Category: Passion Blog

John Brown was a man who grew up in a religious household, and I would argue while he was a religious man, his faith was rooted in the ideals of liberty. John Brown committed himself to the abolitionist movement at a young age, but did not state this publicly until a proslavery group murdered a fellow abolitionist. Much of his ideas of Slavery were formed when he spent time in Springfield, Massachusetts. This was a progressive leading town where wealthy merchants resided, and influential people lived. Brown attended the Free church and there he was able to hear lectures from people like Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. He ended up speaking with Douglass on multiple occasions and he talked about his plans to abolish Slavery.

John Brown wished to spark uprisings in slaves by arming them, which would spur slave rebellions all across the country and ruin the economy’s validity of Slavery. Other abolitionists thought that Brown’s violent overthrow of the institution of Slavery Was reckless and dangerous, including William Lloyd Garrison. He had trouble recruiting people to fight with him, and he had difficulty raising funds for his campaigns. Brown raid on Harpers Ferry was thought to increase tensions between the north and south, leading to the violent outbreak of the civil war. 

 While Garrison supported Brown’s efforts to protect fugitive slaves in Springfield, he did not agree with Brown’s plans to use violence as the means of overturning Slavery. Garrison instead edited and published an abolitionist paper called the Liberator. He was very aggressive in his critique of Slavery and never shied away from calling out people and the constitution of its hypocrisy. He was also a man deeply rooted in faith, along with Brown. Garrison was both physically and verbally harassed, but he stayed nonviolent and kept writing. He also had trouble raising funds for his newspaper, and most of his money came from subscriptions, who of which were mostly formerly enslaved individuals. 

To compare the violent and nonviolent use of resistance and which one was more effective in terms of Browns and Garrison’s goals is tricky. They were both profoundly passionate about liberty, and that was common among most people in the country at the time.

Brown was deemed a graver threat than Garrison by those in power because he was arguing against the economic system of Slavery, which is why he had to be executed. While Garrison was widely influential,  his paper subscriptions were mostly freed slaves, so his paper did not threaten the establishment as much as John Brown did. People did try to stop his paper from circulating but were mostly unsuccessful. John Brown’s use of violence was controversial, and most of all, people were afraid that he would start a trend of insurrection.

Brown’s use of violence alienated the support of other abolitionists and failed to recruit the numbers of people needed to carry out his plans to overthrow the slave economy. He ultimately, was convicted of murder and treason and hanged without his goal of slave rebellions across the country ever taking place. William Lloyd Garrison believed strongly about the principles of freedom, especially that all men have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. His paper was hugely influential; Abraham Lincoln even invited him to the White House and said that he was one of the reasons Slavery ended. 

Brown’s vision for a slave rebellion never did come to fruition, but the south did become more fearful, and many historians argue that he sparked the civil war. Nonviolent resistance tends to take longer to become noticed, but Garrison’s efforts did have some impact on the dialog around slavery and policy decisions. 

Whether you agree with him or not, there is no denying that John Brown had a big impact on American history and on American culture. There is a big discussion on whether or not John Brown sparked the civil war. Some people seem to think so, arguing that his raid increased tensions in the north and the south. Tensions were already high, but the fact that a white northern, attacked other white people in the south for the rights of enslaved people made it impossible for the media to ignore. Often time other rebellions started by enslaved people were repressed easily and were never spread widely. Part of this was the result of how plantations were built, they have spread out far apart from each other and there were limitations on gatherings of black people. This limited the spread of information and also other people being inspired by other slave rebellions. 

John Brown, however, had a wide range of supporters and denouncers in the north and south so it was not able to be expunged from the media. His trial and death further sensationalized the issue and turned him into Martyr, which solidified John Brown’s legacy in the American consciousness. A battle hymn called John Brown’s Body was created by union soldiers during the civil war, showing how John Brown has aligned himself for the struggle of freedom. John Brown also influenced the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau, especially towards the end of his life. He was very supportive of John Brown’s commitment to his cause and gave a speech entitled “A pleas for captain john brown” after the raid on harpers ferry where he detailed how brown was not insane, but instead a highly moral and courageous individual. 

