John Brown was jailed, put on trial, convicted of treason, and then hung after his raid on Harpers Ferry. I will go more in-depth about the reactions to John Brown’s death and capture in later blogs, but first I want to talk about Brown’s final speech before he died. What I find so haunting about his speech, is that someone could give it today and it would still apply today.  In his speech, John Brown unapologetically calls out the ruling class for their immorality and hypocrisy on the subject of slavery.

I will not quote the speech in its entirety, it’s not very long you can read it if you feel so inclined, but I want to highlight this section:

“…had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment”

Essentially, John Brown is saying the only reason he is being portrayed as a terrorist and condemned to death, is because he was working on behalf of the interest of everyday people. This is a very important fact Brown is digging at and is often overlooked. Slavery was good for business — everywhere. The “north” and “south” were deeply intertwined economically, and while the “north” may not have wanted slavery in their homes, they did rely on it for cheap resources for their own businesses. Slavery was a national institution and only survived because the entire nation supported it and relied on it for its economic success. Brown recognized this before he even raided harpers ferry, as he was a wool merchant and took a trip to Europe to beg people to stop buying cotton from slaveholding territories.

So when Brown talks about the ruling class he is not just referring to the Southern plantation owners, but the wealthy Northern men and women too. Brown was a threat to the delicate system they had in place. Brown also implies that if he worked as hard as he did to keep the institutions of slavery, he would be regarded as a war hero. Now, this is an easy theory to test, we simply just have to look at other figures that have supported slavery and what kind of recognition they received, which I will do in my next blog.

The point I want to make in this blog is that Brown directly challenged the authority of the ruling elite class and he was killed for it. If he had done the exact same thing but instead had the backing of the powerful, he would be regarded as a hero. He was not being judged on the morality or legality of his actions, but he was judged based on how his actions challenged the power dynamic in the United States. I will also hit on this point again in future blogs.

“I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. 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 submit; so let it be done!”

sources:

https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/johnbrown.html

https://acwm.org/blog/myths-misunderstandings-north-and-slavery