cival war john brown

1. John brown
John Brown (abolitionist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Brown

2. An 1846 daguerreotype of Brown.
Born May 9, 1800
Torrington, Connecticut,
U.S.
Died December 2,
1859 (aged 59)
Charles Town, Virginia
(now West Virginia),
U.S.

3. Cause of
death
Execution by hanging
Resting
place
John Brown Farm and
Gravesite
Lake Placid, New York
Known for Pottawatomie Massacre
Raid on Harpers Ferry
Children 20 (11 survived to
adulthood)
Signature
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2,
1859) was a white
American abolitionist who believed armed
insurrection was the only way to overthrow
the institution of slavery in the United

4. States.[1] During the 1856 conflict in Kansas,
Brown commanded forces at theBattle of
Black Jack and the Battle of
Osawatomie.[1] Brown's followers also
killed five slavery
supporters at Pottawatomie.[1] In 1859,
Brown led an unsuccessful raid on the
federal armory at Harpers Ferry that ended
with his capture.[1] Brown's trial resulted in
his conviction and a sentence of death by
hanging.[1]
Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a
liberation movement among enslaved
African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia,
electrified the nation. He was tried for
treason against the Commonwealth of
Virginia, the murder of five men and inciting

5. a slave insurrection. He was found guilty on
all counts and was hanged. Southerners
alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the
abolitionist iceberg and represented the
wishes of the Republican Party to end
slavery. Historians agree that the Harpers
Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a
year later, led to secession and
the American Civil War.
Brown first gained attention when he led
small groups of volunteers during
the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Unlike most
other Northerners, who advocated peaceful
resistance to the pro-slavery faction, Brown
believed that peaceful resistance was
shown to be ineffective and that the only
way to defeat the oppressive system of

6. slavery was through violent insurrection. He
believed he was the instrument of God's
wrath in punishing men for the sin of
owning slaves.[2]
Dissatisfied with the pacifism encouraged
by the organized abolitionist movement, he
said, "These men are all talk. What we need
is action—action!"[3] During the Kansas
campaign, he and his supporters killed five
pro-slavery southerners in what became
known as the Pottawatomie Massacre in
May 1856 in response to the raid on the
"free soil" city of Lawrence, Kansas. In 1859
he led a raid onthe federal armory at
Harpers Ferry. During the raid, he seized the
armory; seven people were killed, and ten
or more were injured. He intended to arm

7. slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but
the attack failed. Within 36 hours, Brown's
men had fled or been killed or captured by
local pro-slavery farmers, militiamen, and
U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Brown's
subsequent capture by federal forces seized
the nation's attention, as Southerners
feared it was just the first of many Northern
plots to cause a slave rebellion that might
endanger their lives, while Republicans
dismissed the notion and said they would
not interfere with slavery in the South.[4]
Historians agree John Brown played a major
role in the start of the Civil War.
Historian David Potter has said the
emotional effect of Brown's raid was
greater than the philosophical effect of

8. the Lincoln–Douglas debates, and that his
raid revealed a deep division between
North and South.[5] Some writers, such as
Bruce Olds, describe him as a
monomaniacal zealot; others, such
as Stephen B. Oates, regard him as "one of
the most perceptive human beings of his
generation." David S. Reynolds hails the
man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil
war, and seeded civil rights" and Richard
Owen Boyer emphasizes that Brown was
"an American who gave his life that millions
of other Americans might be free."[6] The
song "John Brown's Body" made him a
heroic martyr and was a
popularUnion marching song during the
Civil War.

9. Brown's actions prior to the Civil War as an
abolitionist, and the tactics he chose, still
make him a controversial figure today. He is
sometimes memorialized as a heroic martyr
and a visionary and sometimes vilified as a
madman and a terrorist.[7] Historians
debate whether he was "America's first
domestic terrorist"; many historians believe
the term "terrorist" is an inappropriate
label to describe Brown.[8]