Brown also inspired his fair share of haters. John Wilkes booth, the man that assassinated Abraham Lincoln, attended John Brown’s execution. Now I do not think John Brown inspired his assassination of Lincoln, but it is quite interesting how these historical moments overlapped. Brown also inspired his fair share of art pieces. I went to the MET last year and saw several paintings of John Brown, that have become quite famous. Even in the Kansas capitol building, there is a painting of John Brown called the ‘Tragic Prelude’ that depicts John Brown with a and a rifle in hand while there is fighting between the union and confederate soldiers. 

The last thing I want to touch on is the influence Brown has had on activism. While many people do not agree with violent resistance, and instead adopt the practice of non-violent resistance, at first there does not seem Brown has any influence over it today. However, it is not about the tactics of resistance that people take away from Brown’s legacy, his biggest impact is forcing people to make a choice about which side they are on. Since Brown is such a polarizing figure, people have to decide whether they agree with Brown or not. or how should he be viewed — as a hero or terrorist?  Killer Mike — a rapper, activist, and actor — recently posted a picture on Instagram of him holding a portrait of John Brown. He captioned it by saying John Brown is one of his personal heroes, and that he admired the fact Brown gave his life to justice and racial equality. Many people in the comments were either against Brown or for him, but they all were forced to make a choice on what they think activism should or should not be. There is nothing more important than making that choice.

One of the topics that really interests me is how controversial and polarizing a figure John Brown still is today. The way people see him range from a terrorist, murder, delusional, mad man, fanatic, radical, or hero. Oftentimes these adjectives are paired together because even people who view him favorably still consider him delusional or fanatical. I happen to view Brown favorably because of his willingness to act when quite honestly many people failed to do so.

Many people did not want to get involved in a conflict when it came to slavery. The Quakers are a good example of this. If you are not familiar with the Quakers, they are a Christian religious sect that are centered around the principle of pacifism. When I studied fugitive slave cases in Lancaster County, I found that it was often Quakers that housed fugitive slaves and made up a lot of the underground railroad spots. They were not the ones to be vocal advocates for political or systematic change because they prefer to work behind the scenes instead of causing conflict. Now I am not saying what they did was not important work or that it did not help people, but I am asking if their work fundamentally changed the system of injustice? I do not think it did, because they did not directly challenge slavery. Rather by working in the background, they allowed the institution of slavery to continue longer because they did not directly confront it. 

One of Brown’s most famous quotes is “These men are all talk. What we need is action—action!” which he said in direct response to the pacifist in the abolitionist movement. He truly believed that nothing would change if people did not put their lives on the line to stand up to an unjust system. John Brown used violent measures to end a violent, evil system. I think it is an interesting moral and ethical question to ask is whether or not it is okay to use violence to end a more violent and evil system? What are the moral implications of doing nothing to stop a violent system? 

A lot of people look at violence as inherently bad and therefore see Brown as a terrorist. The problem I have with this, however, is that why do people not condemn slaveholders as terrorists when they arguably committed more violent acts? Honestly, I do not believe it is about the violence — but how the violence is used. When violence is state-sanctioned, it is suddenly okay, but when regular people use violence against the state it is terrorism. We can see this with how people uphold Confederate General Robert E. Lee as a hero and upstanding man, even though he used violence against other Americans in support of slavery, a violent system. But since it was during the war it is okay because war is sanctioned by the state, and so was slavery. However, Brown, who was fighting in support of oppressed people, is considered a terrorist because his violence was against the state and not state-sanctioned.

