John Brown An Unspoken Hero?

John Brown (Credit to wikipedia.com)

John Brown's name is always related to Harper's Ferry but there is more to the story than just Harper's Ferry. John Brown was born in Connecticut in the year of 1800. He was raised by a very religious father who made him memorize the Bible front and back. John Brown's father already had a passion for speaking out against actions such as slavery. John Brown enveloped his father's belief, which was his hatred of slavery. This hatred became prominent in John's life when his young slave friend was almost beat to death by his master.

Later in John Brown's life he pursued many professions such as preaching and being a shepherd. In the end John Brown's passion was fighting to end slavery. During his life, John Brown had children. John Brown married twice in his life and had seven children with his first wife and thirteen children with his second. Like their father, John Brown's children embraced their father's beliefs.

Depiction of John Brown in Kansas (Credit to weebly.com)

The beginning of John Brown's crusade occurred at Pottawatomie Creek where Bleeding Kansas occurred. Bleeding Kansas was a series of multiple conflicts between the North and the South predating the Civil Wars. The conflicts were over Kansas's right to decide on having slavery or not. John Brown and some of his sons were involved in this conflict resulting in the death of some of John Brown's children. John Brown also became an enemy of the state during these in the result of him killing a federal officer. Bleeding Kansas did not produce the result that John Brown wanted, which then resulted in John Brown's planning his raid on Harper's Ferry.

John Brown chose to invade Harper's Ferry for three reasons. The first was that he wanted to hit the state with the largest population of slaves, which was Virginia. The second reason was John Brown wanted to make a huge impact if his raid were successful. His main targets to hit were the arsenal and the armory. These buildings were where the ammunition was produced and stored for the U.S. militia. The third reason was that John Brown always stated that the mountains were the key to his plan. John Brown's original plan was to recruit and arm the local slaves. Then to take over the arsenal and armory and then escape in to the mountains and go to Maryland.

His plan did not go as he expected. John Brown and his men left from the  Kennedy Farm on a cold and dreary night to go to Harper's Ferry. The raiders first captured George Washington's great grand nephew as well as other civilians. Sadly, the first person to be killed during John Brown's raid was a freed slave. The raiders then tried to recruit slaves but they were unsuccessful. John Brown and his men took cover in the fire engine house.

The Fire Engine House (Credit to wvculture.org)

News of John Brown's Raid spread across the area. All of the local law enforcement was alerted as well as the Marines which Robert E. Lee led to Harper's Ferry. The townspeople also began to riot and take up arms against John Brown. Twelve people did die during the raid, Ten of those casualties were John Brown's raiders and the other two were marines. Although John Brown had a stronghold in the engine house in the beginning, the Marines busted through the engine house door and injured John Brown. John Brown was then captured and tried in Charles Town, West Virginia. The jury's decision was for John Brown to be hanged. It was not because of the killing of the federal officer in Pottawatomie Creek but because of the idea of starting a rebel of the slaves which was feared in a state such as Virginia.

Credit to Baas.com 

Some people consider John Brown a freedom fighter or a possibly a terrorist but it all depends on how you feel about the situation. John Brown's Raid is considered one of the reasons why the Civil War occurred. It sparked the idea of making people wonder is slavery okay? Overall, John Brown did make a change but he did it in the wrong he used violence instead of words and peaceful actions, which would later be shown during the Civil Rights era.