Preview

John Brown: Martyr Or Traitor?

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
335 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
John Brown: Martyr Or Traitor?
Murryn Payne
5-10-11
Mrs. Sturdivant
Social Studies
John Brown Essay

John Brown is considered a martyr, a traitor, a murderer and a man with a devout religious sense, bent on destroying slavery. He had insanity in his genetics, but even if they lurked in his blood, he was brave and fought for what he believed. An abolitionist in the truest, most powerful, blue blood patriot, in all senses of the phrase. John Brown was born on May 9th in 1800. He was raised in Ohio, around the firmest people with one goal in mind. To stop slavery once and for all. When he grew up he raised his sons to fight with him. When he was fifty-five years old, Brown and five sons moved to Kansas and killed five men who believed in slavery. He escaped

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    John Brown: Hero? Villain?

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Students of history and those merely interested in casual inquiry will often explore a topic, find a legitimate opinion, accept it at face value, and move on. Too often with young or inexperienced historians this is the case. It does, in a way, make sense. Many topics an individual will study have been researched and written on countless times. It is easy to accept an opinion as is and forget about it. John Brown is one of these subjects. Merrill D. Peterson’s John Brown explores the complicated nature of the legacy of this militant abolitionist. Brown has been, in the time since his departure, construed as a hero, a villain, an antihero, a well-meaning lunatic, and so on. The nature of his actions and the divisive context they are found in gives way to many different opinions. Peterson’s book explores these many definitions of John Brown. The opinions of historians, students, politicians, and the like are weighed against the validity of their status as historical interpreters, their knowledge of the subject, their biases, and Peterson’s own interpretations. John Brown’s legacy is an ambiguous and complicated one and Peterson’s book explores the warring opinions of observers on whether John Brown is hero, villain, or both.…

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Brown was an abolitionist, who grew up despising slavery. His father was a supporter of the new abolitionism laws. This idealist was instilled in John Brown and he kept this mindset for the rest of his life. To say John Brown was a terrorist is very questionable. The definition of a terrorist is: somebody who uses violence, especially bombing, kidnapping, and assassination, to intimidate others, often for political purposes. Yes, this could be true for John Brown. He did kill, kidnap, and intimidated those who were pro-slavery, but so was John Wilkes Booth and a group of co-conspirators.…

    • 1640 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Abolitionists

    • 801 Words
    • 2 Pages

    John Brown Having 5 sons and being a farmer and a businessman, John Brown became a famous abolitionist. He lived his life supporting the anti- slavery movement by following his own beliefs. He was born in 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. In his early childhood Brown decided that he was going to be against slavery for every millisecond of his life especially in the Pennsylvania Underground Railroad. Brown moved to Ohio when he was 5 years of age. In the north men called him "Old Brown of Osawatomie." Brown was a part of lots of acts such as "Telephone" at Harpers Valley in Virginia. In this incident he helped cut telephone wires at the arsenal military warehouse. But to Robert E. Lee’s surprise he found 2 of Brown’s son’s dead and Brown wounded. Then Brown was guilty for treason and murder so he was sentenced to death and hanged on December 2,1859. John Brown followed his dream and beliefs. His beliefs that slavery was wrong will go on forever along with his spirit of accomplishment.…

    • 801 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    John Brown was a controversial and yet courageous leader prior to the Civil War. Brown showed no regret throughout his actions and even through his arrest. He used intimidation and persuaded people by death and by sword rather than by a pen. John Brown lost his opportunity to be a martyr when he started terrorizing the…

    • 399 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Abraham Lincoln called John Brown a misguided fanatic! John Brown was not a misguided fanatic. John Brown tried his best to save the slaves from all the hard work and bring them to freedom, he just wanted slavery to end. Brown took a vow to end slavery when he found out that an abolitionist newspaperman was killed. He didn’t want anyone to harm the slaves, so he had a plan to save the slaves, he had a meeting with Frederick Douglass about the plan to save the slaves, so things wouldn't get out of hand, but Douglass opposed to his plan, Brown’s plan was to take over Harper’s Ferry, because Douglass knew that his plan would have failed and have also led to many black deaths, he thought that Brown would’ve hurt the abolition movement by causing…

