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John Brown and the Raid on Harper’s Ferry
A Redeemed Insurgency
"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged
away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much
bloodshed it might be done." – John Brown on the way to the scaffold
John Brown holds a special place in American history and folklore as a hyperbolic figure.
He is a man both regaled and reviled. He remains a titanic figure to this day, a focal point of
heated controversy in a nation that is still sentimental over its own internal struggle that took
place over 150 years ago. He is often accredited with striking the flint to the powder keg that
would erupt into the bloodiest war fought on American soil. The dichotomy both within this man
and his legacy is astounding and still being argued to this day. There is John Brown the martyr,
protectorate of slaves and human freedoms, there is also the John Brown labeled a violent
murdering insurgent. He stands a tragic figuring looming large on the plane of history. The raid
on Harper’s Ferry became a symbolic action charged with moral imperative and righteous in the
eyes of his admirers. It grew into success in an astoundingly rapid progression, an alacrity that
was caused by abolitionists and a war effort.
Despite shifting legacy, John Brown and his raid on Harper’s Ferry resound as a case of
heroic failure. His death sentence was the result of an inadequately planned insurrection, an
insurrection that Brown thought he could spread like wildfire. This was neither the first not the
largest attempt at slave revolt in American history by a long shot, but it’s the one ingrained in
national memory. Nat Turner’s Rebellion left over 60 whites dead and the Haitian rebellion
resulted in a free former slave government. During the time of the Raid these two events loomed
very large in the back of America’s head, today they do not resonate like Brown’s raid. The Raid

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at Harper’s Ferry is the last large scale attempt at armed slave insurrection before the start of the
war and it is often attributed with precipitating the war itself. Since Harper’s Ferry was led by an
eloquent white abolitionist it has qualities that other revolts and rebellions do not. It managed to
sow seeds of distrust amongst neighbors and within white communities, whereas in the case of
black revolts there had already been distance and distrust between white and black that had been
growing since the early 1800’s.
On a May night in 1858 a meeting of John Brown’s “Secret Six” convened in order to
discuss fundraising and a plan of attack for John Brown’s planned raid. These were six well to do
abolitionist of differing backgrounds but one commonality, the desire to see slavery end. All of
them moral men, and more importantly men of means. John Brown’s chief financier and
staunchest backer was Benjamin Sanborn. All of them had been drawn in by John Brown over
time. Some of them doubted the man and his plan but that night his fiery charisma and oration
reigned them into his fold. All of them were swept into his grandiose scheme and that night
would have signed over a carte blanche for Brown’s designs. These six men would provide his
principal funding and set up his contacts despite fluctuating misgivings about the operation.
The raid on Harper’s Ferry includes both astounding preparation and incredible nativity.
John Brown was able to orchestrate this attack without any of his contacts divulging enough
information that would lead to its premature demise. This can most likely be attributed to sheer
luck more than any testament to the discretion and loyalty of all parties involved. There were
indeed rumors that Old John Brown was up to something before the attack ever landed. An
extended visit to Frederick Douglas in January of 1959 reveals just how far his planning had
gone and how incredibly odds defying success of the actual attack seemed to be. During Brown’s
stay with Douglas he would talk of nothing else but his impending attack, to the point that

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Douglas admits that it “began to be something of a bore to me.”1 He spent nearly a month there
perfecting his plan with frantic energy despite repeated warnings of flaws in the plan from
Douglas. During his tenure with Douglas he even went so far as to create and several times
revise a provisional constitution for the creation of a new free state in the southern mountains.
Brown wanted structure to ensure his rebellion would last. This is undeniable proof that he
believed in his inevitable success. It is also indicative of an idealist mind that might be prone to
overlook logistical problems.
Brown first arrived at Harper’s Ferry on July 3, and rented a nearby farmhouse under the
pseudonym of Isaac Smith. He waited for large numbers of recruits to swell his ranks, they never
came. The choice of Harper’s Ferry was deliberate not only for the weapons but for what
Virginia symbolized to the south. Virginia was the queen of the slave states, she had produced
more presidents than any other state in the Union. Harper’s Ferry itself was a quiet little town of
5,000; located 173 miles from Richmond, 57 miles from Washington by turnpike, and 80 miles
from Baltimore by rail.2 The arrival of one particular recruit was able to facilitate the go ahead
for the attack. Until this point the men at Brown’s house had been living in a dangerous situation,
discovery would be disaster. Brown ordered them to remain around the premises of the farm
house but some took risks and wandered around. They grew antsy and agitated with time, as did
Brown. Two of his men hiked to Harper’s Ferry and back during the daytime, running the risk of
being caught out by inquisitive parties. He pleaded for more money from Sanborn and the other
members of the “6” and received little. When Francis Jackson Meriam showed up at his door
with 600$ dollars in gold along with primers and percussion caps for his rifles he decided it was
1 Stephen B. Oates, To Purge This Land with Blood (New York: Harper & Row, 1970.) p.224
2 D.H. Strother, “From Our Own Artist-Correspondent” Harper’s Weekly (Nov. 5, 1859) Incident at Harpers Ed. E.
Stone, Englewood Cliffs,NJ: Prentice-Hall,Inc.p.19