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

To prepare for the Raid on Harpers Ferry, we know John Brown had rented out a cabin on the edge of town at the Kennedy Farm. For almost a month, around twenty men covertly lived here. John Brown, a 15-year-old daughter, Annie, also joined the men there as part of the cover story. She was also joined by her brother Oliver’s wife, Martha. They would often run interference with nosey neighbors and cook for the men staying at the cabin. The men had to hide from the neighbors and could only come out at night to not raise suspicion amongst the townsmen. This was proved difficult as people become curious about their neighbors when they live in a small town. However, they were able to evade suspicion.

The raid officially started on October 16th, 1859. The plan was first to kidnap prominent figures of the community and to use them as a bargaining chip in case. One of these people was Colonel Lewis Washington, who happened to be George Washington’s great-grand-nephew. They took the hostages to the federal armory, where all the weapons were stored. At the same time, another group went to cut the telegraph lines, and a train came through the station. However, this is where one of Brown’s men made a grave mistake. They shot and killed Heyward Sheppard, a black freeman who was the train conductor. He was the first causality of the raid. But then they let proceed to let the train continue, with all the passengers, and as soon as the train made their next stop the story of old John Brown with hundreds of men were sacking a federal armory began to spread. The townspeople learned what was happening later that night and started to fight back against Brown, but he had already taken the armory.

The next day, the townspeople created a local militia and surrounded the armory. They also cut off the bridge across the Potomac River, so there was no way Brown and his men could escape. Four townspeople died while they were exchanging gunfire with Brown and his men. Brown eventually moved from the armory to the engine house, which is now known as the John Brown fort. Some of Brown’s men were also killed, including two of his sons Watson and Oliver. Allegedly, when Watson was dying from a gunshot to the stomach, he was asking Brown to put him out of his misery, and Brown responded with some harsh words, to say the least. He said to Watson that he should basically “die like a man.” Now, I doubt the veracity of the story, but I think it is interesting how people wanted to portray Brown.

The raid ended on October 18th, when Robert E. Lee arrived from texas with Marines. They were able to barge down the doors and capture the rest of Brown’s men that were still alive. Brown was wounded in his capture, but he would live for a few more months before being sentenced to die by hanging.

The raid itself was not successful, they did not succeed in stealing weapons or destroying them, but what was more important is what happened after the Raid on Harpers Ferry and the response to it.

I think for the first time, I am at a loss on how to approach this part of John Brown’s life. I find it quite comical that over ten blogs later, and I am just now getting to arguably the most important part of Brown’s life. To be honest, if you know nothing of Harpers Ferry or have never been, it is difficult to understand the story of  John Brown’s raid. Harpers Ferry’s role in American history starts long before John Brown was ever born, and continued to shape history after he died. It is one of those few places in the United States that seems like a magnet for dramatic events. In this blog, I will do my best to explain the history of Harpers Ferry before John Brown’s raid so that you will be able to understand better why Brown may have chosen this spot.

Geographically, it is quite a fantastic spot to see. It is the halfway point in the Appalachian trail and seems encased by the Blue Ridge Mountains. It sits at the intersection of the Potomac and Shenandoah river in West Virginia. Robert Harper recognized the potential for a business ferrying people from Virginia to Maryland, so he purchased some of the lands and was granted the right to operate a ferry in 1761. A town was then settled here called “Shenandoah Falls at Mr. Harper’s Ferry”, and was eventually shortened to Harpers Ferry [1].

George Washington passed through Harpers Ferry in 1785, and because of his familiarity with the spot, he chose it as a place to build a federal armory in 1794. With the armory being built, this brought gun manufacturing industry to Harpers Ferry. The town turned into a hub for mass production of military arms. Over a 60 year period, over 600,000 firearms were produced. They started out producing just muskets in 1802, but over the course of eight years, they were producing thousands of pistols and rifles [2].

In 1811, Captain John H. Hall created a .69 caliber breech-loading rifle called the Hall Rifle. This rifle was fearsome for its time because it could shoot up to 1500 yards away, and if you were a skilled marksman could shoot ten rounds a minute. Breechloader means that you insert the shell into the chamber, rather than in the muzzle. However, what was truly revolutionary about the rifle was not the type, but how it was made. Captain Hall designed it so that non-skilled workers could make it. He developed what he called the “uniformity principle,” what we would call today as interchangeable parts or machine precision. The US government agreed to purchase thousands of his rifles in 1819, and most of them were manufactured there at Harpers Ferry (3).