    • 215 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Brown had no reason to break the laws of the United States. Not only did he murder people but he attacked a federal facility. Which was completely useless because it didn’t help abolitionists at all. It made it worse because he gave abolitionist a bad name. John brown is a terrorist who had no need to murder people or attack a federal facility.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The jury found Brown guilty for his actions and sentenced to death. Before his execution John Brown stated: “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged but with blood.” He was then hanged in Charles Town on December 2nd. The rest of his captured men were also trialed and sentenced to death. A huge controversy swept the nation about John Brown. Many said he was a brave hero who became one of their martyrs. A hero who was murdered for his beliefs and never giving up on what he believed in. A man who tried to help abused slaves and tried to abolish slavery. On the other hand there were many people who opposed the idea of John Brown being a hero. Many other people thought John Brown was a murderous man who needed to be stopped. A man who took over a government facility to kill innocent citizens. John Brown’s actions caused a division between the North and the South. It was also the start of the civil war. Later John Brown’s name became a symbol as time passed. It became a symbol for pro-union and anti-slavery beliefs. The effects that John Brown left behind was astonishing. After the civil war a school was made a Harpers Ferry for African Americans. Many African Americans got the chance to study and have an education just like the rest of the kids. The leaders of this school showed the importance of John Brown, his courage and bravery. He was very inspiring for them. Frederick Douglass, one of his former supporters before the attack, gave a speech about Brown at the school. Harper Ferry caught the attention of newspaper editors and saw how significant the place was. It then became the site for a meeting called Second Niagara Movement, that later was called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which we know today. Anyone who attended those meetings walked to John Brown’s fort to honor him. Brown’s fort was later…

    • 1653 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John brown was born on May 9,1800. He was a sympathizer to the North. This is not true. John Brown has a very dark past. He has murdered people who murdered other people. Some people might call that gallant. It was an antihero act. John Brown was a villain.…

    • 769 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enigma of John Brown

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages

    John Brown was an American abolitionist, born in Connecticut and raised in Ohio. He felt passionately and violently that he must personally fight to end slavery. This greatly increased tension between North and South. Northern mourned him as a martyr and southern believed he got what he deserved and they were appalled by the north's support of Brown. In 1856, in retaliation for the sack of Lawrence, he led the murder of five proslavery men on the banks of the Pottawatomie River. He stated that he was an instrument in the hand of God. On October 16, 1859, he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan to arm slaves with the weapons he and his men seized from the arsenal was thwarted, however, by local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Within 36 hours of the attack, most of Brown's men had been killed or captured. Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859. He became a martyr for many because of the dignity and sincerity that he displayed during his popular trial. Before he was hanged he gave a speech which was his final address to the court that convicted him. And he was thankful to Bob Butler for letting him send that text in electronic form. "This court acknowledges, too, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed, which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament, which teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to remember them that are in bonds as bound with them. I endeavored to act up to the instruction. I say I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have always freely admitted I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, I did not wrong but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingles my blood further with the blood of my children and…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Brown Article

    • 562 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Brown was considered both a Hero and murderer. He was heroic to the northern abolitionists and he was a symbol of courage. Southerners believed that John Brown was a horrible fanatic man, he was complete evil.…

    • 562 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    History records Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator, yet ardent abolitionists of his day such as William Lloyd Garrison viewed him with deep suspicion. That the 16th president eventually achieved the abolitionists' most cherished dream, says biographer Allen Guelzo, happened through a curious combination of political maneuvering, personal conviction, and commitment to constitutional principle.…

    • 5760 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Brown's Raid DBQ

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Many different views and ideas about John Brown flew around the North before the Civil War. Debates and arguments sprung up about whether Brown’s actions and means could or should be justified. Some agreed only partially with Brown. Document A proves that with Horace Greeley’s statement “And, while we heartily wish every slave in the world would run away from his master tomorrow and never be retaken, we should not feel justified in entering a slave state to incite them to do so, even if we were sure to succeed in the enterprise.” Greeley is merely saying that he approves of Browns means but not his violent way of going about accomplishing those means.…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bleeding Kansas Analysis

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages

    John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, in a Calvinist household and would go on to have a large…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The 1850s was a time of disagreement especially on the topic of slavery, but using this as an excuse to commit JOhn Brown's bloodthirsty actions is wrong. Yes, people were violent, but John brown exceed violent. DOcument H explains how Harpers Ferry caused the disunion. If JOhn brown would have used more peaceful tactics slavery could have still been abolished. Looking at today's more recent history, Mandela, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. all acted with peaceful tactics, but still achieved their goal. Document K is a picture of a giant John Brown standing holding a gun and a paper in the middle of the northerns and southerns in war. This shows how he was in the middle of this all and caused the war to happen. He is also holding a gun, indicating he is all for war and killing. On another note, he is stepping on someone’s head on the right side, leading me to believe this was a southerner. That shows he very clearly took a side in this war. Connecting, JOhn Brown went to extremes even in a time of conflict which was wrong and no one else of this time did…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Brown was more of villain rather than a hero. John Brown did many, many bad things to America. John Brown had a lot of lawsuits against him, about 40 of them. Also, John had a raid on the Harper’s Ferry killing so much people. That wasn’t enough for him Brown went to cabin to cabin killing people at town, Pottawatomie Creek, killing at least 5 people. In fact, Senator Andrew Jackson, even stated, “This old man Brown …was a more than a murderer, a robber, a thief, and a traitor.” Therefor, John Brown is an villain.…

    • 97 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays