in Kansas that he had no patience for the nonviolent approach preached by pacifist abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. Born in Connecticut in 1800, Brown\u00a0spent much of his life in the North, moving from Ohio to Pennsylvania and then upstate New York as his various business ventures failed. To him, slavery appeared an unacceptable evil that must be purged from the land, and like his Puritan forebears, he believed in using the sword to defeat the ungodly.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm189611680\">Brown had gone to Kansas in the 1850s in an effort to stop slavery, and there, he had perpetrated the killings at Pottawatomie. He told other abolitionists of his plan to take Harpers Ferry Armory and initiate a massive slave uprising. Some abolitionists provided financial support, while others, including Frederick Douglass, found the plot suicidal and refused to\u00a0participate.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Harpers Ferry<\/h2>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm328690064\">On the night of October 16, Brown and his small band moved out in the dark to begin the war. Three men were assigned to hide a cache of weapons at a schoolhouse as a staging point for the slave rebellion. The rest marched on Harpers Ferry and easily took prisoner a night watchman and an arsenal guard when they broke into the armory. Brown dispatched a handful of men in a wagon loaded with weapons to break into nearby homes, liberate the enslaved people, and take hostages. The rebels wounded a watchman and accidentally shot and killed a free Black railroad worker. As the town\u2019s population was roused, church bells warning of a slave insurrection pealed throughout the countryside and telegraph messages spread word of the raid across the nation. Brown\u2019s men had taken prisoner some 40 townspeople who had been going to work and taken cover in a firehouse.<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm317009920\">Daylight brought nothing but disaster for the ill-conceived raid. Brown\u2019s rebels engaged in a shootout with the townspeople and lost one of the band to a sniper. Armed militia arrived and cut off any escape. When Brown sent three emissaries to negotiate a cease-fire, they were gunned down. When five of his men tried to retreat to the Shenandoah River, two were shot and killed, one drowned, and two (one free Black and one enslaved man) were captured and nearly hanged. The raiders shot and killed the mayor of the town, only fueling the anger of the citizens of Harpers Ferry. In the chaos, some 30 of Brown\u2019s prisoners had escaped, and by nightfall he only had four or five healthy men left. One of his sons died of his wounds and another barely clung to life, but Brown resolved to fight to the end to achieve his goal of liberating the enslaved people.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5676\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"722\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144140\/9b2dd672d037bab1f316c11f8df077b5befd84a2.jpeg\"><img class=\"wp-image-5676 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144140\/9b2dd672d037bab1f316c11f8df077b5befd84a2.jpeg\" alt=\"Image of soldiers holding guns in front of a large building. Some men are shown holding a large ladder with which to approach the building.\" width=\"722\" height=\"490\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. In this depiction, published in\u00a0Harpers Weekly\u00a0in November 1859, U.S. Marines are shown attacking John Brown\u2019s improvised fortifications at Harpers Ferry.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"os-figure\">\r\n<div><\/div>\r\n<div class=\"os-caption-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; orphans: 1; text-align: initial;\">The following day, Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived with Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart and 90 Marines. Stuart tried to negotiate a surrender, but Brown refused. The Marines battered down the heavy door and stormed into the building where Brown and his men were amid gunfire and thrusting swords and bayonets. After his other men had all gone down in the m\u00eal\u00e9e, Brown was slashed by a saber before being knocked unconscious.<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm292249344\">A few days later, Brown was tried for murder, inciting slave insurrection, and treason against the state of Virginia and was convicted on all charges. Predictably, many antislavery activists praised his actions, while southern defenders of slavery were horrified. Transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau delivered an oration praising Brown for breaking an unjust law. \u201cAre laws to be enforced simply because they are made?\u201d Thoreau asked.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5677\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"646\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144147\/07115603c70bea2cf17d60fe353808f69a050e61.jpeg\"><img class=\"wp-image-5677 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144147\/07115603c70bea2cf17d60fe353808f69a050e61.jpeg\" alt=\"Poster stating \u201cTreason! All true Christians who believe in \u2018Immortality through Jesus Christ alone,\u2019 are requested to pray for Capt. John Brown, who now is under sentence of death, and is to be hung next month for righteousness sake, and doing justly with his fellow man, his country and his God. By request of one who loves the truth, and feels for the man that is to die a martyr to it.