John Brown chose this spot for the strategic location of the federal armory, but also because of the Mountains. He thought that the Allegheny Mountains range was a gift from God, and he would be able to retreat into them and engage slave-holders in guerilla warfare. He also chose it because of the insane amount of weapons and ammunition that were stored there. In my next blog, I will talk about the John Brown raid there at Harpers Ferry.

[1] http://www.wvculture.org/history/archives/jnobrown.html

[2] https://www.nps.gov/hafe/learn/historyculture/harpers-ferry-armory-and-arsenal.htm

[3] https://www.guns.com/news/2011/02/08/harpers-ferry-america-begins-with-a-bang

I am sure you have heard of Fredrick Douglass before. In this blog, however, I plan to dig into his role with John Brown and his role in Harpers Ferry. In a quick summary of his life, Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818. He was taught to read and write by the people who enslaved him. He then eventually taught other enslaved people to read the New Testament. He tried to escape slavery twice and succeeded on the second attempt. He became an anti-slavery lecturer finally after demonstrating his skill as an orator. He even established newspapers to write about his own experience, the horrors of slavery, and abolitionism. He was also a supporter of women’s rights and attended the Seneca Falls Convention.

Fredrick Douglass first crossed paths with John Brown at a meeting in Springfield, MA, in 1847. At this meeting, John Brown outlined his plan to Douglass to raid Harpers Ferry armory. Douglass had objections to the strategy of the plan to raid the armory. He did not think it would work, but he did respect Brown’s dedication and commitment to end slavery.

That meeting in 1847, Douglass writes about in his autobiography Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. He says John Brown did not want to plan a general uprising among slaves or mass slaughter of slave owners. Instead, he wanted to “destroy the money value of slave property” by freeing slaves and helping them cross through the Allegheny mountains (link). Douglass does not go into how this would cause slavery to decrease in monetary value. Still, I believe John Brown thought by freeing slaves and fighting slaveholders in the mountain, he would create instability in the slave market, and people would deem it too risky to hold slaves.

Douglass became good friends with Brown and his family. Brown stayed at Douglass’s home in Rochester, New York, for a month in 1858. Brown wrote his provisional constitution for the state of Virginia, which I talked about in my last blog, during this time. Likely, Douglass knew much about the raid on Harpers Ferry, but it is hard to know what his level of involvement was. We do know that Douglass was not in favor of a violent end to slavery, and wanted to end slavery through the already existing legal system. The only letter we have surviving during Brown’s stay is a note Douglass wrote saying, “John, come down for dinner,” which I find quite amusing (link).

Like Harriet Tubman, Brown tried to convince Douglass to join his raid. Douglass declined (this fact is disputed). He did meet with Brown before the raid in Chambersburg, PA. Brown asks him to go, but Douglass says: “I can’t do it. You’re going to be surrounded in a trap of steel. You will never get out. But if you must go, go.” (link).

The full extent of support he gave to Brown may never be known, but we can say that Douglass was a friend to Brown and fighter for the cause of equality.

Also before you go, I would like to remind everyone that a show about John Brown’s life will be airing on Showtime this Friday. It is called The Good Lord Bird!

When you hear Harriet Tubman’s name, you think of the stories you were told of her helping slaves escape. She was an integral part of the underground railroad, but her story is often whitewashed to exclude her armed resistance against slavery purposely. Harriet Tubman led over 300 people out of bondage through the underground railroad, with over 19 missions to the south. She showed unbelievable courage, and John Brown even called her General Tubman. John Brown had tremendous respect for Tubman because of her strategic thinking, connections, and dedication to the cause, which is why he called her General Tubman. Tubman met John Brown in Canada during a constitution convention where John Brown introduced the provisional constitution that he had created as an alternative to the US constitution. In John Brown’s constitution, he planned to have everyone, regardless of race and gender, be able to vote and carry arms. This was an extremely radical idea at the time.

