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29 December 2008
The Rebellious John Brown
White abolitionist takes up arms against slavery
This article is excerpted from the book Free At Last: The U.S. Civil Rights Movement, published by the Bureau of International Information Programs. View the entire book (PDF, 3.6 MB).
Another famous effort to free the African-American slaves by the sword was led by a white American. John Brown, a native New Englander, had long mulled the idea of achieving abolition by force and had, in 1847, confided to Frederick Douglass his intent to do precisely that. In 1855, Brown arrived in the Kansas Territory, scene of violent clashes between pro- and antislavery factions. At issue was whether Kansas would be admitted to the Union as a “free-soil” or slave state. Each faction built its own settlements.
After slavery advocates conducted a raid on “free” Lawrence, Kansas, Brown and four of his sons, on May 24, 1856, carried out the Pottawatomie Massacre, descending on the slaveholding village of Pottawatomie and killing five men. Brown then launched a series of guerrilla actions against armed pro-slavery bands. He returned to New England, hoping — unsuccessfully — to raise an African-American fighting force and — more successfully — to raise funds from leading abolitionists.
After a convention of Brown supporters meeting in Canada declared him commander-in-chief of a provisional government to depose southern slaveholders, Brown established a secret base in Maryland, near Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). He waited there for supporters, most of whom failed to arrive. On October 16, 1859, Brown led a biracial force of about 20 that captured the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry and held about 60 local notables hostage. The plan was to arm groups of escaped slaves and head south, liberating additional slaves as they marched. But Brown delayed too long and soon was surrounded by a company of U.S. Marines led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee (future commander of the southern forces during the Civil War). Brown refused to surrender. Wounded and captured in the ensuing battle, Brown was tried in Virginia and convicted of treason, conspiracy, and murder.
Addressing the jury after the verdict was announced, Brown said:
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, was 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 mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!
Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, a martyr to the antislavery cause. In the Civil War that began a year later, Union soldiers marched to variants of a tune they called “John Brown’s Body” (one version, penned by Julia Ward Howe, would become “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”). A typical stanza read:
Old John Brown’s body is a-mouldering in the dust,
Old John Brown’s rifle is red with blood-spots turned to rust,
Old John Brown’s pike has made its last, unflinching thrust,
His soul is marching on!
