Who Are You?
Learning from the Source: Close Reading in Service of a Cause
Image instructions (15 minutes)
1. Take a close look at the image of the eyes. Consider the questions below, and then come up with
four words that describe this person.
a. What details do you notice?
b. What do these details tell you about this person?
c. What sense of this person do you get from this image?
2. Discuss your findings with your group and, together, list the four words that best describe the
person with these eyes. Write these four words on the back of the image.
3. Using your background knowledge, fill out the face with who you believe this person to be. Be
creative and add t-shirts, signs, or a background to illustrate important qualities of this person.
Text instructions
4. Pass out the bibliographic information for each person.
a. What new information do you have?
b. What do the details tell you about this person?
5. Take turns reading the historical text you received. Discuss how this document characterizes John
Brown. Find four words used in the text to describe John Brown.
a. How do these words compare with the words your group used to characterize the image
of John Brown that you analyzed?
b. Were your first impressions close to how the author describes John Brown?
6. Read the text again closely, making note of the arguments the author makes and the evidence
used to support those arguments.
a. Highlight specific words or phrases that help shape the meaning and tone of the
arguments.
7. Look at the bibliographic information.
a. What can you learn about the text and the author from that information?
b. What else would you like to know about the text, the author, or both?
8. Repeat steps 4-6 with the contemporary text you received.
9. Compare and contrast the characterizations of John Brown made by each text.
a. In what ways are they similar?
b. In what ways are they different?
10. Refer back to the texts to compare and contrast the arguments made by each source.
a. In what ways are the arguments alike or different?
b. Which text makes a more forceful argument? Why?
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Extended Activities
For Essay or Class Discussion:
How did the passing of time change the way the authors described John Brown? Does the passing of time
soften or change the way that we interpret history or actions of others? Were the actions of John Brown
justified?
For Essay or Class Discussion:
Was John Brown a Hero or a Murderer? Even today, 150 years after John Brown’s ill-fated raid at
Harpers Ferry, controversy surrounds Brown’s actions. Some people believe that he was a hero and that
his ultimate goal – ending slavery – justified his use of violence. Other people believe that his use of fear
and violence made him a terrorist.
Construct a thoughtful written response of approximately 500 words, with at least three quotes from a
primary source.
Be sure to address the following:
1) What reasons did John Brown have for raiding Harper’s Ferry?
2) What are some of the events, situations in the country leading up to the 1859 raid?
3) What were reactions of people around the country?
4) Was John Brown a hero or terrorist? Explain.
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Example Rubric for Hero or Terrorist Essay
1
2
3
4
1. Student provides an
explanation of why
John Brown chose to
raid Harper’s Ferry
2. Student provides
some of the historic
events and discusses
the current situation
in the country leading
up to the 1859 raid.
3. Student discusses
reactions of people
around the country,
providing the two
primary reactions to
the raid.
4. Student makes a
clear argument for
one side or explains
why they have not
taken a side.
5. Student uses a
citation from their
primary source to
support their
argument.
Student:
Total Score
Comments:
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5
John Brown Timeline
1800
John Brown born in Connecticut.
1833 John Brown married his second wife, who took care of his five children and later bore him thirteen
of her own. Finances got harder as he attempted to provide for his large family.
1837
November 7: John Brown vowed to end slavery when he learned that an abolitionist
newspaperman was killed.
1842
John Brown went bankrupt. Lost almost everything.
1854
Kansas - Nebraska Act of 1854: The people will decide if Nebraska Territory will be slave or free.
1855
John Brown followed his sons to Kansas as Free-Soilers
1856
May 24: Brown went to nearby Pottawatomie Creek and directed his men in the murder of five
proslavery settlers.
1859
October 16: John Brown attacked the armory at Harpers Ferry with 21 men (16 white, 5 black).
Within 36 hours, they were almost all captured or killed. Two of John Brown’s sons were killed.
November 2: A Virginia jury found John Brown guilty of murder, treason, and inciting a slave
insurrection.
December 2: John Brown was hanged.
1860
November: Abraham Lincoln elected President.
1861
April 12: The South seceded and the Civil War began.
1865
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery.
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Title: [John Brown, three-quarter length portrait, facing left, holding New York Tribune]
Date Created/Published: [1859(?)]
Medium: 1 print : lithograph.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-89569 (b&w film copy neg.)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: PGA - Anonymous (A size) [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Subjects:
Brown, John,--1800-1859.
Harpers Ferry (W. Va.)--History--John Brown's Raid, 1859.
Format:
Lithographs--1850-1860.
Collections:
Popular Graphic Arts
Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/97515662/
1
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Title: John Brown
Date Created/Published: c1899.
Medium: 1 photomechanical print.
Summary: John Brown, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right; reproduction of 1850s photograph(?)
Reproduction Number: LC-USZ62-106337 (b&w film copy neg.)
Call Number: BIOG FILE - Brown, John, 1800-1859 <item> [P&P]
Notes:
Copyright by Small, Maynard, & Company.
