A violent crusader in the cause of freedom: John Brown and his guerrilla force raided Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in hope of starting a slave uprising across the South. (times past).

On the morning of Oct. 17, 1859, the people of Harpers Ferry, Virginia, awoke to discover that their town had been invaded.

During the night, a small band, led by a fiery antislavery crusader named John Brown, had occupied a gun factory and seized a federal arsenal stacked with thousands of muskets and rifles. The raiders--14 white and five black men--held dozens of prisoners at gunpoint and killed several people who got in their way.

Fierce and fearless, John Brown had conceived a bold plan: He hoped to incite black slaves throughout the South to rebel and take up arms against their masters. The guns from Harpers Ferry would give the insurrection the firepower it needed to spread, plantation by plantation, until all the slaves were freed.

Brown was convinced that an army of slaves would rush to join him after hearing of the Harpers Ferry raid. The throngs never came, but publicity surrounding Brown's subsequent trial and execution helped ignite the long-smoldering debate over slavery and moved the nation a step closer to the Civil War.

MAKING OF A RADICAL

By the time of the Harpers Ferry raid, Brown, at 59, was already known as a fanatical crusader against slavery. A few years earlier, in Kansas--where people were debating whether to become a slave state or free state--Brown's guerrilla gang, provoked by a bloody attack on abolitionist settlers, hacked to death five unarmed pro-slavery settlers.

Born in Connecticut, Brown hated slavery from his youth. As an adult, he worked as a farmer, tanner, and land speculator, but he was a poor businessman and had a hard time feeding his large family (two marriages had produced 20 children).

As a Calvinist, Brown practiced a strict form of Christianity. He believed the Bible contained God's law, which took priority over the laws of man. He deeply loved his country, but he had no qualms about breaking its laws if he felt they contradicted biblical morals. At his trial, he explained his beliefs by saying:

... [T]he New Testament ... teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do to them. It teaches me further to remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them....

Brown especially despised the Fugitive Slave Act, which made it a crime to help escaped slaves. As a link in the Underground Railroad, he once led a group of 10 slaves to freedom in Canada, a journey that took three months and covered more than a thousand snow-covered miles.

To carry out his slave rebellion, Brown organized a private army, including three of his sons, and bought thousands of dollars in weapons with money supplied by Northern supporters. As Brown firmed plans for the Harpers Ferry raid, some who had pledged to take part backed out, considering the raid too risky. Even famed abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass, who admired Brown, considered the idea of attacking a federal arsenal a disaster. "You're walking into a perfect steel trap," he warned Brown.

The raiders hoped to capture the guns at the federal arsenal and escape before word reached Washington, D.C. They marched into Harpers Ferry (now part of West Virginia) late on Sunday night, Oct. 16, 1859, took the armory and several prominent local citizens as hostages. Brown's men cut telegraph lines to the town, but they allowed a train to pass after detaining it for five hours. When the train reached Baltimore, the conductor reported the siege to authorities.

On Monday, local militias surrounded the armory with Brown's band and prisoners inside, cutting off escape routes. Federal authorities dispatched marines commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee, who would later lead Confederate troops in the Civil War.

Lee's men stormed the armory the next day, killing some of the raiders, and capturing or killing others who tried to flee. During the bloody battle, Mary Mauzy, a town resident, wrote a letter to her daughter describing the scene outside her window:

Our men chased them [Brown's followers] In the river just below here and I saw them shot down like dogs. I saw one poor wretch rise above the water and someone strike him with a club. He sank again, and in a moment they dragged him out, a corpse.

By 8 a.m. on the fourth day, the raid was over. Most of Brown's men, including two of his sons, lay dead. Brown was captured after being severely wounded with a sword.

A NATION SPELLBOUND

Brown's raid had failed to spark any slave uprising. But he had gotten the nation's attention. Just after the battle, as he lay bleeding in the armory's engine house, Brown was interviewed by reporters. The spellbound writers spread his abolitionist message to the shocked and curious nation.

Two weeks later, Brown's trial began. Still recovering from his wounds, Brown lay on a cot during the six-day proceeding. The jury convicted him of murder, treason, and insurrection. Before the judge pronounced a death sentence, Brown rose from his cot and delivered an impassioned speech, which appeared in the next day's newspapers:

Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood 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.