Tubman offered her advice to Brown and even helped him gain support for his raid on harper ferry. She also agreed to join him at harpers ferry, but she never joined him because she fell ill at the time of the raid. However, her struggle to end slavery did not end there. She joined the Union Army once the civil war began as a nurse first. However, she soon got orders to form a spy ring because of the skills she showed while conducting the underground railroad. She teamed up with Colonel James Montgomery to raid and destroy wealth rice plantations in South Carolina, to free slaves, and to recruit soldiers.

Tubman and Montgomery planned to raid at night by ship. Tubman beforehand, with a handful of others, scouted the area beforehand and committed to memory all the strategic points because she was unable to write. These points were where Slaves were waiting and at important docking locations for the mission. Tubman led 150 men on a mission toward the fugitive slaves. She saw people running from the slavemasters and being shot at while they ran. The raid resulted in over 700 people and an embarrassing defeat for the confederacy.

Despite Harriet Tubman’s service in the military, she was barely recognized as a hero, and she was never paid for her service, reportedly because she was a woman (link).  Her past has often been portrayed as someone who was for nonviolent protest. Still, some modern historians, such as Cathrine Clinton, disagree with this narrative and say it is a result of romanticizing her role in the underground railroad. Her role in John Brown’s raid and her career in the military is often forgotten or deliberately left out. These watered-down stories of her do portray her as courageous, but they leave out the rest of the story on who Tubman was (link).

As I mentioned before, I will continue to write about the abolitionist figure John Brown. For those of you who are new to my blog may be confused as to who he is and why is he is the center of a passion blog. I plan to answer all your questions here.

John Brown was born on May 9th, 1800. He had a very challenging life and lived in poverty for the majority of his life. He was a notoriously, horrible businessman. He had multiple businesses that all failed, and as a result, he was always moving around the country searching for new opportunities. Sometimes this meant leaving his family to fend for themselves while he tried to find work. He had twenty children with two wives. However only nine of them reached adulthood. Their deaths ranged from tragic accidents, illness, and losing their lives while they joined their father abolitionist cause.

John Brown was also a profoundly religious man, which certainly had an impact on his hatred for slavery. However, John Brown was also a deeply depressed man who even contemplated ending his life. This is my theory as to why he became so committed to ending slavery, and it gave his life purpose and meaning; he finally had a mission. That is not to say he was not committed to equality all throughout his life. He attempted to create a school for children of freed slaves, lived on a racially integrated farm, and was even apart of the underground railroad. He routinely hid individuals running for their freedom in his home.

What makes John Brown stand out from the other abolitionist from the time is his commitment to bold action. He was not a believer that newspapers, pamphlets, and nonconfrontational actions were going to solve anything. So for the last decade of his life, he gathered weapons and supporters and started to engage in battles with proslavery forces. Most notably was his battles in Kansas, where he killed proslavery forces. It can be argued that John Brown and his men sparked Bleeding Kansas, and if you are interested in learning more about this, you can read my other blogs where I talk about it extensively. John Brown is most well known for his unsuccessful raid on the Federal armory in Harpers ferry. There he was planning to steal weapons(or destroy them…) and begin plans to eradicate slavery.

The reason I chose John Brown as the subject of my passion blog is that I find it admirable that John Brown radically stood up for equality when he had very little support from other prominent white abolitionists. His legacy is also extremely controversial, and I plan this semester to address some of this. The questions that intrigue me the most are:
1). Is it ever ethical to use violence?

2). How are morals form? Is morality relative to space and time? Or are there universal morals?

3). Did John Brown spark the civil war?

4). What is the legacy of John Brown? Here I want to look at what exactly has changed in terms of race and power structures since John Brown.

Comment if you have questions I can address next blog or comment on your initial reactions to John Brown!