Subjects:
Brown, John,--1800-1859.
Format:
Photomechanical prints--1890-1900.
Portrait photographs--1850-1860--Reproductions.
Collections:
Miscellaneous Items in High Demand
Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93500813/
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Title: Your friend John Brown - "his soul is marching on" / enlarged and painted by J.W. Dodge, from the
original picture taken from life.
Date Created/Published: New York : Published by the artist, 713 Broadway, N.Y. c1865.
Medium: 1 photographic print on carte de visite mount : albumen.
Summary: Photograph shows John Brown, half-length portrait, standing, facing slightly right with hands in
pockets.
Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-07773 (digital file from original photo)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: LOT 7881 [item] [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
Title from item.
Entered According to act of Congress, in the year 1865, by J.W. Dodge, in the Clerks Office of the District
Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.
Subjects:
Brown, John,--1800-1859.
Format:
Albumen prints--1860-1870.
Cartes de visite--1860-1870.
Portrait paintings--1850-1860--Reproductions--1860-1870.
Collections:
Miscellaneous Items in High Demand
Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2005677239/
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Title: [John Brown, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right]
Date Created/Published: c1903 August 19.
Medium: 1 photographic print.
Reproduction Number: LC-USZC4-11789 (color film copy transparency)
Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
Call Number: BIOG FILE - Brown, John, 1800-1859 [item] [P&P]
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
Notes:
H34800 U.S. Copyright Office.
Title devised by Library staff.
Inscribed on print: Mrs. Hellen Brodt painted 1864.
Subjects:
Brown, John,--1800-1859.
Format:
Photographic prints--1900-1910.
Portrait paintings--1860-1870--Reproductions--1900-1910.
Collections:
Miscellaneous Items in High Demand
Bookmark This Record:
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004669223/
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http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gdc/scd0001.00118372554
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JOHN BROWN: AN ADDRESS BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AT THE FOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF STORER COLLEGE, HARPER'S FERRY, WEST VIRGINIA, MAY 30, 1881
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/murray:@field(DOCID+@lit(lcrbmrpt2309div1)):
On the night of the 16th of October, 1859, there appeared near the confluence of the Potomac and
Shenandoah rivers, a party of nineteen men--fourteen white and five colored. They were not only armed
themselves, but had brought with them a large supply of arms for such persons as might join them. These
men invaded Harper's Ferry, disarmed the watchman, took possession of the arsenal, rifle-factory, armory
and other government property at that place, arrested and made prisoners nearly all the prominent citizens
of the neighborhood, collected about fifty slaves, put bayonets into the hands of such as were able and
willing to fight for their liberty, killed three men, proclaimed general emancipation, held the ground more
than thirty hours, were subsequently overpowered and nearly all killed, wounded or captured, by a body
of United States, troops, under command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, since famous as the rebel Gen. Lee.
Three out of the nineteen invaders were captured whilst fighting, and one of these was Captain John
Brown, the man who originated, planned and commanded the expedition. At the time of his capture Capt.
Brown was supposed to be mortally wounded as he had several ugly gashes and bayonet wounds on his
head and body; and apprehending that he might speedily die, or that he might be rescued by his friends,
and thus the opportunity of making him a signal example of slave-holding vengeance would be lost, his
captors hurried him to Charlestown two miles further within the border of Virginia, placed him in prison
strongly guarded by troops, and before his wounds were healed he was brought into court, subjected to a
nominal trial, convicted of high treason and inciting slaves to insurrection, and was executed. His corpse
was given to his woe-stricken widow, and she, assisted by Antislavery friends, caused it to be borne to
North Elba, Essex County, N.Y., and there his dust now reposes amid the silent, solemn and snowy
grandeur of the Adirondacks.
Bibliographic information
Source created/published: Dover, N.H., Morning star job printing house, 1881.
Summary: Douglass, in a highly personal speech, praises John Brown as a real hero of the abolitionist
cause and seeks to promote a better understanding of the raid upon Harper's Ferry. Ends with a few
words about Brown's companions in the raid.
Notes: Presented by the author to Storer College, the proceeds to go to the endowment of a John
Brown professorship.
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EXCERPTS from: THE LIFE, TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN
KNOWN AS "OLD BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE," WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE
ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION AT HARPER'S FERRY.
Create/Published: New York, R. M. DeWitt [c1859]
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/llst:@field(DOCID+@lit(llst021div4)):#0210061
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/llst:@field(DOCID+@lit(llst021div4)):#0210062
Page 59
At 12 o'clock the Court reassembled.
The Grand Jury reported a true bill against the prisoners, and were discharged.
Charles B. Harding, assisted by Andrew Hunter, represents the Commonwealth; and Lawson Botts
and his assistant Mr. Green, are counsel for the prisoners.
A true bill was read against each prisoner: . . .
First: For conspiring with negroes to produce insurrection. . . .
The indictment was as follows:
Judicial Circuit of Virginia, Jefferson County, to wit.--The Jurors of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in and
for the body of the County of Jefferson, . . . upon their oaths do present that John Brown, Aaron C.
