Why John Brown Still Macares Us Analysis

Tony Horwitz in “Why John Brown Still Scares Us” examines the story of John Brown’s raid at Harpers Ferry in what would one day become known as West Virginia in October 1859. The attack on Harpers Ferry was financed by a group of well known abolitionist with the support of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Why John Brown Still Scares Us focuses mainly on John Brown, who was a well known abolitionist in the 1850’s. He traveled with people that tended to have some of his beliefs, but “didn’t fit the mold of his wide eyed fanatics” (Horwitz 43). Brown and his followers traveled through the boarder states attacking proslavery, farmers, and settlers. They actually hacked several to death making them an example, so the other proslavery folks would think twice before they would do it themselves. Brown and his supporters went to Missouri and at gunpoint, took slaves and escorted them to freedom in Canada. Following his escapades in Missouri and Kansas, Brown assembled his small army to prepare for an attack on Harpers Ferry. He planned this attack in hope to free slaves, arm them with weapons, and establish a temporary government in the Virginia …show more content…
With the power of words he won over thousands of Northern folks and many became to regard him as a hero and a martyr. Although many looked at him as a hero, he seemed to upset whites in the South which lead them to become “panicked and paranoid, seeing abolitionist conspiracies everywhere” (Horwitz 43). During this time, the South turned into total chaos because of what happened at Harper’s Ferry. The people no longer felt safe and the Southern lost faith in the Union. What happened at Harper’s Ferry was a fruitless assault by a man who had very poor judgement as far as leading a military attack. The anger between the North and the South became greatly widened and eventually lead to the secession and Civil