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time to attack.3 This is a strong indication of how Brown’s desire to fulfill his dream clouded his
judgment. His whole operation was only able to go ahead because a new recruit showed up with
sufficient money to sustain a rebellion, he still didn’t have sufficient man power and he depended
on the unpredictable notion that slaves would rise in great numbers to join him.
On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown made his move. Early in the night he and
21 others set out for Harper’s Ferry from Maryland. They marched quietly in line with John
Brown on the wagon at the head. The wagon contained some 1,000 Sharps rifles (Beecher’s
Bibles), 800 pikes, and a large number of pistols, a veritable armory in itself. Those weren’t the
only weapons he brought to Virginia, with him went a large quantity of copies of his Provisional
Constitution. Three of Brown’s sons were in the party; he was prepared to sacrifice his own
progeny for the mission. As the contingent approached two men fell out to cut the telegraph
wires to the town. Upon reaching the bridge at the Potomac they captured a night watchman who
at first believed that he was part of an elaborate joke, he was rabidly made aware this was an
earnest attack. John Brown and his men then proceeded to attain objectives, which they did
rabidly and in coordinated fashion. The armory was taken with no fuss and John Brown
personally led the capture of Hall’s Rifle Works down the street. Two men were left to guard it,
later reinforced by a third. They were situated down the street, around a dogleg, perpendicular to
the armory with their backs to the Shenandoah River. Citizens unfortunate enough to be in the
street at the time were taken hostage. Upon taking the armory Brown announces to a captured
watchman his intentions in dramatic fashion, “I came here from Kansas and this is a slave state”
and if any citizen interfere he would be forced to “burn the town and have blood.”
3 Robert E. McGlone John Browns War AgainstSlavery (New York: Cambridge University Press,2009) 255-56

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Perhaps the greatest irony of this whole affair was that the first person to die was a freed
black man by the name of Hayward Shepard who worked for the train station as a baggage
master. A train had arrived at the barricade the Brown’s men had improvised on the bridge, it
was headed in the direction of Maryland. A shot fired at a guard along the rail line caused
Shepard to come investigate, he was unarmed when he was gunned down by a nervous gunman
of Brown’s contingent. Brown decided to allow the train to pass after talking with the conductor.
Perhaps he thought that the train would spread word of the insurrection as a herald that would
cause his ranks to swell. He was wrong.
That night Brown sent out the wagon on a special mission to gather Colonel Lewis
Washington, a descendent of George Washington from his estate. Brown knew that Washington
had certain items such as a sword given by the Frederick the Great. Brown wore this sword when
Washington was brought in with freed slaves. The slaves were handed pikes to guard their
former masters, some of them seemed incredulous. Brown must have regarded this sword as
some sort of talismanic symbol, Washington himself was another symbol. When he arrived
Brown pledged to protect him but stated he wanted Washington because he was an aide to the
governor, also stating, “apart from that I wanted you for the moral effect it would give our cause,
having one of your name as prisoner.”4 In the waning hours of that night Brown had taken his
strategic points with almost no bloodshed. He had scooped up Washington with ease and
collected his heirlooms. The rearguard led by his son Owen was some miles behind the bridge at
a schoolhouse awaiting slaves that they believed would swell their ranks. Three men were set up
in the Rifle Works. This temporary calm would soon be dissipated by a raging tempest of gunfire
4 Truman Nelson The Old Man John Brown at Harper’s Ferry, (N.Y.: Holt, Rinehartand Winston,1973) 108

