John Brown: The Man Who Ignited the American Civil War

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to tell you a story and you could decide for yourself john brown was born on may the 9th 1800 in the farming town of torrington connecticut his father owen had been working for himself since he was 12 years old after his father had died in the revolutionary war and was now a well-respected cobbler and tanner in addition to being a subsistence farmer from owen and his mother ruth young john would learn the value of a strong work ethic and most importantly their strict calvinist faith which taught that they were all unworthy sinners completed the mercy of an omnipotent loving and well sometimes wrathful god in 1805 owen moved his family to hudson ohio another small town 25 miles southwest of cleveland there he became a prosperous businessman and became known in the community as square owen john meanwhile grew up briefly entertaining the idea of becoming a minister but he ran out of money before completing his education went back to working in his father's tannery business before setting out on his own john brown even in those days was probably not a fun person to be around he had no hobbies was not one for jokes or levity and acquaintances described how his steel grey eyes his most striking feature would seem to glare at your very soul whenever he looked at you what was worse he had a truly colossal ego he truly believed that he knew better than everyone else around him about every subject and would not take advice or criticism from anyone according to one of his brothers he gave orders like a king against which there is no rising up another thing that john brown inherited from his father was his opposition to the practice of slavery in america most the founding fathers even the ones that owned slaves recognized that the idea of holding others in bondage was incompatible with the idea of a truly free republic as laid out in the united states constitution fearing for the survival of the new country however they hadn't done anything about the practice hoping that it would die a natural death over time but the invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made the production of cotton an immensely profitable activity in the southern states and the big plantations required hundreds of slaves to work the fields the economy of the south was therefore almost entirely dependent on slavery which helped create a growing rift between it and the northern states which were transitioning away from agriculture and towards factories and industry there had always been opposition to what was euphemistically referred to as the peculiar institution particularly in the north but abolitionism as an organized force began in the 1830s this coincided with a religious revival that swept through the north known as the great awakening evangelical ministers began to preach fiery sermons that said slavery was not only against the ideals laid out in the declaration of independence but against the laws of god almighty a mortal sin that stained the entire nation not just its practitioners articulate reformers such as william lloyd garrison published anti-slavery newspapers and books demonizing the practices immoral and ungodly it is notable however at this point there was no call for violence in order to free the slaves abolitionists hope to end slavery through legislative action or by pricking the conscience of the southern people when a slave named napturner led violent interaction in 1831 that was quickly put down newspapers in the north as well as the south condemned it john brown while personally opposed to slavery from birth was not focused on the institution just yet he was focused on building his business interests and taking very seriously god's commandments be fruitful and multiply between his first wife dionth who died in 1832 and his second wife mary john had 21 children 10 of whom died before reaching adulthood the ones who did survive were subject to strict discipline forced to live the same austere religious-based lifestyle but he himself practiced brown's businesses were rather less successful than his efforts to populate the earth it didn't seem to matter what he tried tannery land speculation selling wool all the businesses he started failed putting him in debt and forcing him to declare bankruptcy most of his financial troubles were brown's own fault he insisted that he was a businessman without peer that he knew what he was doing even when he didn't and that anything that went wrong was somebody else's fault namely people trying to cheat him his erratic dealings but some who knew him to question his sanity it's not the last time that would happen by 1854 john brown had been chased out of ohio pennsylvania and massachusetts by his creditors he was living in north alban new york a remote farming settlement for freed slaves in the adrian deck mountains on the shore of lake placid which would go on to host the winter olympics twice in the 20th century by the way brown had become more and more involved with the issue of slavery in recent years he had served as a conductor on the underground railroad a secret network of northern abolitionists and free blacks that worked to spread slaves out of the south and get them to freedom in canada beyond the reach of slave captures and the police who were compelled to aid them by the terms of the fugitive slave act passed by congress slavery was becoming more and more of a divisive issue in the 1850s anti-slavery sentiments ran high in the north so not because of moral qualms about the practice as the abolitionists proclaimed many northerners chafed at the idea of the slave power that is the southern states attempting to impose their will on them the south wielded a