John brown biography civil war

I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done. Within one year, the first Southern state would secede from the Union. Civil War Biography. John Brown. Title Radical Abolitionist. Date of Birth - Death May 9, - December 2, Topic s :. Related Biographies. Major cities, such as New York City and Boston, grew rich from the textile industry, which heavily depended on the supply of cotton picked by American slaves.

Ironically, the slavery-dependent textile industry increased the wealth of the city of Boston during the s, allowing it to become a center of American art and culture, from which the abolitionist movement would emerge. Abolitionists demanded the emancipation of slaves in Washington DC and many began to demand the immediate abolition of slavery in the U.

An increased number of antislavery petitions were sent to Congress but were blocked from consideration by the effect of the Gag Rule in the House of Representatives that had been put into place in To assuage the growing political tension between slaveholders and Free-Soilers, the federal government enacted the Compromise ofwhich included the controversial Fugitive Slave Actrequiring free state officials to return runaway slaves to their masters, and in Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Actallowing local citizens to decide whether slavery should be allowed in the Kansas and Nebraska territories through Popular Sovereignty.

The U. John Brown was born in and lived through a period in which there was suppression of antislavery ideas by the state, increased violence against abolitionists, and a number of slave revolts. Although it was repressed, it had instilled fear into the citizens of slave states and threatened the plantation way of life. During the s, anti-abolition riots took place in Northern cities, such as New York and Philadelphia, and Northern abolitionist printing press owners faced great risks from proslavery mobs.

William Lloyd Garrison, one of the most well-known leaders of the abolition movement and the editor of the Boston newspaper The Liberator, barely avoided being lynched by an anti-abolitionist mob. However, it was not until the murder of the abolitionist newspaper writer Elijah Lovejoy that Brown truly devoted himself to fighting slavery. While most abolitionists were in favor of using peaceful ways to push for emancipation, Brown believed that militant action had become the only effective way to abolish slavery.

Previous peaceful measures had failed to persuade the government to emancipate the slaves or to even enforce the restrictions that were already placed on the slave system. Garrison supported the use of moral and social reform and called for the extension of citizenship rights to African Americans. Frederick Douglassthe most influential john brown biography civil war abolitionist, favored direct political reform.

Unlike these New England-based abolitionists, Brown began to view violence as the last resort in the face of the growing intransigence of Southern slaveholders and increased injustices performed by the state: the Supreme Court Ruling in Dred Scott v. Sanford and the lack of government enforcement on the ban of the Atlantic slave trade the last slave ship to arrive in the U.

His militant abolitionist views were fueled by violence and oppression in American society and the injustices of the state, causing him to become a major turning point in the ideology of the abolitionist movement which had been previously based in nonviolence.

John brown biography civil war

However, in New England abolitionist circles Brown rarely spoke of the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas, in which he had retaliated against the Border Ruffians by hacking to death five proslavery civilians with broadswords in the middle of the night. Although the murdered men were associated with proslavery groups in Kansas, at least three out of the five had not even owned slaves.

His sons were involved in the abolitionist movement in the territory, and they summoned their father, fearing attack from pro-slavery settlers. After pro-slavery activists attacked at Lawrence, KansasinBrown and other abolitionists mounted a counterattack. They targeted a group of pro-slavery settlers called the Pottawatomie Rifles. What became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre occurred on May 25,and resulted in the deaths of five pro-slavery settlers.

These and other events surrounding Kansas' difficult transition to statehood, made even more complicated by the issue of slavery, became known as Bleeding Kansas. The abolitionist was undaunted, however, and Brown still advocated for the movement, traveling all over the country to raise money and obtain weapons for the cause. In the meantime, Kansas held elections and voted to be a free state in By earlyBrown was leading raids to free enslaved people in areas where forced labor was still in practice, primarily in the present-day Midwest.

He hoped the attack would help lay the groundwork for a revolt, but historians have called the raid a dress rehearsal for the Civil War. Brown recruited 22 men in all, including his sons Owen and Watson, and several freed enslaved people. The group received military training in advance of the raid from experts within the abolitionist movement.

The Washington family continued to own enslaved people. A group of men, led by Owen Brown, was able to kidnap Washington, while the rest of the men, with John Brown at the lead, began a raid on Harpers Ferry to seize both weapons and pro-slavery leaders in the town. On the evening of October 16,Brown led 21 men on a raid of the federal armory of Harpers Ferry in Virginia now West Virginiaholding dozens of men hostage with the plan of inspiring a slave insurrection.

Brown's forces held out for two days; they were eventually defeated by military forces led by Robert E. Many of Brown's men were killed, including two of his sons, and he was captured. Brown's case went to trial quickly, and on November 2 he was sentenced to death. In a speech to the court before his sentencing, Brown stated his actions to be just and God-sanctioned.

Debate ensued over how Brown should be viewed, deepening the divide between North and South and having profound implications for the direction of the country. Several of his colleagues also petitioned that the courts should look at Brown's questionable mental state when it came to his actions. Brown was executed on December 2, We strive for accuracy and fairness.

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