Stephens, alias Aaron D. Stephens, and Edwin Coppie, white men, and Shields Green and John Copland,
free negroes, together with divers other evil-minded and traitorous persons to the Jurors unknown, not
having the fear of God before their eyes, but being moved and seduced by the false and malignant counsel
of other evil and traitorous persons and the instigations of the devil, did, severally, on the sixteenth,
seventeenth, and eighteenth days of the month of October, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and
fifty-nine, and on divers other days before and after that time, . . .
feloniously and Traitorously make rebellion and levy war against the said Commonwealth of Virginia, . . .
and to effect, carry out, and fulfill their said wicked and treasonable ends and purposes did, then and
there, as a band of organized soldiers, attack, seize, and hold a certain part and place within the
county and State aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction aforesaid, known and called by the name of
Harper's Ferry, and then and there did forcibly capture, make prisoners of, and detain divers good
and loyal citizens of said Commonwealth, to wit: Lewis W. Washington, John M. Allstadt,
Archibald M. Kitzmiller, Benjamin J. Mills. John E. P. Dangerfield, Armstead Ball, John Donoho,
and did then and there slay and murder, by shooting with firearms, called Sharpe's rifles, divers
good and loyal citizens of said Commonwealth, to wit: Thomas Boerly, George W. Turner,
Fontaine Beckham, together with Luke Quinn, a soldier of the United States, and Hayward
Sheppard, a free negro, and did then and there, in manner aforesaid, wound divers other good and
loyal citizens of said Commonwealth, . . .
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EXCERPTS from: THE LIFE, TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN
KNOWN AS "OLD BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE," WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE
ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION AT HARPER'S FERRY.
Create/Published: New York, R. M. DeWitt [c1859]
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/llst:@field(DOCID+@lit(llst021div4)):#0210061
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/llst:@field(DOCID+@lit(llst021div4)): - 0210062
Page 59
At 12 o'clock the Court reassembled.
The Grand Jury reported a true bill against the prisoners, and were discharged.
Charles B. Harding, assisted by Andrew Hunter, represents the Commonwealth; and Lawson Botts and
his assistant Mr. Green, are counsel for the prisoners.
A true bill was read against each prisoner: . . .
Third: For murder. . . .
The indictment was as follows: . . .
Page 60
Third Count.--And the Jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, further present that the said John
Brown, Aaron C. Stephens, alias Aaron D. Stephens, Edwin Coppie, Shields Green, and John Copland,
severally, on the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth days of October, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, . . . in and upon the bodies of Thomas Boerly, George W. Turner,
Fontaine Beckham, Luke Quinn, white persons, and Hayward Sheppard, a free negro, in the peace of the
Commonwealth then and there being, feloniously, willfully, and of their malice aforethought, did make an
assault, and with firearms called Sharpe's rifles, and other deadly weapons to the Jurors unknown, then
and there, charged with gunpowder and leaden bullets,
did then and there feloniously, willfully, and of their malice aforethought, shoot and discharge the same
against the bodies severally and respectively of the said Thomas Boerly, George W. Turner, Fontaine
Beckham, Luke Quinn, and Hayward Sheppard; and that the said John Brown, Aaron C. Stephens, alias
Aaron D. Stephens, Edwin Coppie, Shields Green, and John Copland, with the leaden bullets aforesaid,
out of the firearms called Sharpe's rifles, aforesaid, shot and discharged as aforesaid,
1 of 2
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and with the other deadly weapons to the jurors unknown, as aforesaid, then and there feloniously,
willfully, and of their malice aforethought did strike, penetrate and wound the said Thomas Boerly,
George W. Turner, Fontaine Beckham, Luke Quinn, Hayward Sheppard, each severally; to wit: the said
Thomas Boerly in and upon the left side; the said George W. Turner in and upon the left shoulder; the said
Fontaine Beckham in and upon the right breast; the said Luke Quinn in and upon the abdomen, and the
said Hayward Sheppard in and upon the back and side, giving to the said Thomas Boerly, George W.
Turner, Fontaine Beckham, Luke Quinn, Hayward Sheppard, then and there with the leaden bullets, so as
aforesaid shot and discharged by them, severally and respectively out of the Sharpe's rifles aforesaid. and
with the other deadly weapons to the Jurors unknown, as aforesaid, each one mortal wound, of which said
mortal wounds they said Thomas Boerly, George W. Turner, Fontaine Beckham, Luke Quinn, and
Hayward Sheppard each died;
and so the Jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do say that the said John Brown, Aaron O.
Stephens, alias Aaron D. Stephens, Edwin Coppie, Shields Green, and John Copland, then and there,
them the said Thomas Boerly, George W. Turner, Fontaine Beckham, Luke Quinn, and Hayward
Sheppard, in the manner aforesaid, and by the means aforesaid, feloniously, willfully, and of their, and
each of their malice aforethought, did kill and murder, against the peace and dignity of the
Commonwealth.