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and violence. The town was aware of an intruder in their midst well before dawn, riders hit the
country side with the news of a large armed party.
The morning of October 17 the National Intelligencer, Washington DC, initially cabled
the news of the insurrection claiming, “the band is composed of about two hundred and fifty
whites, followed by a band of negroes, who are now fighting.”5 As we know those numbers were
greatly exaggerated, the following dispatches continue to reflect the attitude that Harper’s Ferry
is a large and widespread insurrection. The third dispatch sent by the National Intelligencer,
claims that the affair is more serious than local authorities believe, the telegraph wires are cut (a
truth), and that the “reported stampede of negroes is from Maryland.”6 The language used in
these dispatches reflects a frantic energy and false belief in a great apocalyptic insurrection. That
is because the nation has been dreading one of large magnitude for years and years. The people
of both north and south lived in fear of this. The train that Brown allowed to pass reached
Monocacy station, Maryland, early that morning and telegraphed the news of the raid. While the
train made its way through Maryland passengers dropped notes out of the windows with news of
the raid, they too were often greatly exaggerated.
The morning of the 17th saw nearly every able bodied man in Charlestown grab arms and
ready himself to rid Harper’s Ferry of the invaders. A young boy at the time, Elijah Avery would
later recount in his account of the attack that at 9 a.m. troops and armed citizens marched to the
Winchester and Harper’s Ferry railroad depot to wait on the train. When the train arrived they
ordered everyone off and boarded up.7 These men didn’t see the political reverberations of this
5 The National Intelligencer, “Reported Insurrection and Captureof the Arsenal atHarper’s Ferry” (Oct. 18, 1859)
Incidentat Harpers Ed. E. Stone 21
6 The National Intelligencer, “Reported Insurrection and Capture of the Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry (Oct. 18, 1859)
Incidentat Harpers Ed. E. Stone 21
7 Elijah Avery, The Capture and Execution of John Brown (Chicago:Afro-AM Press,1969) 13

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event that were already looming on the horizon. They picked up arms to protect home and
hearth. That day would be a microcosm of the violence America would soon find itself in. Brown
had round up a good many hostages and had been by and far cordial to them, assuring them of
his protection. Now was the time to dig in for the fight. By the time of 11 a.m. there is heavy
gunfire exchanged between Brown’s men and the locals/militia who have arrived. At this point
in time Brown delays action and seems hesitant, his men in the Rifle Works have requested
orders and received non from him. He seemed distant and aloof. Most likely Brown had already
come to terms with the possibility his own death long ago but had not considered that he would
fail.
Brown and his men became trapped when a force arrived from the Maryland side and
took the bridge. The rest of the day militia reigned potshots down on Brown and endangered his
hostages. The next morning Colonel Lee had his troops seize the engine room of the armory. One
of Brown’s sons was dead, the other dying in his arms. A bloodied, battered old man was
dragged out of the armory and lain upon the grass outside the building. To most he did not
appear long for this world, his wounds appeared fatal. If he did not succumb to his wounds there
was a sizable lynch mob forming that would make sure to hurry the process. All the while
journalists tried to get a word from Brown, they were most likely the only ones who were afraid
of him dying on the spot before they could illicit a response from him.
In an interview with the Governor, reported by the Baltimore Weekly, John Brown
claimed that no more than 22 men ever stayed at the farm but that at any time he could arm 1500
men. John Brown claims he had “good right to expect the aid of 2000 to 5000 men at any time I
wanted.”8 His claim seems delusional, he expected large numbers of men from a variety of
8 The Baltimore Weekly Sun “The Governor’s Interview With Old Brown” (Oct. 22, 1859) Incident at Harpers Ed. E.
Stone 44

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Southern and Northern states, along with Canada to pick up arms in an instant. Brown may not
have had the aptitude for armed insurrection but he knew the value of spoken word. His claims
might seem outrageous in retrospect but the people of Virginia did not know that at the time.
Brown was most likely stirring the pot in his defeat; spreading fear where he could. Brown then
attributed the failure of the operation to letting the train pass by. That was his one concession to
the governor and only admittance of failure in any capacity. The train was indeed showed a
critical error in judgment but in reality sabotaging the tracks or holding the train would have only
prolonged the inevitable a little longer. John did admit that the raid was a disaster but not to the
governor. A contingent of 3,000 soldiers filled quiet Charleston at the governor’s behest and
turned the city into an armed camp. Everything short of martial law was declared in the city and
citizens spread rumors of an armed party coming to rescue Brown.
The weeks around the trial proceedings and execution would do much in the way of
providing a platform for John to be raised up on. Reporters constantly sought to interview him
during this time. Brown was read a warrant to appear in court the morning of October 25 in his
jail cell. During this the governor, a senator, and J.E.B. Stuart were all present. After his warrant
was read he was transported to the courthouse via stretcher as he was still gravely injured from
the assault on the engine room. The court was in an uproarious mood which agitated Brown and
caused him to sit up and proclaim his guilt and his wish that they would commence with hanging
him. Brown never gave up his conspirators though they were found through documents at the
farmhouse, most except Sanborn fled. Brown vehemently denied insanity, taking full
responsibility for his actions and also knowing how damaging an insanity plea would be to his
goal.