disproportionate amount of power in congress thanks to the three-fifths compromise in the constitution which allowed southern states to count each slave as three-fifths of a person in the census this awarded them more seats in the house representatives than they would have otherwise been entitled to since quite obviously the slaves were ineligible to vote these seats were filled by pro-slavery politicians who did everything possible to advance the interests of the southern economy which you'll remember by this point was dependent on slavery and this was all at the expense of the northern one john brown was one of the few white men in america who was not only an abolitionist but who treated black people with respect though not necessarily as his equal not because of prejudice but because john brown saw no one as being his equal he was living in north elba in order to teach the freed slaves their how to live off their land and fend for themselves brown hoped to eventually create communities of freed slaves like this all over america that was when a letter from his sons came that would change his life in 1854 congress passed the kansas nebraska act instead of a longitudinal dividing line that split the country into free states and slave states from now on each new territory added to the union would decide for itself which one they would be ostensibly a democratic measure the law seemed designed to cause conflict between two sections of the country that increasingly distrusted each other the battle lines were drawn in the kansas territory migrants from northern states known as free soldiers flooded into kansas and established settlements like lawrence and topeka the pro-slavery faction moved in as well swarming across the border from neighboring missouri knowing that they didn't have the numbers to carry the day the southerners resorted to cheating taking control of the ballots by threatening violence and casting illegal votes because of this they elected an overwhelmingly pro-slavery legislature the three soldiers had rejected this legislature and elected their own representatives meaning the two rival governments were now in place in kansas both claiming to be legitimate kansas was a powder keg ready to explode and john brown was about to show up carrying a flaming torch to throw right into the middle of it brown had received a letter from five of his sons who had chosen to make a go of the new frontier and wanted to know if their father wanted to come along initially brown declined but as he heard of the deteriorating situation in kansas he decided to go arriving in 1855 among the supplies he brought with him were weapons including rifles pistols and several broadswords to protect themselves from the missouri border raphians as they were known the free soldiers formed militia companies like the pottawatomie rifles led by john brown jr his father while not a formal member would ride along with them whenever trouble seemed likely this is what they were doing on may 23 1856 riding to lawrence after word came that the city was being threatened by pro-slavery forces but before they arrived messenger met up with him and shared the news that lawrence had been sacked stores looted buildings burned printing presses destroyed no one had been hurt because the citizens of lawrence had decided not to fight back later that day more distressing news came in washington senator charles sumner of massachusetts a devout abolitionist had been beaten very badly inside the capitol building by representative preston brooks of south carolina for john brown this was the last straw the way he saw it the south had thrown down the gauntlet and he was determined to pick it up he led a band of men mostly consisting of his own sons away from the rest of the militia and on to potowatomi creek near where the brown family lived there they went from cabin to cabin dragging notable pro-slavery men outside and hacking them to death with swords the total of five men were slain before brown's group but had enough the pottawatomie massacre as it became known touched off a full-scale war in eastern kansas bands of free soldiers and border ruffians rode around the territory engaging each other in skirmishes and fights that left men dead on both sides houses were burned cat or stolen neighbors turned on each other in brutal sectarian violence reminiscent of the european wars of religion 200 years earlier it would take months for federal troops to bring the region under control by which time more than 200 people have been killed meanwhile john brown escaped from what the new york tribune was calling bleeding kansas unscathed after participating in several battles one of which claimed the life of his son frederick brown had become a national figure as a result of the kansas fighting and it wanted to parlay that fame into what he now viewed as his god-given mission to destroy slavery in the united states when john brown spoke to audiences in northern cities proclaiming that god had chosen him to lead a campaign to free the slaves by any means necessary it was viewed as being little on the extreme side rhetoric wise but it was not dismissed as being the ramblings of an insane person as it probably would have been if it done it today he certainly never gave off any outward signs of mental illness he never claimed to be receiving visions or hearing voices from god commanding him to act or that he had any supernatural powers bestowed on him by the deity what he had was a sincere conviction that of all the people in america he was the one best suited to lead the campaign against the slave power not with words but with action regardless of how strong his faith was it must have appeased his ego that so many people in the north were listening to him now