John Browns War Analysis

John Browns War was created by the hatred of slavery by John Brown. By many Brown was considered a fanatic, murderer, traitor, and martyr. Browns fight against slavery was a precursor to the Civil War. Born in Connecticut, Brown was the son of Owen Brown a tailor and shoemaker. Brown is raised up in stories of the bible and to despise slavery. Browns father considered slavery a violation of Gods own commandments and scripture. After moving to Ohio as a young boy, Brown witness his first slave being whipped, according to the documentary. This image is burned into Browns brain forever and he dedicates his life to end slavery. Brown see’s slavery as an unrelenting toil against the slave who has no control over their own lives. Over the years Brown moves around and works multiple jobs until he settles in Springfield, Massachusetts to work with wool. This is when the Fugitive Slave Act catches Brown’s eye, a law designed to bring runaway slaves back to their owners. Brown quickly organizes a group he calls The League of Gileadites, to protect the free slave along with the escaped slave. In 1849, Brown moves his family to North Elba, New York to live on a black farming community. North Elba was a land set aside for free and runaway slaves as a safe haven and created by Garret Smith. Trying to prove that blacks and whites could live in harmony together Brown settles and teaches them how to farm the land. In 1854 the Kansas-Nebraska Act is passed allowing slavery to be forced upon by vote or violence in the Kansa territory. Upon request from Brown’s son he moves to the Kansa territory to fight against slavery. Brown settles in Osawatomie, Kansas with his family, near Lawrence, Kansas the center of the Free State. On the verge of war, rebels attack Lawrence, Kansas almost burning it to the ground. Brown, gathers a group of men including his son’s, and goes on a vengeance. The group goes out in the middle of the night on May twenty-fourth and attacks homesteads of rebels. Brown’s group kills the rebel fighters in front of their own families with large swords. Refocusing his fight on slavery, Brown moves his family just outside of Harpers Ferry, Virginia and prepares his next attack. Brown choses Harpers Ferry because of its large population of slaves in …show more content…
Gathering together twenty one followers including five free black men, Brown sets out to Harpers Ferry. On October sixteenth just before midnight, Browns group descends upon Harpers Ferry. Oddly the first person killed by Browns group is a free slave named Howard Shepheard. Once in town Brown’s group begins going from house to house of prominent members of the town taking hostages. Making their way through town quietly, Brown focuses on the Federal Arsenal according to the Text Book. With only one person guarding the Arsenal, Browns men take it over quickly. Unexpectedly the town people begin to gather and fight back, forcing Brown’s men to retreat in to a Fire Engine house. Chaos breaks out inside the house amongst Brown’s men, because of the smoke and echoes from the guns. Upon daybreak Brown realizes he is no longer fighting the town people but also the U.S. Marines, who had arrived in the middle of the