Was John Brown A Misguided Fanatic

John Brown is famous for his attack on Harpers Ferry. Abraham Lincoln had called him a “misguided fanatic”. John Brown was a “misguided fanatic” only because he thought what he was doing what was right. Frederick Douglass writes in his last meeting with Brown, “It would be an attack upon the Federal government, and would turn the whole country against us.” Douglass knew that Brown would not make it out alive, yet he let him go. October 16, 1859, Brown and 21 other men attack Harpers Ferry. Within 36 hours all men are either captured or killed. On the day of his trial, he says, “I believe that to have done what I have done--on behalf of God’s despised poor was not wrong, but right.” He believed that in order to stop slavery he was to arm slaves