\u201d\" width=\"646\" height=\"469\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. This broadside was published in November 1859, after John Brown was convicted of murder and treason. Brown\u2019s deeds at Harpers Ferry horrified some, but others supported his extreme actions.[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"os-figure\">\r\n<div class=\"os-caption-container\"><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm323185760\">During his sentencing, Brown was allowed to make a statement, which he concluded by saying, \u201cIf it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit. So let it be done!\u201d<\/p>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm299084048\">On December 2, a wagon brought him to a gallows on a cornfield surrounded by 1,500 militiamen to guard against any rescue attempt. There Brown was bound, hanged, and placed in a coffin. That morning, he had handed one of the guards a scrap of paper with a prophetic warning: \u201cI, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.\u201d Brown\u2019s raid helped fuel the sectionalism that led to the bloody Civil War between North and South and claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_14_04_HarpersFer\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"531\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/883\/2015\/08\/23202627\/CNX_History_14_04_HarpersFer.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration shows John Brown and others with rifles and pikes, holding a small group of men hostage inside the engine house of Harpers Ferry Armory. Several other men lie injured on the ground. The caption reads \u201cHarper\u2019s Ferry insurrection\u2014Interior of the Engine-House, just before the gate is broken down by the storming party\u2014Col. Washington and his associates as captives, held by Brown as hostages.\u201d\" width=\"531\" height=\"346\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/> <strong>Figure 4<\/strong>. John Brown\u2019s raid on Harpers Ferry represented the radical abolitionist\u2019s attempt to start a revolt that would ultimately end slavery. This 1859 illustration, captioned \u201cHarper\u2019s Ferry insurrection\u2014Interior of the Engine-House, just before the gate is broken down by the storming party\u2014Col. Washington and his associates as captives, held by Brown as hostages,\u201d is from Frank Leslie\u2019s <em>Illustrated Magazine<\/em>. Do you think this image represents a southern or northern version of the raid? How are the characters in the scene depicted?[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\r\nRead <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalhistory.uh.edu\/active_learning\/explorations\/brown\/execution_family1.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Brown's own words in a letter to his family<\/a>\u00a0penned on October 31, 1859 following his arrest. Then visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/19th_century\/thoreau_001.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Avalon Project<\/a> on Yale Law School\u2019s website to read the impassioned speech that Henry David Thoreau delivered on October 30, 1859, arguing against the execution of John Brown. How does Thoreau characterize Brown? What does he ask of his fellow citizens?\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2 id=\"fs-idm96293536\">Reactions to the Raid<\/h2>\r\nJohn Brown\u2019s raid on Harpers Ferry generated intense reactions in both the South and the North.\u00a0Several Southern newspapers sensationalized the raid, making it seem like hundreds of armed Northerners had descended on Harper's Ferry, making the planter class\u00a0especially apprehensive of the possibility of other violent plots. They viewed Brown as a terrorist bent on destroying their civilization, and support for secession grew. Their anxiety led several southern states to pass laws designed to prevent slave rebellions, such as mustering local militias. It seemed that the worst fears of the South had come true: A hostile majority would stop at nothing to destroy slavery. Was it possible, one resident of Maryland asked, to \u201clive under a government, a majority of whose subjects or citizens regard John Brown as a martyr and Christian hero?\u201d Many antislavery northerners did in fact consider Brown a martyr to the cause, and those who viewed slavery as a sin saw easy comparisons between him and Jesus Christ.\u00a0The New England poet Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke for many of his neighbors when he spoke of Brown as \"the saint...whose martyrdom, if it should be perfected, will make the gallows as glorious as the Cross.\"\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\r\nThis video explains how John Brown's raid had an important impact in leading toward a violent end to slavery.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"\/\/plugin.3playmedia.com\/show?mf=6790646&amp;p3sdk_version=1.10.1&amp;p=20361&amp;pt=375&amp;video_id=FZu0Oxcp1hM&amp;video_target=tpm-plugin-ws5f2mfi-FZu0Oxcp1hM\" width=\"800px\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0px\" marginheight=\"0px\"><\/iframe>\r\n\r\nYou can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/WM-US+History\/johnbrownsbloodyendtoslavery.