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EXCERPTS from "A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN" BY HENRY D. THOREAU
DELIVERED IN CONCORD, MASSACHUSETTS, OCTOBER 30, 1859
http://thoreau.eserver.org/plea1.html and http://thoreau.eserver.org/plea2.html
[5]
I should say that he was an old-fashioned man in his respect for the Constitution, and his faith in the
permanence of this Union. Slavery he deemed to be wholly opposed to these, and he was its determined foe.
[6]
He was by descent and birth a New England farmer, a man of great common sense, deliberate and
practical as that class is, and tenfold more so. He was like the best of those who stood at Concord Bridge
once, on Lexington Common, and on Bunker Hill, (3) only he was firmer and higher principled than any
that I have chanced to hear of as there. It was no abolition lecturer that converted him. Ethan Allen and
Stark, with whom he may in some respects be compared, were rangers in a lower and less important field.
They could bravely face their country's foes, but he had the courage to face his country herself, when she
was in the wrong. A Western writer says, to account for his escape from so many perils, that he was
concealed under a "rural exterior;" as if, in that prairie land, a hero should, by good rights, wear a citizen's
dress only.
[7]
He did not go to the college called Harvard, good old Alma Mater as she is. (4) He was not fed on
the pap that is there furnished. As he phrased it, "I know no more of grammar than one of your calves." But
he went to the great university of the West, where he sedulously pursued the study of Liberty, for which he
had early betrayed a fondness, and having taken many degrees, he finally commenced the public practice
of Humanity in Kansas, as you all know. Such were his humanities, and not any study of grammar. He
would have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and righted up a falling man.
[15]
As for his recent failure, we do not know the facts about it.(12) It was evidently far from being a
wild and desperate attempt. His enemy, Mr. Vallandigham, is compelled to say that "it was among the best
planned and executed conspiracies that ever failed."
[16]
Not to mention his other successes, was it a failure, or did it show a want of good management, to
deliver from bondage a dozen human beings, and walk off with them by broad daylight, for weeks if not
months, at a leisurely pace, through one State after another, for half the length of the North, conspicuous to
all parties, with a price set upon his head, going into a court-room on his way and telling what he had
done, thus convincing Missouri that it was not profitable to try to hold slaves in his neighborhood? — and
this, not because the government menials were lenient, but because they were afraid of him.
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[17]
Yet he did not attribute his success, foolishly, to "his star," or to any magic. He said, truly, that the
reason why such greatly superior numbers quailed before him was, as one of his prisoners confessed,
because they lacked a cause, a kind of armor which he and his party never lacked. When the time came,
few men were found willing to lay down their lives in defense of what they knew to be wrong; they did
not like that this should be their last act in this world.
[56]
When I think of him, and his six sons, and his son-in-law, not to enumerate the others, enlisted for
this fight, proceeding coolly, reverently, humanely to work, for months if not years, sleeping and waking
upon it, summering and wintering the thought, without expecting any reward but a good conscience, while
almost all America stood ranked on the other side, — I say again that it affects me as a sublime spectacle. If
he had had any journal advocating "his cause" any organ, as the phrase is, monotonously and wearisomely
playing the same old tune, and then passing round the hat, it would have been fatal to his efficiency. If he
had acted in any way so as to be let alone by the government, he might have been suspected. It was the fact
that the tyrant must give place to him, or he to the tyrant, that distinguished him from all the reformers of
the day that I know.
[57]
It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder,
in order to rescue the slave. I agree with him. They who are continually shocked by slavery have some right
to be shocked by the violent death of the slaveholder, but no others. Such will be more shocked by
his life than by his death. I shall not be forward to think him mistaken in his method who quickest succeeds
to liberate the slave. I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to
that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me. At any rate, I do not think it is quite sane for
one to spend his whole life in talking or writing about this matter, unless he is continuously inspired, and I
have not done so. A man may have other affairs to attend to. I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can
foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable.
We preserve the so-called peace of our community by deeds of petty violence every day. Look at the
policeman's billy and handcuffs! Look at the jail! Look at the gallows! Look at the chaplain of the
regiment! We are hoping only to live safely on the outskirts of this provisional army. So we defend
ourselves and our hen-roosts, and maintain slavery. I know that the mass of my countrymen think that the
only righteous use that can be made of Sharps rifles and revolvers is to fight duels with them, when we are
insulted by other nations, or to hunt Indians, or shoot fugitive slaves with them, or the like. I think that for
once the Sharps rifles and the revolvers were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands
of one who could use them.
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EXCERPTS from: THE LIFE, TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN
KNOWN AS "OLD BROWN OF OSSAWATOMIE," WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OF THE
ATTEMPTED INSURRECTION AT HARPER'S FERRY.
Create/Published: New York, R. M. DeWitt [c1859]
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/llst:@field(DOCID+@lit(llst021div4))#0210095
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/llst:@field(DOCID+@lit(llst021div4))#0210096
FIFTH DAY: Page 91
Mr. Hunter closed the argument for the prosecution. He said he proposed to argue this case precisely
like any other. . . .