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In his closing address to the court Brown summoned his ever ready passion and
eloquence to give a testament that would live through the ages. One portion of his address in
particular alludes to his martyrdom, “Now, if 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 say; LET IT BE DONE.9 It is
important to note the image of his blood mingled with that of everyone who has suffered under
the tyrannies of slavery. He becomes John Brown the martyr and John Brown the everyman, an
embodiment of the resistance. This notion will be reflected two years later when the Union Army
takes up the song “John Brown’s Body.” He was pronounced guilty and sentenced to hanging on
December 2. During those few weeks of imprisonment people clamored for his autograph and
bought all sorts of memorabilia relating to the raid. John politely declined to give autographs.
The day of John Brown’s execution an eager John Wilkes Booth borrowed a military uniform so
that he could witness the hanging in person.10 There was a large barricade providing distance
between the crowd and the scaffolding which was occupied by soldiers, so disguise was the only
way Booth could catch a front row seat. This is one of history’s seemingly fated meetings as the
man who is regarded as firing the initial shots of the civil war is executed in front of the man
who fired the last shots of the war he could not let go.
John Brown was born in Connecticut, he was raised in Ohio after his family moved there
when he was 5 years old. His father was an ardent abolitionist, in 1850 near his death he wrote a
9 John Brown, Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court, when about to receive the sentence of death,
for his heroic attempt at Harper's Ferry... https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/t-05508-
051.pdf (Boston: C.C.Mead, 1859)
10 Franny Nudelman “The Blood of Millions”:John Brown’s Body, Public Violence,and Political Community Ed.
Taylor andHerrington The Afterlife of John Brown (NY: PalgraveMacMillan,2005) 41

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statement on his abolitionist beliefs concluding that “I have been an Abolitionist; and I am so
near the end of life I think I shall die an Abolitionist."11 Owen Brown remained an abolitionist
throughout his life despite the disdain of his fellow man that he felt at times. Undoubtedly John
Brown empathized with his father and longed to be a man that his father could be proud of. The
Brown family was a tight unit of support which transitioned to the closeness John would feel
with his own children. His earliest aspiration was to be a minister, his attempt ended up being a
failure, setting up a pattern of failure that would follow throughout his life. His town of Hudson,
Ohio, was an abolitionist stronghold. It actively aided in the Underground Railroad and even
went as far as to publish these successes in the paper.12 This openness towards the anti-slavery
movement surely fostered the growth of abolitionist philosophy, rhetoric, and active planning
within John Brown and other youngsters of the area. One particularly formative experienced
happened during the time period of the war of 1812. John Brown was staying with a slave
owning landlord who happened to have a young slave around the same age as John. The landlord
took a liking to John but terribly mistreated the slave often beating him with a shovel. John saw
no difference between himself and the young slave who he viewed as an equal. The experience
hardened his resolve towards ending slavery at a young age. His empathy for the plight of slaves
would be an ever present companion while he traveled across a corrupted country.
In an 1833 letter to his brother Brown seems plagued by conscience and inability to do
much of anything but he resolves to do what he can, “Since you left me I have been trying to
devise some means whereby I might do something in a practical way for my poor fellow-men
who are in bondage, and having fully consulted the feelings of my wife and my three boys, we
11 F. B. Sanborn, ed., The Life and Letters of John Brown. “Statement of Owen Brown as an Abolitionist”Boston:
Roberts Brothers, 1891.,pp. 10-11 http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/sanborn10.html
12 http://www.wvculture.org/history/wvhs1321.html

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have agreed to get at least one negro boy or youth, and bring him up as we do our own.” 13 John
then further ruminates on his failed attempts to start a school for blacks in Pennsylvania,
claiming that it has been a “favorite theme of reflection for years”; believing that such an
institute could take hold and grow, setting an example.14 In this year John married his second
wife who was but sixteen at the time, older by four years than John Brown’s eldest from his first
marriage. She was dutiful and supportive, the perfect fit for John after the death of his first wife.
John already had three children at the time and raising them on his own would have been a
handful.
John Brown’s life before armed abolitionism was a pursuit of various failures. Every
business adventure turned to ash in his hands yet he continued on and ever believed in his own
impending success. Writing from today David Reynolds attributes a strong class identity with
John Brown’s growing sympathy towards to all those enslaved by the capitalist system.15 I do not
think it is coincidence that Reynolds finds John Brown to be a warrior of class so soon after the
global financial crisis. However one frames his business acumen, it must be admitted he really
never had any. What is important to note in his correspondence with family and friends through
these misadventures is the constant cheerfulness and piety. Constant borrowing marked John
Brown’s life in the 30’s and 40’s, a time that corresponded with a national economic downturn.
In 1939 Brown took $5,500 from Wadsworth and Wells, his current business partners in
cattle sale, without their knowledge or consent.16 He used the money to immediately pay off part
13John Brown, Frederick Brown, “John Brown to his Brother Frederick” Old South Leaflets, No. 84,"Words of John
Brown," copy in John Brown Pamphlets, Vol. 1, Boyd B. Stutler Collection,West Virginia StateArchives
http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/oldsouthbrownletter.html
14 John Brown, Frederick Brown, “John Brown to his Brother Frederick” Old South Leaflets, No. 84,"Words of John
Brown," copy in John Brown Pamphlets, Vol. 1, Boyd B. Stutler Collection,West Virginia StateArchives
http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/oldsouthbrownletter.html
15David S. Reynolds. John Brown, Abolitionist (NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005) p. 69
16Reynolds. John Brown p. 72