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cJohn Brown's Bloody End to Slavery\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/a994c3b4-ad92-4b13-bc0a-5d13eaf1232c\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_5678\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"391\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144751\/large_7bf851e4e4160b82de2aed5e271cc884c0a3612d3032c3583c8cbd214e28e11e.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-5678\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144751\/large_7bf851e4e4160b82de2aed5e271cc884c0a3612d3032c3583c8cbd214e28e11e-218x300.png\" alt=\"Image of a man meeting a female slave holding a child. A flag behind him reads, \u201cSig Semper Tyrannis.\u201d Other men surround the scene.\" width=\"391\" height=\"539\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 5<\/strong>. This image from 1863 depicts John Brown meeting an enslaved woman on the steps of the Charlestown courthouse. He is on his way to execution after being convicted of treason. The drawing was originally captioned: \u201cRegarding with a look of compassion a Slave-mother and Child who obstructed the passage on his way to the Scaffold. --Capt. Brown stooped and kissed the Child--then met his fate.\u201d[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<div>\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/ce482c60-aa66-45d0-8a4e-96a5e0f2efc4\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\r\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\r\nWhat were southerners\u2019 and northerners\u2019 views of John Brown?\r\n[reveal-answer q=\"352863\"]Show Answer[\/reveal-answer]\r\n[hidden-answer a=\"352863\"]Antislavery northerners tended to view Brown as a martyr for the antislavery cause; some saw in him a Christ-like figure who died for his beliefs. Southerners, for their part, considered Brown a terrorist. They felt threatened by northerners\u2019 deification of Brown and worried about the potential for other, similar armed insurrections.[\/hidden-answer]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\r\n<strong>Harpers Ferry:\u00a0<\/strong>the site of a federal arsenal in Virginia, where radical abolitionist John Brown staged an ill-fated effort to end slavery by instigating a mass uprising among slaves\r\n\r\n<strong>Fire-Eaters:\u00a0<\/strong>radical southern secessionists\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-highlight\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul class=\"im_orderedlist\">\n<li>Describe John Brown\u2019s raid on Harpers Ferry and its aftermath<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"width: 270px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/883\/2015\/08\/23202626\/CNX_History_14_04_Brown.jpg\" alt=\"A photograph of John Brown is shown.\" width=\"260\" height=\"366\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. John Brown, shown here in a photograph from 1859, was a radical abolitionist who advocated the violent overthrow of slavery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm139811184\">Events in the late 1850s did nothing to quell the country\u2019s sectional unrest, and compromise on the issue of slavery appeared impossible. Lincoln\u2019s 1858 speeches during his debates with Douglas made the Republican Party\u2019s position well known; Republicans opposed the extension of slavery and believed a Slave Power conspiracy sought to nationalize the institution. They quickly gained political momentum and took control of the House of Representatives in 1858. Southern leaders were divided on how to respond to Republican success. Southern extremists, known as \u201c<strong>Fire-Eaters<\/strong>,\u201d openly called for secession. Others, like Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis, put forward a more moderate approach by demanding constitutional protection of slavery.<\/p>\n<h2>John Brown<\/h2>\n<section id=\"fs-idm156767264\" data-depth=\"1\">\n<p id=\"fs-idm150877520\">In October 1859, the abolitionist John Brown (the same guerilla fighter from the Bleeding Kansas situation), decided that more radical, violent approaches were best appropriate for ending slavery. He and eighteen armed men, both Blacks and Whites, attacked the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry,\u00a0in what is now the state of West Virginia. They hoped to capture the weapons there and distribute them among enslaved persons to begin a massive uprising that would bring an end to slavery. Brown had already demonstrated during the 1856 Pottawatomie attack in Kansas that he had no patience for the nonviolent approach preached by pacifist abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison. Born in Connecticut in 1800, Brown\u00a0spent much of his life in the North, moving from Ohio to Pennsylvania and then upstate New York as his various business ventures failed. To him, slavery appeared an unacceptable evil that must be purged from the land, and like his Puritan forebears, he believed in using the sword to defeat the ungodly.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm189611680\">Brown had gone to Kansas in the 1850s in an effort to stop slavery, and there, he had perpetrated the killings at Pottawatomie. He told other abolitionists of his plan to take Harpers Ferry Armory and initiate a massive slave uprising. Some abolitionists provided financial support, while others, including Frederick Douglass, found the plot suicidal and refused to\u00a0participate.