over the course of the next two years brown went on a public speaking tour of the north recounting his heroic deeds in the kansas conflict notably leaving out any detail about the pottawatomie massacre and soliciting money to continue the struggle most of his audience assumed that he meant returning to kansas but secretly brown had something much more grandiose in mind brown believed that the slave population was primed for revolting against their white masters studying the campaigns of two slaves turned general spartacus and ancient rome and du salt levature in haiti convinced him that he could ignite a similar slave rebellion in the american south at that point there were four million enslaved people in the country including large populations of hundreds of thousands of slaves in the deep south in some states like south carolina there were more slaves than there were free people white or black brown thought that all that was needed was a spark something for the slaves to rally around as well as weapons and then he could build an unstoppable army of free blacks who would sweep slavery out of every corner of the country but where to get those weapons from brown couldn't buy them that would require vast sums of money that he was unable to raise and he would have drawn attention to what he was doing after briefly entertaining a scheme to manufacture pykes to issue to the slaves he came to the conclusion that the only one with a store of arms large enough for his purposes was the federal government the us army at this point was small and mostly concentrated in the west but the government maintained armories large repositories of stored guns in strategic locations so that they'd have them in case of trouble one of these store houses was the federal arsenal at harpers ferry virginia the small town of harpers ferry occupied a strategic location in virginia close to the maryland border it sat at the junction of two large rivers the shenandoah and the potomac which made it a natural transportation hub it had been a manufacturing couple decades and its largest employer was the arsenal which both manufactured and stored rifles for the army there were estimated to be around a hundred thousand guns stored at harpers ferry in 1859 more than enough for brown's revolution brown's plan was to capture the arsenal seize the weapons and put the word out that the revolution was underway waiting in the town for his army to appear to be armed and trained no doubt brown anticipated countless legions of biblical proportions flocking to his banner with himself placed at their head at this point the old man's hair had changed from black to white and he had grown a large beard drawing comparison to the prophet moses which probably pleased him just as moses had led the israelites to freedom so would john brown lead the slaves to freedom brown's raiders as they came to be known consisted of himself and 21 other men he'd tried to recruit more including his friend frederick douglass the most famous black man in america but douglas had declined declaring brown's plan suicidal it is estimated that up to 80 people had advanced knowledge of brown's attack including his primary financial back as a group of influential northern philanthropists and reformers called the secret six there had even been a letter sent to the secretary of war warning him of brown's plans but the secretary dismissed the letter as a hoax so when brown and his troops rode into harpers ferry at 11 pm on october 16 1859 they took the sleepy town completely by surprise they quickly captured the arsenal overwhelming the single night watchmen on duty cut the telegraph lines and seized control of the bridges that provided access to the town they took hostages the most notable of which was lewis washington great-grandnephew george washington john brown carried general washington sword around with him during the raid as a talisman the first part of his plan had gone off without a hitch he had the town and the guns now all he had to do was wait for the slave rebellion to begin however there was one glaring oversight in brown's plan that seems obvious to anybody looking back on it today he had no way to contact the slaves directly to tell them what was happening how were they supposed to know to rise up and come to harper's ferry to join his army when word did get out it reached the white slave owning populous first who promptly overreacted like all slave masters as much as they looked down upon their slaves they also feared what would happen if they ever rose up in rebellion against them militia companies from both maryland and virginia were assembled and sent to harpers ferry these companies surrounded the raiders preventing their escape but were overall disorganized and not very willing to expose themselves to danger instead exchanging sporadic fire with brown's men throughout the day on october 17th many of them took it as an excuse to get drunk hoping to get a handle on the situation president buchanan dispatched a company of u.s marines from washington to seize back the armory in command of the operation was army colonel robert e lee a decorated mexican war veteran who was considered one of the country's best soldiers lee's aide was lieutenant j.e.b steward who had encountered john brown before during the days of bleeding kansas both would go on to become celebrated generals during the civil war at 6 30 a.m on october the 18th stewart approached the fire engine house where brown surviving raiders had taken refuge under a white flag he spoke with brown imploring him to surrender so that their lives would be spared when brown refused stewart signaled lee who sent in the marines they broke down the door and fought their way inside capturing brown and the rest of his band it