Pages 92-3
. . . As to conspiracy with the slaves to rebel, the law says the prisoners are equally guilty, whether
insurrection is made or not. Advice may be given by actions as well as words. When you put pikes in
the hands of the slaves, and have their masters captive, that is advice to slaves to rebel, and punishable
with death.
The law does not require positive evidence, but only enough to remove every reasonable doubt as to
the guilt of the party. Sometimes circumstantial evidence is the strongest kind, for witnesses may
perjure themselves or be mistaken.
The defense say we don't know who killed the negro Hayward; that Brown did not do it because there
was no object, but that it was dark, and the supposition is that Haywood was killed by mistake.
They say Brown shot no unarmed men, but Beckham was killed when unarmed, and, therefore, he
thought the whole case had been proved by the mass of argument.
With regard to malice, the law was, that if the party perpetrating a felony, undesignedly takes life, it is
a conclusive proof of malice. If Brown was only intending to steal negroes, and in doing so took life,
it was murder with malice prepense. So the law expressly lays down, that killing committed in
resisting officers attempting to quell a riot, or arrest the perpetrator of a criminal offence, is murder in
the first degree.
Then what need all this delay--the proof that Brown treated all his prisoners with lenity, and did not
want to shed blood? Brown was not a madman to shed blood when he knew the penalty for so doing
was his own life. In the opening he had sense enough to know better than that, but wanted the citizens
of Virginia calmly to hold arms and let him usurp the government, manumit our slaves, confiscate the
property of slaveholders, and without drawing a trigger or shedding blood, permit him to take
possession of the Commonwealth and make it another Hayti. Such an idea is too abhorrent to pursue.
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So too, the ides that Brown shed blood only in self-defence was too absurd to require argument. He
glories in coming here to violate our laws, and says, he had counted the cost, knew what he was
about, and was ready to abide the consequences, That proves malice.
Thus, admitting everything charged, he knew his life was forfeited if he failed. Then, is not the case
made out beyond all reasonable doubt, even beyond any unreasonable doubt indulged in by the
wildest fanatic? We therefore, ask his conviction to vindicate the majesty of the law. While we have
patiently borne delays, as well here as outside in the community, in preservation of the character of
Virginia, that plumes itself on its moral character, as well as physical, and on its loyalty, and its
devotion to truth and right, we ask you to discard everything else, and render your verdict as you are
sworn to do.
As the administrators of civil jurisdiction, we ask no more than it is your duty to do--no less. Justice
is the centre upon which the Deity sits. There is another column which represents its mercy. You have
nothing to do with that. It stands firmly on the column of justice. Administer it according to your law-acquit the prisoner if you can--but if justice requires you by your verdict to take his life, stand by that
column uprightly, but strongly, and let retributive justice, if he is guilty, send him before that Maker
who will settle the question forever and ever.
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EXCERPTS FROM JOHN BROWN: AN ADDRESS BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, AT
THE FOURTEENTH ANNI-VERSARY OF STORER COLLEGE, HARPER'S FERRY,
WEST VIRGINIA, MAY 30, 1881
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/murray:@field(DOCID+@lit(lcrbmrpt2309div1)):
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/murray:@field(DOCID+@lit(lcrbmrpt2309div1)):
p. 6
Such is the story; with no line softened or hardened to my inclining. It certainly is not a story to please, but
to pain. It is not a story to increase our sense of social safety and security, but to fill the imagination with
wild and troubled fancies of doubt and danger. It was a sudden and startling surprise to the people of
Harper's Ferry, and it is not easy to conceive of a situation more abundant in all the elements of horror and
consternation.
p. 7
Viewed apart and alone, as a transaction separate and distinct from its antecedents and bearings, it takes
rank with the most cold-blooded and atrocious wrongs ever perpetrated; but just here is the trouble-this
raid on Harper's Ferry, no more than Sherman's march to the sea can consent to be thus viewed alone.
p. 12
Despite the hold which slavery had at time on the country, despite the popular prejudice against the Negro,
despite the shock which the first alarm occasioned, almost from the first John Brown received a large
measure of sympathy and appreciation. New England recognized in him the spirit which brought the
pilgrims to Plymouth rock and hailed him as a martyr and saint. True he had broken the law, true he had
struck for a despised people, true he had crept upon his foe stealthily, like a wolf upon the fold, and had
dealt his blow in the dark whilst his enemy slept, but with all this and more to disturb the moral sense,
men discerned in him the greatest and best qualities known to human nature, and pronounced him "good."
Many consented to his death, and then went home and taught their children to sing his praise as one whose
"soul is marching on" through the realms of endless bliss.
p. 16
To the outward eye of men, John Brown was a criminal, but to their inward eye he was a just man and
true. His deeds might be disowned, but the spirit which made those deeds possible was worthy highest
honor.
