Analytical Essay: John Brown And The Civil War
John Brown Essay Looking back in history, in the years leading up to the Civil War, many important events took place which defined the course of history and overall sparked the Civil War. John Brown was an abolitionist, born and raised in the North and with the conception that slavery was evil. Brown took extreme measures in the fight to abolish slavery once and for all in the South and West. His fight for ending slavery turned violent and turned into massacres and murdering sprees. After reviewing his actions, John Brown, must be remembered as a misguided fanatic, not a hero, as his beliefs did not justify his actions. John Brown’s long chain of massacres all began as a direct result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 being passed which
allowed people to vote on the legality of slavery. Out of rage from the “unfairness” of the act, Brown along with his sons went to Potawatomie Creek, Kansas where they dragged five innocent pro-slavery settlers out of their homes and murdered them. As his rebellion against slavery continued, Brown developed a plan to raid Harpers Ferry, an armory, and provide the weapons inside to slaves to aid a slave revolt. This revolt would be an act of treason as Brown provoked a revolt against his own country. In the raid at Harpers Ferry, Brown and his sons killed several guards and Brown was eventually trapped by local militia, while all of his sons were killed. Brown was captured and found guilty of murder, treason, and inciting a slave insurrection in 1859 and was sentenced to death. His noble mission focused on eliminating slavery in the United States and insuring equal rights quickly turned to a violent misguided crime spree. Due to the number of murders he was involved in, he could easily be viewed as a terrorist rather than just a misguided fanatic. While the south had a view of John Brown as a terrorist, many northerners had different perspectives on him. As a reference to how Brown was viewed to people in the North, L. Maria Child from Massachusetts states in a letter from her to Brown in prison, “I cannot sympathize with the method you chose to advance the cause of freedom. But I honor your generous intentions.” This quote shows firsthand how she thought he was an honorable man for fighting for the anti-slavery cause, but he fought for it in the wrong way as he murdered many innocent people. Further into her letter Child states, “Thousands of hearts are throbbing with sympathy as well as mine”, which shows that many Northerners agreed that he fought for an honorable cause, but went about his actions in a wrong way. By doing all of the treacherous things as well as doing them for the right reason, he is and should be perceived as a misguided fanatic. In the 1850’s most abolitionists were either directly fighting or helping with the anti-slavery cause, but John Brown took his fight for equality to extreme measures. After continuously killing innocent pro-slavery men and promoting slave revolts, instantaneously Brown started to be looked at as not a hero for his cause, but someone who did the wrong thing for the right reason. Due to his poor judgement of how to continue the anti-slavery fight, John Brown should be perceived by all as a misguided fanatic, not a hero.
allowed people to vote on the legality of slavery. Out of rage from the “unfairness” of the act, Brown along with his sons went to Potawatomie Creek, Kansas where they dragged five innocent pro-slavery settlers out of their homes and murdered them. As his rebellion against slavery continued, Brown developed a plan to raid Harpers Ferry, an armory, and provide the weapons inside to slaves to aid a slave revolt. This revolt would be an act of treason as Brown provoked a revolt against his own country. In the raid at Harpers Ferry, Brown and his sons killed several guards and Brown was eventually trapped by local militia, while all of his sons were killed. Brown was captured and found guilty of murder, treason, and inciting a slave insurrection in 1859 and was sentenced to death. His noble mission focused on eliminating slavery in the United States and insuring equal rights quickly turned to a violent misguided crime spree. Due to the number of murders he was involved in, he could easily be viewed as a terrorist rather than just a misguided fanatic. While the south had a view of John Brown as a terrorist, many northerners had different perspectives on him. As a reference to how Brown was viewed to people in the North, L. Maria Child from Massachusetts states in a letter from her to Brown in prison, “I cannot sympathize with the method you chose to advance the cause of freedom. But I honor your generous intentions.” This quote shows firsthand how she thought he was an honorable man for fighting for the anti-slavery cause, but he fought for it in the wrong way as he murdered many innocent people. Further into her letter Child states, “Thousands of hearts are throbbing with sympathy as well as mine”, which shows that many Northerners agreed that he fought for an honorable cause, but went about his actions in a wrong way. By doing all of the treacherous things as well as doing them for the right reason, he is and should be perceived as a misguided fanatic. In the 1850’s most abolitionists were either directly fighting or helping with the anti-slavery cause, but John Brown took his fight for equality to extreme measures. After continuously killing innocent pro-slavery men and promoting slave revolts, instantaneously Brown started to be looked at as not a hero for his cause, but someone who did the wrong thing for the right reason. Due to his poor judgement of how to continue the anti-slavery fight, John Brown should be perceived by all as a misguided fanatic, not a hero.