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of a loan on a farm, his business partners threatened him with arrest. Somehow John Brown
found himself justified in his actions and promised money that would be coming in shortly from
Boston cattle sales. He ended up borrowing more to pay the debt when the money failed to show
from Boston. This became the degrading cycle of Brown’s life; borrowing from Peter to pay
Paul. In the summer of 1842 he finally filed for bankruptcy, a horde of creditors at his heels. The
court inventoried his sparse assets, a few tools and meager food rations, the real curiosity and
priority of John Browns life was listed in eleven Bibles and testaments appraised at $6.50.17
Religiosity had become centrally thematic to the man’s life, it was important that he share his
fervor with his family. At this time the man had a family of twelve children, making fourteen
Browns total. In the next year four would die. As his children many of them grew skeptical of the
bible and his two eldest became outright agnostics. Even though John Brown sought to dissuade
them from this path many of his children forsook religious life and remained apostates. He never
gave up on converting them back. These years saw a poor John Brown becoming increasingly
concerned with moral obligations as he immersed himself in religion. These years of poverty
show John Brown to be an extremely resilient man, others would have given up, but he moved
from disastrous business venture to disastrous business venture with hope for better outcome.
This extreme optimism and faith in providence would characterize the execution of the Raid
nearly two decades later.
There is a point where Brown became increasingly focused on the injustice of slavery, so
much that he resolved to use violence to see its end. The 1850’s saw a generalized increase in
militant abolitionism, many pacifists began to see it as the only remaining viable option. The past
two formative decades of John Brown’s life had seen martyrs and heroes that the abolition
17Anonymous, John Brown Bankruptcy Inventory 1842,Boyd B. Stutler Collection
http://www.wvculture.org/history/jbexhibit/bbsms03-0006.html (4/14)

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movement could rally and aspire to. In 1937 Elijah Lovejoy, editor of an abolitionist paper, was
murdered at the hands of an Illinois mob who sought to destroy his press. Not only was Elijah an
abolitionist editor but he was also a Presbyterian minister. His murder struck a chord with John
Brown. Now we can see a man who had failed in most his life endeavors and still remained
steadfast in his beliefs and resolve. Abolition, that is violent abolition, would prove to be
something he was indeed capable at. After his capture at Harper’s Ferry, Brown would time and
time again made remarks that his actions were not spurred by any sort of vanity but only moral
obligation. In 1855 three of John Brown’s sons Owen, Salmon, and Frederick staked claim of
lands in Kansas, north of Osawatomie and south of Lawrence. His other sons Jason and John Jr.
soon followed. The winter of 1854-55 saw John Brown traveling Ohio and the Northeast to sell
cattle in order to afford to move out west.18 John Jr. was met with warnings of violence by
Missouri pro-slavers who were harassing free-state settlers, it only served to enrage him. John
Brown, fearing for the safety of his family came to Kansas later that year with a wagon of
weapons and found his first battle ground waiting.
Before there was Harper’s Ferry in Virginia there was Pottawatomie Creek and
Osawatomie in Kansas. John would earn the moniker “Osawatomie Brown” for battling out in
Kansas. On a summer night in 1856 Brown and seven others dragged sleeping slavery
proponents from their sleep and butchered five with swords in retaliation for the deaths of five
free-soilers. There are two things to glean from this incident in order to understand Brown’s
attack and then his celebrated image during the civil war. The first is that the murders were
deliberate and planned well in advance; John was now irrevocably militant, a changed man.
Secondly, of paramount importance to his legacy in the immediate years following his death, he
18 Oates, Purge pp.85-86