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p. 19
It must be admitted that Brown assumed tremendous responsibility in making war upon the peaceful
people of Harper`s Ferry, but it must be remembered also that in his eye a slave-holding community
could not be peaceable, but was, in the nature of the case, in one incessant state of war. To him such a
community was not more sacred than a band of robbers: it was the right of any one to assault it by day
or night. He saw no hope that slavery would ever be abolished by moral or political means: "he
knew," he said, "the proud and hard hearts of the slave-holders, and that they never would consent to
give up their slaves, till they felt a big stick about their heads."
pp. 27-28
But the question is, Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get out of Harper's Ferry before
being beaten down by United States soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating
army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harper's Ferry to save his life. The true
question
is, Did John Brown draw his sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? and to this I
answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail who so grandly gives himself and all he has
to a righteous cause.
. . . John Brown, began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. Until this
blow was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, shadowy and uncertain. The irrepressible conflict
was one of words, votes and compromises. When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky was
cleared. The time for compromises was gone--the armed hosts of freedom stood face to face over the
chasm of a broken Union--and the clash of arms was at hand. The South staked all upon getting
possession of the Federal Government, and failing to do that, drew the sword of rebellion and thus
made her own, and not Brown's, the lost cause of the century.
Bibliographic information
Source created/published: Dover, N.H., Morning star job printing house, 1881.
Summary: Douglass, in a highly personal speech, praises John Brown as a real hero of the abolitionist
cause and seeks to promote a better understanding of the raid upon Harper's Ferry. Ends with a few
words about Brown's companions in the raid.
Notes: Presented by the author to Storer College, the proceeds to go to the endowment of a John
Brown professorship.
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EXCERPTS from TODAY'S FANATIC, TOMORROW'S SAINT
by Rebecca Solnit
published November 30, 2009, The Guardian Comment section
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/nov/30/activism-fanaticism-slaverybrown
By fanaticism we usually mean two things. One is that someone is dedicated in the extreme to
their cause, belief, or agenda, willing to live and die and maybe kill for it, as John Brown was.
The other is that the cause, belief or agenda is not ours, and in 1859 John Brown's beliefs were
not those of most Americans. No one calls himself or herself a fanatic. It's what you call people
who are weird or threatening, extremists in the defence of something other than your own
worldview. . . .
. . . I am not so sure about John Brown's means, or that his actions were necessary to start a war
that was already brewing, but I am sure that slavery needed to be abolished, and that his general
ends were good. The really interesting thing is that in 1839 to be against slavery in the US was an
disruptive, extreme position, often seen as an attack on property rights rather than a defence of
human rights. Half a century later we held those truths to be self-evident that no one should own
anyone else. . . .
Lincoln called John Brown a "misguided fanatic." Thoreau wrote a defence of him in which he
remarked, "The only government that I recognise – and it matters not how few are at the head of
it, or how small its army – is that power that establishes justice in the land." . . .
Fanatic is a troublesome word . . . . since my hero is your fanatic, and yesterday's fanatic is so
often tomorrow's saint. . . .
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EXCERPTS from JOHN BROWN: AMERICA’S FIRST TERRORIST?
by Paul Finkelman
National Archives Prologue Magazine Spring 2011, Vol. 43, No. 1
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/spring/brown.html
Terrorist, Guerrilla Fighter, Revolutionary?
Brown's actions in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry were clearly violent. He killed people or at least
supervised their death. But was he a terrorist? At neither place do his actions comport with what we know
about modern terrorists.
The Harpers Ferry raid was his most famous act. Brown held Harpers Ferry from late Sunday night,
October 16, until he was captured on the 18th. He was in possession of almost unlimited amounts of
gunpowder and weapons. He had captured prominent citizens, most famously Colonel Washington. He
stopped a train full of passengers and freight.
What would modern terrorists have done in such circumstances? They might have let the train go, only
after they had robbed all the passengers to fund further acts of terror, and then blown up the bridge as the
train crossed from Virginia to Maryland. They might have planted explosives on the train and let it
proceed, as terrorists did in Spain a few years ago. What did Brown do? He boarded the train, let people
know who he was, and was seen by people who might later have identified him. Then he let the train
continue on to Washington. These were not the actions of a terrorist.
While in Harpers Ferry, Brown might have blown up the federal armory (or indeed most of the town) after
taking as much powder and weapons as his men could carry. He might have broken into homes of
prominent people and slaughtered them. Brown did none of these things. He waited, foolishly for sure, for
the slaves in the area to flock to him. He was caught in a firefight with local citizens, and he was captured
by the U.S. forces. He proved to be a disastrous military leader and a failed "captain" of his brave and
idealistic troops. But he never acted like a terrorist. He ordered no killings; he did not wantonly destroy
property; and he cared for his hostages. This is simply not how terrorists act.
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Remembering, Honoring, John Brown
So, what in the end can we make of John Brown? If he was not a terrorist—what was he? He might be
seen as revolutionary, trying to start a revolution to end slavery and fulfill the goals of the Declaration of
Independence. . . .
. . . no one, not even the slaveholders, could deny that slaves might legitimately fight for their own liberty.