<\/p>\n<h2>Harpers Ferry<\/h2>\n<p id=\"fs-idm328690064\">On the night of October 16, Brown and his small band moved out in the dark to begin the war. Three men were assigned to hide a cache of weapons at a schoolhouse as a staging point for the slave rebellion. The rest marched on Harpers Ferry and easily took prisoner a night watchman and an arsenal guard when they broke into the armory. Brown dispatched a handful of men in a wagon loaded with weapons to break into nearby homes, liberate the enslaved people, and take hostages. The rebels wounded a watchman and accidentally shot and killed a free Black railroad worker. As the town\u2019s population was roused, church bells warning of a slave insurrection pealed throughout the countryside and telegraph messages spread word of the raid across the nation. Brown\u2019s men had taken prisoner some 40 townspeople who had been going to work and taken cover in a firehouse.<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm317009920\">Daylight brought nothing but disaster for the ill-conceived raid. Brown\u2019s rebels engaged in a shootout with the townspeople and lost one of the band to a sniper. Armed militia arrived and cut off any escape. When Brown sent three emissaries to negotiate a cease-fire, they were gunned down. When five of his men tried to retreat to the Shenandoah River, two were shot and killed, one drowned, and two (one free Black and one enslaved man) were captured and nearly hanged. The raiders shot and killed the mayor of the town, only fueling the anger of the citizens of Harpers Ferry. In the chaos, some 30 of Brown\u2019s prisoners had escaped, and by nightfall he only had four or five healthy men left. One of his sons died of his wounds and another barely clung to life, but Brown resolved to fight to the end to achieve his goal of liberating the enslaved people.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5676\" style=\"width: 732px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144140\/9b2dd672d037bab1f316c11f8df077b5befd84a2.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5676\" class=\"wp-image-5676\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144140\/9b2dd672d037bab1f316c11f8df077b5befd84a2.jpeg\" alt=\"Image of soldiers holding guns in front of a large building. Some men are shown holding a large ladder with which to approach the building.\" width=\"722\" height=\"490\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5676\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. In this depiction, published in\u00a0Harpers Weekly\u00a0in November 1859, U.S. Marines are shown attacking John Brown\u2019s improvised fortifications at Harpers Ferry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"os-figure\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"os-caption-container\"><span style=\"font-size: 1rem; orphans: 1; text-align: initial;\">The following day, Colonel Robert E. Lee arrived with Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart and 90 Marines. Stuart tried to negotiate a surrender, but Brown refused. The Marines battered down the heavy door and stormed into the building where Brown and his men were amid gunfire and thrusting swords and bayonets. After his other men had all gone down in the m\u00eal\u00e9e, Brown was slashed by a saber before being knocked unconscious.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm292249344\">A few days later, Brown was tried for murder, inciting slave insurrection, and treason against the state of Virginia and was convicted on all charges. Predictably, many antislavery activists praised his actions, while southern defenders of slavery were horrified. Transcendentalist author Henry David Thoreau delivered an oration praising Brown for breaking an unjust law. \u201cAre laws to be enforced simply because they are made?\u201d Thoreau asked.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5677\" style=\"width: 656px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144147\/07115603c70bea2cf17d60fe353808f69a050e61.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5677\" class=\"wp-image-5677\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144147\/07115603c70bea2cf17d60fe353808f69a050e61.jpeg\" alt=\"Poster stating \u201cTreason! All true Christians who believe in \u2018Immortality through Jesus Christ alone,\u2019 are requested to pray for Capt. John Brown, who now is under sentence of death, and is to be hung next month for righteousness sake, and doing justly with his fellow man, his country and his God. By request of one who loves the truth, and feels for the man that is to die a martyr to it.\u201d\" width=\"646\" height=\"469\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5677\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. This broadside was published in November 1859, after John Brown was convicted of murder and treason. Brown\u2019s deeds at Harpers Ferry horrified some, but others supported his extreme actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"os-figure\">\n<div class=\"os-caption-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm323185760\">During his sentencing, Brown was allowed to make a statement, which he concluded by saying, \u201cIf it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country, whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit. So let it be done!