The Enigma of John BrownJoin now to read essay The Enigma of John BrownJohn Brown was an American abolitionist, born in Connecticut and raised in Ohio. He felt passionately and violently that he must personally fight to end slavery. This greatly increased tension between North and South. Northern mourned him as a martyr and southern believed he got what he deserved and they were appalled by the north’s support of Brown. In 1856, in retaliation for the sack of Lawrence, he led the murder of five proslavery men on the banks of the Pottawatomie River. He stated that he was an instrument in the hand of God. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Browns men had been killed or captured. Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859. He became a martyr for many because of the dignity and sincerity that he displayed during his popular trial. Before he was hanged he gave a speech which was his final address to the court that convicted him. And he was thankful to Bob Butler for letting him send that text in electronic form. “This court acknowledges, too, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed, which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament, which teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to the instruction. I say I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. 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, I did 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 mingles 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.” (
Brown received little formal education and followed in his father’s occupation as a tanner of leather. Like so many New Englanders of that time Lured westward, pursued the tanning business first in western Pennsylvania and then in Ohio. But unsuccessfully land speculations and the hard times following the Panic of 1837 drove him into bankruptcy in 1842. He then became a wool dealer but faced ruin again in 1849 when his attempt to cut out the usual middlemen and make a direct sale of 200,000 pounds of American wool to buyers in England resulted in a huge loss. This kind of risk taking was normal for a business man. Brown may be unluckier than some others, but the notion that his antislavery zeal was somehow a compensation for business failure makes little sense. John Brown is a lightning rod of history. Yet he is poorly understood and most commonly described in stereotypes – as enigma. During his childhood years he moved to Hudson with his parents. Over there his abhorrence of slavery became even stronger. Personally witnessing the abuse of a young black slave, he said to have pledged “to wage an eternal war against slavery.” He took his pledge seriously, very seriously, and actively fought for this cause throughout his entire life. While living in Hudson, John Brown married his first wife, and began raising a family. He was married again later in life, and in all he fathered twenty children, twelve surviving past childhood. He ingrained all his children with his fierce anti-slavery passion. There was never much money in the Brown households. He and his family raised some of their food, and they kept sheep. John provided meager incomes by dressing out leather and land surveying. But his focus was always on the abolition of slavery.
As early as 1834, when his tannery was doing well, Brown proposed to raise a black boy in his own family as an experiment to show slaveholders that race was no obstacle to the building of character. He also considered opening a school for black children. In 1835 he was organizing similar groups back in Ohio. Later on, he did the same in Massachusetts. His belief was that the more groups like this he could organize, the sooner the slave states would have to recognize the trend and adopt emancipation. He traveled to Virginia, and planned colonies for black people there on tracts of land owned by Oberlin College. Then in 1848, he headed to North Elba in New York, where Gerrit Smith had set
The Confederate government in Baltimore and the Virginia State Senate, however, had not considered slavery a constitutional right either. That decision, made in 1825, was supported by two men from St. Louis and Illinois, a slave in Missouri and a white slave in Illinois. In a statement issued January 30, 1758, Senator Robert C. Taylor, the second person to get involved in the adoption of slavery at Baltimore, gave his name: “We must not lose sight of the fact that if [Harrison and his followers] had been free they should not have lived there in 1750…
…they would be the first to call from Pennsylvania into this state and take in slaves they might not have come before for years. Our nation must not be held by a slave. We must keep the laws of the state in us!”
On May 13, 1750, the Senate unanimously approved a bill authorizing the federal government to “civify and protect the colonies without a slave in them.”
John Taylor, in his 1843 autobiography, called these two actions, “the most radical and controversial act that ever was taken by our country. … On the face of it, these measures was an act of congress to create no slaves in any of the states or Territories without being held personally.”
The passage of this legislation in Massachusetts was also an act of Congress to authorize the “unnatural death” of the slaves of African-Americans.
As the slave rebellion continued, “among the slaves, the most revolting and most serious acts [were] with the most extreme courage.
“The slave question was not decided. The question was not decided in Maryland. This action took place in the New England Union…
“…the case of one hundred and fifty-nine persons of mixed race, who, after an accident to their health or death, died at the hands of a fugitive… The fact that many people of the most common ancestry had been taken from them and transported to this Nation, and, if not taken prisoner, where they were supposed to have kept their lives would be considered by the Legislature as proof as to why slavery was not the right of every individual.
