Download Brian Riley HST 4/27/15 In the biography, John Brown by W.E. B. Du

Brian Riley
HST
4/27/15
In the biography, John Brown by W.E. B. Du Bois, details the life of the abolitionist. In
Hudson, Ohio a pastor told his church, “The question now before us is no longer can slaves be
made free but are we free? Or are we slaves under mob law? In the back of the little church a tall
man arose, raised his right hand and said, “Here before God in the presence of these witnesses I,
John Brown, consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery.” 1 Brown’s family was intensely
religious. At his father’s command he whipped his father and drew blood when unable to pay a
bill in full. Brown asked his father is the slaves were men with souls and his father answered
affirmatively. Brown motivation for his actions was religious as were his rationalizations for his
violent actions. The puritanical upbringing of Brown was just one factor is but one factor that
lead to his violent actions at Pottawatomie Creek and Harpers Ferry, Virginia that made him, as
Walt Whitman described “the meteor of the war.”
The political movement of the abolitionist was in full swing. It was a duty to God that His
people shall be free and for Brown to sit in idleness, while the injustice of slavery happened was
a sin. Brown became a religious fanatic and took the practical applications of his religion to an
extreme. “Once a moderate user of cider and wine-then a strong teetotaler.” (pg 40) Furthermore
Brown told his brother in law of his first marriage, “Milton, I wish you would not make your
visits here on the Sabbath.” (pg 41) He thought the loss of some of his children due to illness as
vengeful punishments of God. Given this mindset of Brown of the view of the Almighty, was
vengeful and omnispective; Brown felt as if he must to something to atone for the original sin of
1
The Civil War. Prod. Ken Burns. Dir. Ken Burns. 1990. DVD.
America. “God was an actor in the play and so was John Brown. But just what his part was to his
soul in the long agony of years tried to know and ever and again the chilling doubt assailed him
lest he be unworthy of this place or had missed the call.” (pg 46) God took his wife and his
children yet allowed him to live. His life must have a greater purpose for America. “Certainly I
never felt myself in the presence of a stronger religious influence than while in this man’s
house,” said Frederick Douglass in 1847.” (pg 47) Brown was failure at business and went
bankrupt at his attempts to make money. He found a margin of success as a wool farmer which
was short lived. He proclaimed “For what were sheep as compared with men and money
weighed with liberty.” (pg 62) Brown was an inept businessman who had failed 20 times in 6
different states. Brown believed himself not made for business but to follow in path of his
father.
Brown’s father was abolitionist and, a pastor who saw the intuition of slavery as a sin. “I
married them myself and did not enjoin obedience on the woman,” Owen Brown added, “Ever
since I have been an abolitionist.” (pg 78) Owen and John Brown knew of the slave uprisings in
Haiti, and decried slavery because five thousand blacks fought in the Revolutionary war for the
liberty of their masters.
Slave uprisings were spreading like wildfire across the nation and, Brown wanted to
throw an accelerant onto the fire. “In Louisiana and Tennessee and, twice in Virginia they raised
the night cry of revolt, and once slew fifty Virginians, holding the state for weeks at bay there is
those same Alleghenies which John Brown loved and listened to. On the ships of the sea they
rebelled and murdered, to Florida they fled and turned like beasts on their pursuers till whole
armies dislodged them and did them to death in the everglades.” (pg 81) The slaves were men
and had been cowed into acceptance. All they needed was someone to come to their aid and
empower them and the revolution of the slaves would be at hand. Brown saw himself as God’s
instrument of this cause. The slaves had revolted before and now only needed the means for a
successful uprising and God choose Brown for this cause.
In his fanaticism, Brown led his sons to hack to death pro-slavery men in the name of
“defeating Satan and his legions” at Pottawatomie Creek. “It is a war to the death and we must
fight fire with fire,” John Brown said. Brown led 5 blacks and 13 whites into Harpers Ferry.
Brown was assured that he was carrying out a divine will that he took a wagon load of guns with
him into Harpers Ferry to arm the slaves who, he wrongly believed, would rise up against the
devil of slavery. Once they did rise up he would lead them south along the Appalachians and
destroy slavery for once and for all. They had revolted before now it was time for Brown to
accomplish his purpose in life, the liberation of the enslaved souls in the south. Brown was
stirred to action by faith and the fight against the evil of slavery. “In firing his gun, John Brown
has merely told us what time of day it is. It is high noon,” said William Lloyd Garrison.1
Brown and his men took over the armory in Harpers Ferry. After this the bullets flew.
The first person killed was a freedman. Brown lost two sons on the raid. The slaves did not rise
up but the whites of Harpers Ferry did. The next day Colonel Robert E. Lee led Union troops
into Harpers Ferry and cornered Brown and his men. Lee quelled the rebellion that led to his lost
fidelity to the Union. Lee would turn down leadership of the Union army in 1861 and, serve as
the Commander of the Armies of Northern Virginia.
On December 2, 1859 on his way to the gallows Brown said nothing but handed a guard
a note which said, “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can
never be purged away but with blood. I had as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without
very much bloodshed, it might be done.” Brown became the symbol of the abolitionists and was
praised by those in the elite. “His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine; it was
as the burning sun to my taper light mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the
boundless shores of eternity. I could live for the slave, but he could die for him,” said Fredrick
Douglass on May 30, 1881 in Harpers Ferry.
2
Brown saw himself as an agent of God’s will and was sacrificed on the altar for the soul
of the nation. He was driven by his father’s abolitionist’s views and religious fervor. John Brown
put his words into action and, albeit ill-fated and ill-conceived but the purpose was just. Brown
rationalized his acts as being commanded by God and he was doing God’s will. John Brown was
the spark that lights the fire of the Civil War and our nation’s greatest hymn that was so spiritual
it is almost biblical, the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Oliva Ward Howell later put pen to paper
to publish the words of that song sung by Union troops, “While John Brown’s body was
moldering in the ground, his soul goes marching on.”
2
"Address by Frederick Douglass, 1881." Address by Frederick Douglass, 1881. N.p.,