\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"fs-idm299084048\">On December 2, a wagon brought him to a gallows on a cornfield surrounded by 1,500 militiamen to guard against any rescue attempt. There Brown was bound, hanged, and placed in a coffin. That morning, he had handed one of the guards a scrap of paper with a prophetic warning: \u201cI, John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.\u201d Brown\u2019s raid helped fuel the sectionalism that led to the bloody Civil War between North and South and claimed the lives of more than 600,000 Americans.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"CNX_History_14_04_HarpersFer\">\n<div style=\"width: 541px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/883\/2015\/08\/23202627\/CNX_History_14_04_HarpersFer.jpg\" alt=\"An illustration shows John Brown and others with rifles and pikes, holding a small group of men hostage inside the engine house of Harpers Ferry Armory. Several other men lie injured on the ground. The caption reads \u201cHarper\u2019s Ferry insurrection\u2014Interior of the Engine-House, just before the gate is broken down by the storming party\u2014Col. Washington and his associates as captives, held by Brown as hostages.\u201d\" width=\"531\" height=\"346\" data-media-type=\"image\/jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 4<\/strong>. John Brown\u2019s raid on Harpers Ferry represented the radical abolitionist\u2019s attempt to start a revolt that would ultimately end slavery. This 1859 illustration, captioned \u201cHarper\u2019s Ferry insurrection\u2014Interior of the Engine-House, just before the gate is broken down by the storming party\u2014Col. Washington and his associates as captives, held by Brown as hostages,\u201d is from Frank Leslie\u2019s <em>Illustrated Magazine<\/em>. Do you think this image represents a southern or northern version of the raid? How are the characters in the scene depicted?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\n<p>Read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digitalhistory.uh.edu\/active_learning\/explorations\/brown\/execution_family1.cfm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Brown&#8217;s own words in a letter to his family<\/a>\u00a0penned on October 31, 1859 following his arrest. Then visit the <a href=\"http:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/19th_century\/thoreau_001.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Avalon Project<\/a> on Yale Law School\u2019s website to read the impassioned speech that Henry David Thoreau delivered on October 30, 1859, arguing against the execution of John Brown. How does Thoreau characterize Brown? What does he ask of his fellow citizens?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2 id=\"fs-idm96293536\">Reactions to the Raid<\/h2>\n<p>John Brown\u2019s raid on Harpers Ferry generated intense reactions in both the South and the North.\u00a0Several Southern newspapers sensationalized the raid, making it seem like hundreds of armed Northerners had descended on Harper&#8217;s Ferry, making the planter class\u00a0especially apprehensive of the possibility of other violent plots. They viewed Brown as a terrorist bent on destroying their civilization, and support for secession grew. Their anxiety led several southern states to pass laws designed to prevent slave rebellions, such as mustering local militias. It seemed that the worst fears of the South had come true: A hostile majority would stop at nothing to destroy slavery. Was it possible, one resident of Maryland asked, to \u201clive under a government, a majority of whose subjects or citizens regard John Brown as a martyr and Christian hero?\u201d Many antislavery northerners did in fact consider Brown a martyr to the cause, and those who viewed slavery as a sin saw easy comparisons between him and Jesus Christ.\u00a0The New England poet Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke for many of his neighbors when he spoke of Brown as &#8220;the saint&#8230;whose martyrdom, if it should be perfected, will make the gallows as glorious as the Cross.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\n<p>This video explains how John Brown&#8217;s raid had an important impact in leading toward a violent end to slavery.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/plugin.3playmedia.com\/show?mf=6790646&amp;p3sdk_version=1.10.1&amp;p=20361&amp;pt=375&amp;video_id=FZu0Oxcp1hM&amp;video_target=tpm-plugin-ws5f2mfi-FZu0Oxcp1hM\" width=\"800px\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0px\" marginheight=\"0px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/WM-US+History\/johnbrownsbloodyendtoslavery.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cJohn Brown&#8217;s Bloody End to Slavery\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_a994c3b4-ad92-4b13-bc0a-5d13eaf1232c\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/a994c3b4-ad92-4b13-bc0a-5d13eaf1232c?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_a994c3b4-ad92-4b13-bc0a-5d13eaf1232c\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_5678\" style=\"width: 401px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144751\/large_7bf851e4e4160b82de2aed5e271cc884c0a3612d3032c3583c8cbd214e28e11e.