If slaves could fight for their liberty, then surely a white man like Brown was not morally wrong for joining
in the fight against bondage. Thus Harpers Ferry is in the end a blow for freedom, against slavery. Who can
deny the legitimacy of such a venture, however foolish, poorly designed, and incompetently implemented?
But in a society of democratic traditions, Americans recoil at the idea of violent revolution and raids on
government armories, even when, as was the case in Virginia in 1859, democracy was something of a
sham, and there was neither free speech nor free political institutions.
In the end, we properly view Brown with mixed emotions: admiring him for his dedication to the cause of
human freedom, marveling at his willingness to die for the liberty of others, yet uncertain about his
methods, and certainly troubled by his incompetent tactics at Harpers Ferry.
Perhaps we end up accepting the argument of the abolitionist lawyer and later governor of Massachusetts,
John A. Andrew, who declared "whether the enterprise of John Brown and his associates in Virginia was
wise or foolish, right or wrong; I only know that, whether the enterprise itself was the one or the other,
John Brown himself is right."
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EXCERPTS from FREEDOM’S MARTYR
By DAVID S. REYNOLDS
Published: December 1, 2009, New York Times Opinion section
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/opinion/02reynolds.html?ref=opinion
...
Today is the 150th anniversary of Brown’s hanging — the grim punishment for his raid weeks
earlier on Harpers Ferry, Va. With a small band of abolitionists, Brown had seized the federal
arsenal there and freed slaves in the area. His plan was to flee with them to nearby mountains and
provoke rebellions in the South. But he stalled too long in the arsenal and was captured. He was
brought to trial in a Virginia court, convicted of treason, murder and inciting an insurrection, and
hanged on Dec. 2, 1859.
It’s a date we should hold in reverence. Yes, I know the response: Why remember a misguided
fanatic and his absurd plan for destroying slavery?
There are compelling reasons. First, the plan was not absurd. Brown reasonably saw the
Appalachians, which stretch deep into the South, as an ideal base for a guerrilla war. He had
studied the Maroon rebels of the West Indies, black fugitives who had used mountain camps to
battle colonial powers on their islands. His plan was to create panic by arousing fears of a slave
rebellion, leading Southerners to view slavery as dangerous and impractical.
Second, he was held in high esteem by many great men of his day. Ralph Waldo Emerson
compared him to Jesus, declaring that Brown would “make the gallows as glorious as the cross.”
Henry David Thoreau placed Brown above the freedom fighters of the American Revolution.
Frederick Douglass said that while he had lived for black people, John Brown had died for them.
A later black reformer, W. E. B. Du Bois, called Brown the white American who had “come
nearest to touching the real souls of black folk.”
...
By the time of his hanging, John Brown was so respected in the North that bells tolled in many
cities and towns in his honor. Within two years, the Union troops marched southward singing,
“John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul keeps marching on.”
...
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TRANSCRIPT EXCERPTS from THE ABOLITIONISTS, PBS AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
HISTORY TELEVISION SERIES
Copyright 2013 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/cast-crew/abolitionists-credits/
Transcript: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/transcript/abolitionists-transcript/
Part One
Narrator: For years, John Brown had been trying to divine God's purpose, to make sense of his
afflictions. He had once been a successful merchant and tanner, a good provider to his family. But then,
suddenly, his life collapsed: a series of business disasters plunged him deep into debt.
R. Blakeslee Gilpin, Historian: Brown is drifting just further and further into a very deep and dark
relationship with God. He's always trying to discern what God wants for him. That's really what
Calvinism is all about. You’re eternally in sin. You're just constantly trying to get out of it like a
drowning man.
Narrator: In November of 1837, news came that an anti-slavery printer had been murdered by a mob in
Illinois. Elijah Lovejoy's death struck at something deep within John Brown, conjuring up a memory that
had haunted him for years.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith, audio): When I was a child, I stayed for a short time with a very
gentlemanly landlord who held a slave boy near my own age. The master made a great pet of me, while
the Negro boy was badly clothed, poorly fed, and beaten before my eyes with iron shovels or any other
thing that came first to hand.
Narrator: For Brown, Lovejoy's death was a sign from God: He must never again stand helpless in the
face of evil. As he dressed for a prayer meeting a few days after the killing, John Brown knew what God
meant for him. He sat silently at the back of the room as one speaker after another fired up the
congregation with accounts of Lovejoy's death. Finally, John Brown stood up and raised his right hand.
"Here before God," he announced, "in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life
to the destruction of slavery."
Part Two
Narrator: In the fall of 1847 . . . Douglass moved to Rochester, New York. Just over the border from
Canada, Rochester was the last stop on the Underground Railroad, the network of safe houses used by
slaves fleeing north to safety. . . . [There.] he made the acquaintance of a man whose name he had heard
in whispers, failed tanner and fervent abolitionist John Brown.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): Your speeches have been an inspiration to us. I do wonder, though,
whether speeches will ever be enough.
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Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): What do you mean, sir?