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was never caught and forced to answer for the murders. The involvement of John Brown in the
incident remained mostly knowledge in the West. There have been several recent claims by
scholars that Brown was a mentally ill man, possibly manic or bi-polar. This doesn’t really fit
with his deliberative manner of attack and in choosing his five victims for maximum effect. Greg
McGlone does a fine job refuting claims to insanity in John Brown’s War Against Slavery.
Brown crossed a line that night, maybe he suffered mental anguish over it maybe he didn’t;
today his motives are for the killings are the most heatedly debated aspect of the man. A person
no less than President Buchanan offered a bounty for the capture of Brown following the
incident. The situation in Kansas was extremely volatile during that time and it appeared that
open war would break out. Free-soilers and Missouri ruffians engaged bloody clashes.
Bushwhacking, lighting raids, and general lawless pervaded Kansas; this lawlessness helped
John escape capture and it taught him how to fight using fear. The five killed men weren’t
simply stabbed they were hacked to bits. Their deaths kick started extreme violence in Kansas
and Brown saw significant combat while losing two sons.
John Brown had the potential to carry celebrity and iconoclasm past the grave. This was
appreciated by many during the period of trial, including Thoreau. Thoreau pleaded for Brown’s
life but fully acknowledged his potential, “doubting if a prolonged life, if any life, can do as
much good as his death.”19 It is indeed possible that while many abolitionists wanted his life
spared they also secretly yearned for a sacrificial lamb. To most John Brown was still just a
crazed militant who would be hung, talked about, and followed by a return to normal life. Brown
himself had a strong grasp of the power of symbolism, time and time again he chooses actions
that will deliberately send a message. The murder of five individuals in the Pottawatomie
19Henry David Thoreau, The Writings of Henry David Thoreau (Walden edition) (Boston: Houghton Mifflin and
Company, 1906) 120 The Walden Woods Project www.walden.org/

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killings, choosing Washington and his relics, his Calvinist rhetoric of fire and brimstone, the
courtroom address, etc., are all examples of Brown thinking in terms and reactions beyond the
immediate. Now he had laid the pieces and tools out for the abolitionist movement to create their
own symbol with his death. Harper’s Ferry, the trial, and later execution of John Brown
invigorated the abolitionist community in the North. Public meetings and fundraisers sprung up
during the period from his arrest till weeks after his death. Attendees were often charged at the
door and given an opportunity to buy John Brown paraphernalia including pictures of him and
copies of his court room speech. These gatherings were an excellent opportunity for abolitionist
intellectuals to sharpen their rhetoric before large audiences while Brown fever lasted. Thoreau
was a particularly hot on the circuit.
Not only was John Brown a symbol in himself but it seemed that greater powers were at
work as well. On November 15, 1859 early in the morning there was a great red meteor or comet
across the sky. Many people saw it as an omen of war and bloodshed to come. In the decades
following Brown’s death and the civil war he would often before referred to in celestial or
meteoric terms in poetry, literature, and song. Walt Whitman refers to Brown on the scaffold in
his poem “Year of Meteors, 1859’60.” (reference) Whitman was an abolitionist who remained
conflicted about John Brown throughout his life, he was not a man to advocate violence but
Brown was a striking figure. In his poem Brown is calm in the face of death. Herman Melville
called him “the meteor of war in his poem “The Portent,”20 the list goes on and on.
It didn’t hurt that most everything John Brown said or wrote was being published in
national newspapers. In a letter to the Governor of Virginia, the abolitionist Henry Clarke Wright
claimed that John Brown “has edited every paper, presided over every domestic and social circle,
20 Melville,Herman. Battle-pieces and aspects of the war. Gainesville,Fla.:Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints,1960.

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over every prayer, conference and church meeting, over every pulpit and platform, and over
every Legislature, Judicial and Executive department of government; and he will edit every
paper, and govern Virginia and all the States, and preside over Congress, guide its deliberations,
and control all political caucuses and elections, for one year to come.”21 This statement was not
nearly as farfetched as it seemed. Up until his execution nearly everything Brown wrote or said
was published. He was allowed correspondence and his letters were widely printed and
distributed. On October 25, the day of the trial, The National Intelligencer ran a transcript of a
conversation between Brown and a few men of importance, including Senator Mason, while he
was held captive in Harper’s Ferry. When asked by a bystander how he was able to justify his
actions, Brown replied: “By the Golden Rule. I pity the poor in bondage; that is why I am here; it
is not to gratify any personal animosity or feeling of revenge or vindictive spirit.”22 The nation
was riveted by this man who was willing to kill other white men for the sake of moral obligation
to black slaves.
Talk of Pottawatomie began to surface after Harper’s Ferry. Abolitionists fought it with
fervor and denied the talk as rumors. James Redpath was John Brown’s first biographer,
publishing The Public Life of Capt. John Brown and Echoes of Harper’s Ferry in 1860. Redpath
vehemently denied any affiliation Brown had to the massacre calling the charges a lie, spread by
his enemies.23 Most likely Redpath outright lied to ensure his view of Brown, he had traveled in
with John in Kansas during those bloody months; to claim ignorance would be ridiculous. The
21 Henry ClarkeWright."Letter to Henry Wilson." The Natick Resolution Or, Resistance to Slaveholders the Right
and Duty of Southern Slaves and Northern Freemen. P.16 Emory University Digital Library PublicationsProgram
archive.org/details/10928042.4856.emory.edu
22 The National Intelligencer. “Conversation With Capt. Brown”(Oct. 25, 1859) ) Incidentat Harpers Ed. E. Stone
p.46
23 James Redpath. The public life of Capt. John Brown,. (Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860.)
http://books.google.com (April 23,2014)

