John Brown (abolitionist)

John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist who played a major part in the history of slavery in the United States leading up to the American Civil War. Brown took part in the violence during the Bleeding Kansas crisis, but his most famous action was his leadership of the raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in modern-day West Virginia). The killings that followed, Brown's subsequent capture by Robert E. Lee, his trial, and execution by hanging are generally considered an important part of the origins of the Civil War.

Aftermath of the raid

The raid on Harpers Ferry is generally thought to have done much to set the nation on a course toward civil war. Southern slaveowners, fearful that other abolitionists would emulate Brown and attempt to lead slave rebellions, began to organize militias to defend their property (being both their land and their slaves). These militias, well established by 1861, were in effect a ready-made Confederate army, making the South more prepared for secession than it otherwise might have been.

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In light of the upcoming elections in November 1860, the public Republican political and editorial response to John Brown was that he was insane. The general public in the North, however, especially in abolitionist sectors, viewed John Brown as a martyr who had been sacrificed in support of an unjust cause. Southern Democrats charged that Brown's raid was an inevitable consequence of Abolitionism.

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James W. Loewen observes in "Lies My Teacher Told Me" that after the outbreak of the war, John Brown's martyrdom was assured. Union soldiers marched into battle singing "John Brown's Body" and church congregations sang Julia Ward Howe's new words to the song: "As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free".

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After the Civil War, Douglass wrote, "Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine. I could live for the slave, but he could die for him."

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