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): You've been at this for years.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): Freedom is a long road, Mr. Brown. I don't know any shortcuts.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): I do, Douglass. I do. Sir -- God has placed these mountains here for a
reason.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): You know God's thinking?
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): I know these mountains. From here, we can strike a blow against the
slave masters. The mountains are full of natural fords. One good man could hold off a hundred soldiers.
My plan is to take handpicked men and post them in squads of fives on a line here. They come down off
the mountains, raid the plantations, bring off the slaves, offer them a chance to fight.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): Sir, you have no idea -- the entire state of Virginia will rise up
against you. They will fight you tooth and claw.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): The colored people must fight back. They will never respect themselves
otherwise, nor will they be respected. I read your book, sir. You said yourself, you became a man when
you fought Mr. Covey.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): I did. But I was young and this is very different. We must follow
in our Savior's footsteps. We must convert the sinner.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): This is the sin, right here! We sit here, all of us, debating this point of
law, whether the Constitution says this or that, and in the meantime, day after day, year after year, the
slaveholders are free to do their worst.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): But if we stoop to bloodshed, we are no better than they are.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): You can preach for all eternity and nothing will change. Mr. Douglass,
how many slaveholders have you converted? How many slaves have you freed?
David W. Blight, Historian: John Brown had a very beguiling personality. He was a stunning man. His
sense of moral commitment was vivid and overwhelming. He was the real thing, and to a Frederick
Douglass, he was also the real thing in terms of actually believing, about as deeply as anybody Douglass
had ever met, in racial equality.
Narrator: Soon after their meeting, Douglass described Brown in The North Star as someone who,
"though a white gentleman, is as deeply interested in our cause as though his own soul had been pierced
with the iron of slavery."
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Part Three
Narrator: On the morning of March 7th, 1857, the papers brought stunning news. Out of the blue, the
Supreme Court had radically altered not just the battle over slavery, but the status of every black person in
America. The case had seemed inconsequential: a Missouri slave named Dred Scott wanted the court to
set him free, because his master had taken him to live in Illinois and then Wisconsin Territory, where
slavery was illegal. Chief Justice Roger Taney saw the case as an opportunity to settle the question of
slavery once and for all. In a sweeping decision, Taney ruled that Congress had no authority to prevent
the spread of slavery to the territories. Most ominously for free blacks like Frederick Douglass, Taney
wrote that, "blacks were so far inferior they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect," and
that, "any free black might lawfully be reduced to slavery, for his benefit." . . . It was with a sense of
foreboding and hopelessness that Frederick Douglass responded to an urgent summons in August of 1859
from his old friend John Brown. Together with Shields Green, a fugitive he had befriended in Rochester,
Douglass quietly made his way to a stone quarry at Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): Mr. Douglass!
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): Captain Brown -- I would never have known you, sir!
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): Our time has come...
Narrator: Brown was secretly encamped at a nearby farmhouse with 22 recruits.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): I had hoped for more men, of course. But I believe we have enough
to achieve our ends -- with your help.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): What end is that?
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): Well, sir: In one stroke we shall rouse this nation. We will deal the
Slave Power such a blow, it shall never recover.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): All with 22 men?
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): It takes one spark to light a fire. We are the spark that will set this
country ablaze.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): But how?
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): The armory at Harpers Ferry.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): Good Lord, man. You can't be serious.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): A hundred thousand rifles.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): What will 22 men do with 100,000 rifles?
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John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): As I said, the spark -- we are but the spark. There are four million
men in bondage who will fly to our banner. Not immediately, of course, but even a few thousand
slaves in this vicinity will fly to our aid.
Tony Horwitz, Author: Douglass expected Brown to unveil a mission to free slaves and funnel them
north along the mountains to freedom. But when he gets to the stone quarry, Brown presents a very
different plan.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): I know. My friend, I have been over this a thousand times. I can
assure you ...
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): And I can assure you that you'll be walking into a perfect
steel trap ...
R. Blakeslee Gilpin, Historian: He's talking about invading the South and occupying the South and
taking over the South, sort of building this republic out, one mile at a time, and that republic is going
to be a new country.
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): It will kill you. And it will serve no purpose. There will be a
bloodbath ...
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin,
Douglass.
John Stauffer, Historian: Douglass spends two days trying to convince John Brown not to raid
Harpers Ferry. Brown spends the same amount of time trying to convince Douglass to go to Harpers
Ferry with him to be his right-hand man.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): My friend, the world will remember what we do here. How do you
want the world to remember you? How do you want your children to remember you?
Frederick Douglass (Richard Brooks): I don't want them to remember me as throwing my life away
for nothing. Captain, it pains me more than you will know, to leave you. Mr. Green, you've heard Mr.
Brown. What will you do?
Shields Green (Thomas Coleman): I believe I'll go with the old man.
John Brown (T. Ryder Smith): Come with me Douglass. I will defend you with my life. I want you for
a special purpose. When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I shall want you to help hive them.
Narrator: Frederick Douglass returned home alone. The decision to leave Brown would haunt him for
the rest of his life.
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