was all over in a few minutes brown who had been seriously wounded was carried out of the engine house along with the rest of the survivors the butcher's bill was high of the 19 men who had participated in the harper's ferry raid ten had been killed or mortally wounded and seven captured four town residents including the mayor had also been killed as well as a marine during the final assault under other circumstances brown's raid might have been a footnote in history the man himself quickly dismissed is just another crackpot but as john brown's trial played out during the last week of october 1859 he became a cause celeb in the north and the devil incarnate in the south the trial itself was largely for show as there was little doubt about brown's guilt or what the punishment for his crimes was to be it was the first trial in america covered nationwide as it happened thanks to the telegraph and it became a circus with the governor of virginia surrounding the courthouse with an army of militia units because he was convinced a diabolical northern plot was at hand to set round free there wasn't but that didn't stop them from putting a cannon on the courthouse steps brown himself didn't want to be rescued he recognized the propaganda value his death would bring to his cause and spurned all efforts made on his behalf to save his life he accepted every interview request and received and wrote many letters during his imprisonment impressing many both north and south was eloquence bravery and the strength of his convictions that didn't stop southern newspapers from paying for his blood however along with all the other abolitionists that dared try to deprive them of their rightful property in the north meanwhile brown was seen as a martyr someone who had perhaps gone a little too far in the name of a good cause it also caused many to question whether violence was an acceptable price to pay for the abolition of slavery including many who had been pacifists before the raid brown himself was certainly convinced of the righteousness of his cause right to the end he gave no last speech before being hanged on december the 2nd but he passed a note to his jailer that said in part i john brown i'm now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood it turned out to be a prophetic final missive a year after his execution the southern states reacted to the election of abraham lincoln as president by trying to leave the union and form their own country the confederacy triggering the american civil war between six hundred thousand and eight hundred thousand people would die in that conflict including almost a fifth of southern men in the ages of 18 to 43. in the end the south lost and they were dragged back into the country by force which now included the 13th amendment to the constitution permanently abolishing slavery many people today continued to debate john brown's legacy while his raid did not lead directly to the civil war it certainly contributed to it as it provided further proof of nefarious intentions to two parts of the country that didn't know how to communicate with each other anymore while there probably still would have been civil war even without john brown's actions it might not have started when it did or taken the form that it did and it might not have ended with the abolition of slavery the way that it did there are some historians who believe that his intentions were to set the north and south against each other all along knowing that his raid would fail and the only way to free the slaves was with a northern army defeating the south in battle the other thing people question is whether john brown's actions were justified whether they were a good thing his cause was objectively a righteous one certainly but his decision to use violence in order to advance a political aim arguably makes him america's first domestic terrorist had he been born in the 20th century what cause mighty have championed instead of slavery and would he have seen violence as an acceptable solution to those problems too there's no way to know for sure in any case it's probably better to take the historian's view that there are no heroes and villains when telling the story of the past only historical events and their impact on future ones and whatever anyone says about john brown he certainly fills both those categories perfectly well [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 347,349

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: orxQY0N0-HA

Length: 21min 25sec (1285 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 04 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/badtopogigio]

Join Brown did nothing wrong

[u/Imjustadumbbutt]

YouTube channel Biographics released a video on John Brown a few days ago that came up on my recommended vids today.

[u/dolerbom]

The world would be a safer place if we had more John Brown's throughout our history.

[u/schlidel]

Did anyone tell him to just vote?

[u/Pessimistic_Soviet]

If this "vote yes" bullshit passes in October, someone better go paint over John Brown inside the capitol building in Topeka.

[u/TonyRobinsonsFashion]

Had GPS take me randomly to a dead end gravel road in Osawatomie once. Several hours from where I live and the place I was looking for was in walking distance. Anyways since the day was spent stopped by a local diner and had the best bacon I’ve ever had in my life and possibly the friendliest server ever. Middle age woman who was a complete delight. Was a day well spent as it turned out. For context Osawatomie is where John Brown was staying when he headed for Harpers Ferry. I believe they have a museum but it would have been closed by the time I saw the billboard. Neat town, honestly reminded me more of Virginia than it did Kansas