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In some ways, the term fits, for he attacked in order to provoke an incident and to create fear in order to generate support for a wider war. Like many terrorists, he had a strong moral conviction and a belief in the rightness of his actions, though that in itself does not mean they were right. For those who believe that Brown helped spur the Civil War, his actions might be considered justified, while for those who see his attack as an aberration that had little real effect on subsequent events, his crusade was misdirected and foolish. What is certainly clear is that assessments of Brown do not exist in a vacuum and that how one views the man may depend on how one views his cause more than his actions.
Works Cited
Cullick, Jonathan S. "The Making of a Historian: Robert Penn Warren's Biography of John Brown." The Mississippi Quarterly, Volume 51, Issue 1 (1997), 33-37.
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry." Secession Era Editorials Project (2007). December...
http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/jbmenu.htm.
Oates, Stephen B. Our Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and the Civil War Era. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979.
Pease, Donald E. Revisionary Interventions into the Americanist Canon. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1994.
Reynolds, David S. John Brown: Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights.
New York: Knopf, 2005.
Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Volume: 2. New York: Macmillan, 1892.
Shaw, Albert. Abraham Lincoln. Volume: 1. New York: The Review of Reviews Corporation, 1929.
Sinha, Manisha. "His Truth Is Marching on': John Brown and the Fight for Racial Justice." Civil War History. Volume 52, Issue 2 (2006), 161.Tourgee, Albion. Hot Plowshares. New York: Fords, Howard, and Hulbert, 1883.
Warren, Robert Penn. John Brown: The Making of a Martyr. New York: Payson & Clarke, 1929.
Works Cited
Cullick, Jonathan S. "The Making of a Historian: Robert Penn Warren's Biography of John Brown." The Mississippi Quarterly, Volume 51, Issue 1 (1997), 33-37.
John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry." Secession Era Editorials Project (2007). December 8, 2007. http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/jbmenu.htm.
Oates, Stephen B. Our Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and the Civil War Era. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979.
Pease, Donald E. Revisionary Interventions into the Americanist Canon. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1994.
Many of the historians will suggest that the John Brown's raid over Harper Lee and his quick execution leaded to the inevitable civil war. Why would the South turn almost permanently to secession after 1859? Despite of all the support John Brown gains from the Northern abolitionist writers, his actions were violent, terroristic and heinous. Even Abraham Lincoln who was trying to assuage Southern and Northern parts to solve out the
John Brown: Was he a murderer or a martyr? The actions of John Brown raise many uncomfortable questions about how we view terrorism in modern society. It is often said that 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter' and that expression certainly holds true with John Brown in his raid on Harper's Ferry. Even before the Harper's Ferry raid, Brown was a "leader of antislavery guerillas" in Kansas and "fought
With Brown's plans found at the location, it had been clear that the rebellion had been premeditated. This meant that Brown had committed a capital offense, making it impossible for him to be charged with murder in second degree. It did not take more than an hour for the jury to find Brown guilty, sentencing him to death by hanging in December 2, 1859. John Brown did not live to
Ralph Waldo Emerson famously declared that John Brown's execution would "make the gallows as glorious as the cross." (Quoted by Reynolds 127) Other historians have opined that Brown's martyrdom was the single most important event that "sparked the Civil War" and ultimately ended slavery. During his lifetime, Brown's uncompromising, radical ideas were often considered dangerous even by such anti-slavery politicians as Abraham Lincoln. In death, Brown became a symbol
John Brown's Harper's Ferry raid on the abolition of slavery. Brown has variously been referred to as a madman, terrorist, and murderer; others have called him a saint, hero, and a martyr. Regardless of one's opinion of Brown the human being, his place in history and his impact on ending slavery cannot be denied. Deranged or no, Brown was a driven man who lived the courage of his convictions. There
John Brown's Raid lead to the Civil War? In 1859, John Brown led an attack on a federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in Virginia with the hope of arming slaves for a revolt against their masters. The plot failed and Brown was captured and hanged. Northern abolitionists such as William Lloyd Garrison, Horace Greeley, and Frederick Douglas hailed Brown as a martyr, but Southerners viewed him as a crazed lunatic. The