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5678\" class=\"wp-image-5678\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2015\/08\/11144751\/large_7bf851e4e4160b82de2aed5e271cc884c0a3612d3032c3583c8cbd214e28e11e-218x300.png\" alt=\"Image of a man meeting a female slave holding a child. A flag behind him reads, \u201cSig Semper Tyrannis.\u201d Other men surround the scene.\" width=\"391\" height=\"539\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5678\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 5<\/strong>. This image from 1863 depicts John Brown meeting an enslaved woman on the steps of the Charlestown courthouse. He is on his way to execution after being convicted of treason. The drawing was originally captioned: \u201cRegarding with a look of compassion a Slave-mother and Child who obstructed the passage on his way to the Scaffold. &#8211;Capt. Brown stooped and kissed the Child&#8211;then met his fate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_ce482c60-aa66-45d0-8a4e-96a5e0f2efc4\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/ce482c60-aa66-45d0-8a4e-96a5e0f2efc4?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_ce482c60-aa66-45d0-8a4e-96a5e0f2efc4\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"bcc-box bcc-info\">\n<h3>Review Question<\/h3>\n<p>What were southerners\u2019 and northerners\u2019 views of John Brown?<\/p>\n<div class=\"qa-wrapper\" style=\"display: block\"><span class=\"show-answer collapsed\" style=\"cursor: pointer\" data-target=\"q352863\">Show Answer<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"q352863\" class=\"hidden-answer\" style=\"display: none\">Antislavery northerners tended to view Brown as a martyr for the antislavery cause; some saw in him a Christ-like figure who died for his beliefs. Southerners, for their part, considered Brown a terrorist. They felt threatened by northerners\u2019 deification of Brown and worried about the potential for other, similar armed insurrections.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Glossary<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Harpers Ferry:\u00a0<\/strong>the site of a federal arsenal in Virginia, where radical abolitionist John Brown staged an ill-fated effort to end slavery by instigating a mass uprising among slaves<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fire-Eaters:\u00a0<\/strong>radical southern secessionists<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-440\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Modification, adaptation, and original content. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Mark Lempke for Lumen Learning. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>US History. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/14-4-john-brown-and-the-election-of-1860\">https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/14-4-john-brown-and-the-election-of-1860<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><li>John Brown and Harpers Ferry. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The Bill of Rights Institute, OpenStax, and contributing authors. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/NgBFhmUc@14.3:qKPaDJFV@7\/7-13-%F0%9F%94%8E-John-Brown-and-Harpers-Ferry\">https:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/NgBFhmUc@14.3:qKPaDJFV@7\/7-13-%F0%9F%94%8E-John-Brown-and-Harpers-Ferry<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/36004586-651c-4ded-af87-203aca22d946@14.3<\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>John Brown&#039;s Bloody End to Slavery. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: NBC News Learn. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FZu0Oxcp1hM\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FZu0Oxcp1hM<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":969,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"US History\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/14-4-john-brown-and-the-election-of-1860\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction\"},{\"type\":\"copyrighted_video\",\"description\":\"John Brown\\'s Bloody End to Slavery\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"NBC News Learn\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FZu0Oxcp1hM\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"other\",\"license_terms\":\"Standard YouTube License\"},{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Modification, adaptation, and original content\",\"author\":\"Mark Lempke for Lumen Learning\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"John Brown and Harpers Ferry\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"The Bill of Rights Institute, OpenStax, and contributing authors\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/NgBFhmUc@14.3:qKPaDJFV@7\/7-13-%F0%9F%94%8E-John-Brown-and-Harpers-Ferry\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/36004586-651c-4ded-af87-203aca22d946@14.3\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"554dc08d-76bd-46f5-9549-f2e57f4694d6,f94157cb-8e85-4b1a-b0c2-45623ef801e8","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-440","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":417,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/969"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8507,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/440\/revisions\/8507"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/417"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/440\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=440"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}