17. 17
abolitionist faction struck fast and hard in order to secure Brown’s legacy for their cause.
Abolitionist ministers gave sermons featuring Brown in both Old Testament and New Testament
capacity. To many of them he was both an agent of God’s wrath and a magnanimous caretaker of
slaves, a martyr who died so they might be freed. Transcendentalists such as Melville and
Emerson also helped promote biblical imagery in the years after his death.
In the months after his execution the South, fearing insurrection, became increasingly
militarized. Local militia units formed community defense. The raid may have failed in
immediate purpose but it did manage to send a chill down the spine of southern communities.
They too would respond to Brown in their own manner. They denounced him as a bloodthirsty
fanatic and whipped up hate for abolitionists in general. That is not to say that the raid wasn’t
met with criticism throughout the country; it was intensely vitriolic in the South. The South often
tied Brown in with the Republican Party, which he happened to have actually disliked in life.
The song “John Brown’s Entrance to Hell” was written shortly after the Emancipation
Proclamation. In the song Brown and Lincoln are seated on either side of the devil.24
In the summer of 1861 John Brown had become a mascot and rallying standard of the
Union Army. Two years after being denounced as a fanatic in both the North and South during
his trial and execution. On Sunday May 12, 1861 “John Brown’s Body” was first sung at Fort
Warren, every verse ending with “His soul is marching on.”25 This transformation is
astoundingly rapid. John Brown’s name became now synonymous with patriotism, self-sacrifice,
religion, and national perseverance. This song was an excellent bit of wartime propaganda used
when the nation needed a rallying standard and a blanket of moral imperative in which to strike
24 “John Brown's entrance into hell.”Balt., March 1863. C. T. A., Printer.
25 Louis A. DeCaro, Jr.. “Black People’s Ally,White People’s Bogeyman: A John Brown Story” Ed. Taylor,Herrington.
The Afterlife of John Brown p.27

18. 18
blows against its brothers and sons. The cause for war could be identified with bloodshed for
compassion and righteousness. Brown’s final testament during his trial already alluded to his
blood mingling with that of the slaves, the leap the blood of the nation’s soldiers being shed in
noble combat was not far to make. This is in tune with the national phenomenon of radicals
taking control in the months leading into the civil war. The south had firebrands like William
Yancey, Edmund Ruffin, and Robert Rhett who all pushed for war; when these men got their
wish most were actively shunted out of the political scene as moderates took control during the
combat years. This was true of the abolitionists as well and they managed a restoration of John
Brown’s image, his body lie moldering, but his spirit carried on. While his tactics failed
miserably at Harper’s Ferry they managed to survive his death in the form of General David
Hunter, operating in the western theater of the war. Hunter knew of John Brown in Kansas and
he tried to follow his example by arming slaves that the army came across in its campaign in
order to wage total war. His superiors did not care for the arming of freed slaves in the least.
The disaster of Reconstruction began a general change in opinion of Brown, the failures
of post-civil war America could be found in violent men who pushed the country into war.
Abolitionists who were once firmly in his camp began to question him and denounce him as a
fanatic. A huge blow came to John Brown’s legacy in 1879. William A. Philips, a former
correspondent admitted knowledge to Brown’s hand in the massacre in Kansas. In 1885 Franklin
Benjamin Sanborn, one of John Brown’s Secret Six, edited and published the Life and Letters of
John Brown. He tried to vilify and restore Brown’s legacy as a martyr and moral warrior. In
1937 Kansas needed its state house interior redone and they wanted one man to do it, John
Curry. Curry was already deemed a fairly radical painter and he agreed to do the job on the
condition that had full artistic license. The resulting mural is entitled “Tragic Prelude”, and it

