John Brown a Hero- -yet the South are Traitors

Joined
Mar 5, 2017
I just finished reading James McPherson's battle cry of freedom. Why is it that the northern christian abolitionist section during the war viewed this man as a hero, and yet condemned the south as Traitors to the united states. Brown while celebrated in the north, was a “traitor” in that he left the union and created his own constitution and nation called “the republic of liberated slaves.”

So the question is why does he get a pass and the south does not? he does not have the best history either.


Brown was involved in a brutal attack. On May 24, 1856 in Kansas Brown and some men dragged five pro slavery men and boys in the night from their beds at Pottawatomie creek. They split the heads of the men and boys with an axe. Then cut off their hands, cut open their stomachs and laid out their entrails.

Brown became most famous for his raid into Virginia. Brown had tried to get Fredrick Douglass involved but Douglass saw it as suicidal. Brown led his armed group of 16 whites and six blacks all northers with the attempt at capturing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry VA. To than to arm thousands of slaves who he thought would rise up and with his army, free even more slave and start a revolt. On October 16 1859 Brown and his men attacked Harpers Ferry. The first person killed by browns group was a free African American named Haywood Shepherd who was working at the rail station. Federal forces were sent in under Robert E Lee and Jeb Stuart. They stormed the arsenal and captured brown. Brown was found guilty on Nov 2 1859 and hung on Dec 2 1859. He was healed as a martyr by many Christian abolitionist in the north. Church bells rang at his death. He even had a song named after his death, John Browns body.

It was not a slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves., in which the slaves refused to participate, in fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed”

-Abraham Lincoln Feb 27 1860 cooper union speech
 
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