PURGED WITH BLOOD

Though some tried to brand Brown a madman bent on self-destruction, many Americans revered him as a hero who preached respect for all races and cherished the American ideal of freedom more than his life.

Douglass, the abolitionist, said, "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."

Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859, in Charlestown, Virginia (now Charles Town, West Virginia). As he mounted the wagon that would carry him to the gallows, he handed a message to a bystander. It read, in part:

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood.

In parts of the country, church bells rang to mourn the execution of Brown, whom many saw as a martyr for human liberty.

Just 15 months later, the Civil War erupted. As Brown predicted, the evil of slavery would be washed away in a torrent of American blood.

John Brown's Fight for a Slave Rebellion Dies With Him--on the Gallows

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

* Do you agree that there is a law higher than those written by humans?

* Do you think John Brown's plot was doomed to fail?

* What one word would you use to describe Brown?

TEACHING OBJECTIVES

To help students understand pre-Civil War America, a time when some who opposed slavery were branded insane, and to introduce a violent crusader who accurately predicted that only blood could wash away slavery.

CLASSROOM STRATEGIES

BACKGROUND: Some students will see the Brown raid as an episode in another world. Remind them that racism runs deep in U.S. history. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners. Many public schools were segregated by law until 1954. And only in 1964, a time when many students' parents were children, did the law require hotels, restaurants, and other public accommodation to serve all.

CRITICAL THINKING/DEBATE: Split students into pro- and anti-Brown camps. The anti-Brown group need not defend slavery. Rather, they must make arguments that Brown's methods were criminal and that he might have accomplished his goal of freeing slaves in a nonviolent manner. What evidence does the article provide that Brown had tried nonviolent means? (As a worker in the Underground Railroad, he once helped slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Why did he not continue in this admittedly dangerous but nonviolent work?

The pro-Brown group should tackle the idea that just individuals sometimes break unjust laws. Was Brown a terrorist? (Was the Boston Tea Party a terrorist act?) Many Americans saw Brown as a hero; many churches around the country rang their bells to mourn Brown's execution. Were the church leaders and other Brown supporters saluting a violent lawbreaker?

Unanswered Question: Ask students to suggest answers to an unanswered question. Brown was meticulous, arriving at the arsenal on a Sunday night, and then cutting the telegraph lines. So why did he allow the train to leave? Did he not know that the train workers would spread the alarm about the raid?

Web Watch: To see Brown's complete speech before the court, go to http://education.ucdavis.edu/NEW/STC/lesson/socstud/railroad/Benet.htm. Click on "Links" to see information on the Underground Railroad.

Upfront QUIZ 4

MULTIPLE CHOICE DIRECTIONS: Circle the letter next to the correct answer.

1. John Brown's goal in attacking a federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was to

a capture U.S. soldiers and hold them for ransom.

b shame the government for failing to outlaw slavery.

c prevent the extension of slavery to other states.

d incite a slave rebellion in the South.

2. In 1856, just a few years before his Harpers Ferry raid, Brown's followers killed five pro-slavery settlers in

a Kentucky.

b Indiana.

c Kansas.

d Ohio.

3. Brown especially despised a federal law that made it a crime to help escaped slaves. This law was known as the

a Slavery Redemption Act.

b Fugitive Slave Act.

c Dred Scott Act.

d Plantation Protection Act.

4. Brown was part of a network of opponents of slavery who helped slaves escape. The network was called the

a Slave Escape Network.

b Harriet Beecher Stowe Express.

c Underground Railroad.

d Freedom Riders.

5. The article notes that a famous abolitionist admired Brown, but warned him he was making a mistake. Who?

a Harriet Tubman

b Charles Sumner 

c Sojourner Truth 

d Frederick Douglass

6. Which of these statements best summarizes Brown's attitude at his trial? He

a was contemptuous and rude.

b maintained his innocence.

c was confident and resigned to his fate.

d blamed others for his misfortune.

ANSWER KEY

1. (d) incite a slave rebellion in the South.

2. (c) Kansas.

3. (b) Fugitive Slave Act.

4. (c) Underground Railroad.

5. (d) Frederick Douglass.

6. (c) was confident and resigned to his fate.