How Did John Brown Created A Microcosm Of The Civil War?

The first years of Kansas’ statehood, commonly referred to as Bleeding Kansas, displayed how rising controversy over slavery in the United States would crumble into conflict. On the front line, John Brown led free-state militias into battle as an effort to end the spread of slave states. Kansas depicts as shockingly similar microcosm of the Civil War that through hardship and acquired reputation led John Brown to stage a raid on Harpers Ferry.

Kansas first became inhabitable when President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May of 1854. The act established two new states that were previously restricted by a territorial line enacted under the Missouri Compromise. With the addition of new states came a flock of people eager to
By the end of his year long stay he had far too much invested in his cause to back out. He had devoted a considerable portion of his life helping slaves as his father did. When the news of Kansas and its undeclared slave status reached Ohio it tempted him to migrate there, but prior obligations held him back. Brown changed his mind after John Junior, one of his five sons in Kansas, wrote him a letter that stated there were rising threats from proslave activists. With his family in danger, Brown gathered his belongings and set off for Kansas. Along the way he acquired a small arsenal of rifles to arm free-state militias. His journey took a quick turn for the worst as the horse pulling their wagon died, leaving Brown to haul the load on his own. To make matters worse Brown’s grandson also passed away and he carried him all the way to Kansas for a proper burial. When he finally arrived in Kansas, the luscious prairies and wild grapes described in the letters were frosted over and he was surprised to find his family huddled around fires in an encampment of tents. Despite his wearied state from the trip and persisting illness, Brown was eager to wage his war on slavery. As conflicts in Kansas began to affect his family, he took it personal. Additionally, his Calvinist belief in predestination motivated Brown as “he’d come to believe that battling slavery in Kansas was his God-given destiny” (Horwitz 44). Destiny or not Brown was in bound for approaching hardship. Brown appeared to embrace this hardship as motivation as his son, Wealthy, claimed “Father seems to be as rugged as I ever saw him” (Horwitz 46). On the day that Brown led the Battle of Osawatomie, his son Frederick was identified by a band of Border Ruffians and shot in the chest. Loses such as these had an immense impact on Brown and served to intensify his pursuit. In grief, he swore that he would die fighting this