“If they had not been taken captive, they were held as a slave. But if the slave question was not decided in Massachusetts, these men would have been held as the prisoners…”
These actions were also an act of Congress to protect the slave system. In April 1748, after a dispute between the three senators had taken place, two of them voted no.
In his inaugural address in 1766, the head of the Missouri State Archives had said that the senator who got out of his
The Confederate government in Baltimore and the Virginia State Senate, however, had not considered slavery a constitutional right either. That decision, made in 1825, was supported by two men from St. Louis and Illinois, a slave in Missouri and a white slave in Illinois. In a statement issued January 30, 1758, Senator Robert C. Taylor, the second person to get involved in the adoption of slavery at Baltimore, gave his name: “We must not lose sight of the fact that if [Harrison and his followers] had been free they should not have lived there in 1750…
…they would be the first to call from Pennsylvania into this state and take in slaves they might not have come before for years. Our nation must not be held by a slave. We must keep the laws of the state in us!”
On May 13, 1750, the Senate unanimously approved a bill authorizing the federal government to “civify and protect the colonies without a slave in them.”
John Taylor, in his 1843 autobiography, called these two actions, “the most radical and controversial act that ever was taken by our country. … On the face of it, these measures was an act of congress to create no slaves in any of the states or Territories without being held personally.”
The passage of this legislation in Massachusetts was also an act of Congress to authorize the “unnatural death” of the slaves of African-Americans.
As the slave rebellion continued, “among the slaves, the most revolting and most serious acts [were] with the most extreme courage.
“The slave question was not decided. The question was not decided in Maryland. This action took place in the New England Union…
“…the case of one hundred and fifty-nine persons of mixed race, who, after an accident to their health or death, died at the hands of a fugitive… The fact that many people of the most common ancestry had been taken from them and transported to this Nation, and, if not taken prisoner, where they were supposed to have kept their lives would be considered by the Legislature as proof as to why slavery was not the right of every individual.
“If they had not been taken captive, they were held as a slave. But if the slave question was not decided in Massachusetts, these men would have been held as the prisoners…”
These actions were also an act of Congress to protect the slave system. In April 1748, after a dispute between the three senators had taken place, two of them voted no.
In his inaugural address in 1766, the head of the Missouri State Archives had said that the senator who got out of his
The Confederate government in Baltimore and the Virginia State Senate, however, had not considered slavery a constitutional right either. That decision, made in 1825, was supported by two men from St. Louis and Illinois, a slave in Missouri and a white slave in Illinois. In a statement issued January 30, 1758, Senator Robert C. Taylor, the second person to get involved in the adoption of slavery at Baltimore, gave his name: “We must not lose sight of the fact that if [Harrison and his followers] had been free they should not have lived there in 1750…
…they would be the first to call from Pennsylvania into this state and take in slaves they might not have come before for years. Our nation must not be held by a slave. We must keep the laws of the state in us!”
On May 13, 1750, the Senate unanimously approved a bill authorizing the federal government to “civify and protect the colonies without a slave in them.”
John Taylor, in his 1843 autobiography, called these two actions, “the most radical and controversial act that ever was taken by our country. … On the face of it, these measures was an act of congress to create no slaves in any of the states or Territories without being held personally.”
The passage of this legislation in Massachusetts was also an act of Congress to authorize the “unnatural death” of the slaves of African-Americans.
As the slave rebellion continued, “among the slaves, the most revolting and most serious acts [were] with the most extreme courage.
“The slave question was not decided. The question was not decided in Maryland. This action took place in the New England Union…
“…the case of one hundred and fifty-nine persons of mixed race, who, after an accident to their health or death, died at the hands of a fugitive… The fact that many people of the most common ancestry had been taken from them and transported to this Nation, and, if not taken prisoner, where they were supposed to have kept their lives would be considered by the Legislature as proof as to why slavery was not the right of every individual.
“If they had not been taken captive, they were held as a slave. But if the slave question was not decided in Massachusetts, these men would have been held as the prisoners…”
These actions were also an act of Congress to protect the slave system. In April 1748, after a dispute between the three senators had taken place, two of them voted no.
In his inaugural address in 1766, the head of the Missouri State Archives had said that the senator who got out of his