John Brown: Hero, Criminal, Or Insane?

John Brown; hero, criminal, or insane? John Brown was a 19th-century belligerent abolitionist who is well known for his raid on Harper’s Ferry in 1859. John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. Growing up with a father who strongly disapproved of slavery, Brown was highly motivated in creating a slave insurrection. He strongly believed in violently taking care of entities. The actions taken upon by John Brown led others to view him in different ways. His work led him to execution on December 2, 1859. The question is; did he die a hero, criminal, or insane?
John Brown’s parents instilled him with a huge belief in the Bible. He grew up with a belief against slavery. In his family, slavery was morally wrong and strongly despised. John Brown’s father taught him the family trade of tanning animal skins. He was a foreman in the families tannery up until he wished to move to Massachusetts in hopes to become a minister. Brown married and moved to Pennsylvania where he conducted his own tannery. …show more content…
It was obvious that Brown had a passion for ending slavery. The influence of his father hating slavery had a huge effect on him, but he also had an experience that scarred him. As a young, 12-year old boy, John Brown witnessed an African American boy being beaten, haunting his mind and influencing his hatred of slavery. Ever since that day, “With every drop of his honest blood he hated slavery, and in his early manhood, he resolved to lay his life on Freedom’s altar in wiping out that insufferable affliction. He never faltered. So God-like was his unconquerable soul that he dared to face the world alone” (Metz). In 1858, Brown led his first group of enslaved African Americans from a Missouri homeland, to freedom in Canada. This heroically viewed event increased his popularity in the black community and gave them hopes of gaining