19. 19
adorns the inside of the Kansas state house to this day. It features a colossal John Brown front
and center, towering over Union and Confederate soldiers. He is portrayed in Old Testament
fashion with a gun in one hand and a bible in the other. His hands are drenched in blood. This
painting is still controversial within the state.
A lot of popular sentiment around John Brown boils down to whether or not a person
feels that an end justifies the means. He has become the product of personal ideological belief in
the last century. John Brown’s deep religious affiliation has made him an easy target for
accusations of zealotry and fanaticism. This is especially true with the rise in awareness of
militant jihadism. One thing to consider when approaching this subject is that John Brown
recruited individuals with a variety of religious backgrounds for his plans. His own sons were
agnostic and they still felt the moral imperative to die for his cause. John Brown may have been
guided by biblical principle but he was not consumed by it. Today many authors have resurrected
John Brown as hero. He does not enjoy much attention in popular song, art, or film but historians
are still fiercely contesting his legacy. Many black historians, like W.E.B. Du Bois, have long
viewed Brown in the light of moral emancipator, which seems like a natural position given the
legacy of slavery. Du Bois strove to find the relationships between Brown and the American
black community, which at the time he wrote John Brown, was an overlooked subject. In his
preface Du Bois claims that Brown of all Americans came closest to touching the souls of black
people.26 In the light of many people equating John Brown with modern terrorism, such as
Timothy McVeigh, David S. Reynolds wrote an astoundingly detailed book, John Brown
Abolitionist, that not only goes into incredibly detail about his life but his legacy. Reynolds
addresses Brown as the absolutely complex character that he really is and warns against any
26 W.E.B. Du Bois.John Brown New Ed (NY: International Publishers,1962)p.8

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comparison to modern terrorists. John Brown’s legacy is indeed in the eye of the beholder even
to this day. There is no general societal consent on the man, he has been revered by killers and
pacifists alike.
In the 1940 film Santa Fe Trail Brown is a wild villain, he is cast in a most unfavorable
light.27 John Brown hasn’t appeared in much film since then, there are documentaries and a
docudrama here or there. America has moved away from the age of westerns in film and the
events of the time period seldom get the attention they did a few decades ago. In the docudrama
North and South Johnny Cash has a small but powerful role as John Brown, he plays a
commanding, no-nonsense figure. Modern cultural icons have weighed in on John Brown,
Malcolm X said in a 1964 Ebony interview that he wouldn’t accept white people into his
organization but “If John Brown were still alive, we might accept him.”28 Considering
Malcolm’s views on race this was a pretty special praise. The director Quentin Tarantino has
stated that John Brown is his favorite American hero. He still remains very relevant, especially in
a society that has become increasingly wary of ideological terrorism.
John Brown is a case of heroic failure in the sense that he plunged headfirst into a rushed
plan that had virtually no chances of success and died for it. In his death he became a martyr for
a considerable portion of the United States, even if many did not espouse him or his ideals during
the civil war they still lived in a country whose army marched to the tune of “John Brown’s
Body” and were in contact with his legacy constantly. To this day there is a strong undercurrent
of support for a man that many believe was wholly justified in his actions. The Raid on Harper’s
Ferry was a catastrophe in only the smallest sense; in the fact that it did not actually work. If it
had gone as planned it might galvanized an entire nation against an armed uprising, instead it
27 Santa Fe Trail.Film.Directed by Michael (Warner Bros.,1940.)
28 Massaquoi,Hans J.. "Mystery of MalcolmX." Ebony, September 1964.http://books.google.com/ (April 15,2014)

21. 21
found the fissure in America and fully pulled it apart. Brown had a knack for symbolism and
powerful oration; he needed to lift the sword to become the subject a focal point of national
attention but it was his ability to communicate allowed his martyrdom. He ultimately won; his
will was completed in the abolition of slavery throughout the whole country, accomplished in a
mere five year span since his execution. There is never going to be a general consensus on
whether Brown was ethically right or what his true motives were but it can be said that his legacy
flourished and his legend grew.
Miles Sanders

22. 22
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Avey, Elijah. The capture and execution of John Brown: a tale of martyrdom. Chicago: Afro-Am
Press, 1969.
Bois, W. E. B.. John Brown. Centennial ed. New York: International Publishers, 1962.
Brown, John, and Frederick Brown. John Brown to his Brother Frederick.
Randolph, Pa.Nov. 21, 1834. Old South Leaflets, No. 84, "Words of John Brown," copy
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Brown, John, and Charles C. Mead. Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court, when about to
receive the sentence of death, for his heroic attempt at Harper's Ferry, to give
deliverance to the captives, and to let the oppressed go free: (Mr. Brown, upon inquiry
whether he had anything to . Boston, Mass.: Printed by C.C. Mead, 91 Washington

23. 23
Street, and for sale at the Liberator Office, 21 Cornhill, Boston, 1859.
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