Oakland Unified School District



Oakland Unified School District

District Assessment

8th Grade U.S. History

Spring Semester, 2010

Topic: “Is John Brown an American Hero?”

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Part I – Thinking About “Heroes of American History”

Step #1 – Imagine there is a “Heroes of American History Hall of Fame” and you’ve been asked to nominate five people for inclusion. In the first column of the chart below write down the names of five people you think deserve to be inducted [placed] in that hall of fame. In the second column write down why you think each of these individuals deserves to be included.

|A person to be included in the “Heroes of |Why should this person be included? |

|American History Hall of Fame” | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

| | |

Step #2 – In the space below, using the reasons you gave for why the people you chose are American heroes, write down your definition of an American hero.

Step #3 – Below is one definition of an American hero.

One definition of an American Hero Dictionary –

A person of great courage or ability, admired for his or her brave deeds and noble qualities; someone whose actions led to important social, political, or economic changes that lifted the spirit of Americans and bettered the situation of the country.

1. How is the dictionary definition similar to or different from the definition of a hero you wrote for step #2? Explain.

2. Thinking about the people you chose in step #1, the reasons you chose them, and the dictionary definition of a hero – What is your definition of an American hero?

Step #4 – Return to your list of individuals you said belonged in the “Heroes of American History Hall of Fame.” Is there anyone there who you would remove based on your final definition?

|First list of people to be included in the |Are you going to keep or |Why should this person be kept or removed? |

|“Heroes of American History Hall of Fame” |remove this person from the | |

| |list? | |

|1. | | |

|2. | | |

|3. | | |

|4. | | |

|5. | | |

|If you removed a person or persons from your |Why should this person be included? |

|list, who do you want to replace that person? | |

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| | |

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| | |

Step #5 - Looking ahead: Over the next three to four days you will be studying about a man named John Brown. You will learn about when he lived and what he did. At the end of these lessons you will be asked to write an essay that answers, based on your definition of a hero, the question “Is John Brown an American hero?”

Part II – A Brief Chronology of John Brown’s Life: When did he live and what did he do?

Below are two timelines of the same time period. Timeline I includes information about a man named John Brown. Timeline II includes information about important events in U.S. and World history.

|Timeline I: |Date |Timeline II: |

|Important Events in John Brown’s Life | |Important Events in American and World History |

|John Brown is born in Torrington, Connecticut.|1800 | |

| | | |

|His father hated slavery. | | |

|Brown observed the beating of a young slave |1812 |United States declares war against Great Britain. |

|boy. | | |

|John Brown marries Dianthe Lusk. |1820 |Missouri Compromise: |

|She dies in 1832 | |Admitted Maine admitted to nation as free state and Missouri as a |

| | |slave state. |

| | |Prohibited slavery above the 36030’ line of latitude, allowing it |

| | |below that line. |

| |1831 |Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in Virginia: |

| | |Sixty whites were killed. |

| | |One-hundred slaves who did not participate in the rebellion were |

| | |killed. |

| | |Nat Turner was captured and executed. |

|John Brown weds Mary Day. |1833 |Slavery is abolished in the British Empire |

|The abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy is shot to |1837 | |

|death by a proslavery mob. | | |

|John Brown makes a vow to end slavery. | | |

| |1846 |The United States declares war against Mexico. |

| |1850 |Compromise of 1850: |

| | |California admitted as a free state, ending the equal number of free|

| | |and slave states |

| | |Fugitive Slave law passed. |

| |1854 |Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854: |

| | |Giving in to Southern power, the federal government placed the issue|

| | |of slavery into the hands of those settling in these new |

| | |territories. The people would decide, by popular vote, whether to be|

| | |"free" or "slave." |

|Brown goes to Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas and|1856 | |

|directs his men to murder five proslavery | | |

|settlers. | | |

| |1857 |Dred Scott ruling: |

| | |Supreme Court ruled that no African American could be a citizen of |

| | |the United States and that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery|

| | |anywhere in the country. |

|John Brown attacks two proslavery homesteads |1858 | |

|Missouri | | |

|He frees 11 slaves and takes them to freedom | | |

|in Canada | | |

|October 16: John Brown attacks the U.S. |1859 | |

|government armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. | | |

| | | |

|November 2: A Virginia jury finds John Brown | | |

|guilty of murder, treason, and inciting a | | |

|slave insurrection. | | |

| | | |

|December 2: John Brown is hanged. | | |

| |

|Events that occurred after John Brown was tried, convicted and hung. |

|1860 |Abraham Lincoln elected President. |

|1861 |Confederate armies open fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina; the first shots of the Civil War. |

|1865 |The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolishes slavery. |

Source – “John Brown’s Holy War,” PBS

1. Examine the chronology of John Brown’s life – timeline I. After reading the information use the space below to briefly explain:

A. Who he was.

B. What he did – What actions did he take that might be considered historically significant?

C. What happened to him and why.

2. Using information gathered from timeline II speculate [guess at] as to why John Brown attacked the U.S. government armory [a place where the government stores weapons] at Harpers Ferry, Virginia on October 16, 1859. Why do you think he did it and why at that time in American?

PART III

“John Brown and ‘Bleeding Kansas’”

I. Read the following account of what happened in Kansas between 1854 and 1856. Answer the questions that follow.

(paragraph 1) The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 stated that the future of slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska territories was to be decided by popular vote, a vote of the people. Because of this both antislavery Northerners and proslavery Southerners competed for this territory.

(paragraph 2) Competition between proslavery and antislavery factions reached a climax on May 30, 1855, when Kansas held territorial elections to see if the state would allow slavery. Although only 1500 men were registered to vote, 6000 ballots were cast, many of them by proslavery "border ruffians" who came into Kansas from Missouri. As a result, a proslavery legislature was elected, which passed laws stating that only proslavery men could serve in office or serve on juries. One law gave five years imprisonment for anyone questioning the legality of slavery in Kansas.

1. Briefly summarize paragraphs 1 & 2 - What question was being settled by voters in Kansas in 1855?). Based on the information in these two paragraphs - do you think this was a fair election? Why or why not?

(paragraph 3) Free Soilers (people opposed to slavery in the new territories that were to become new states in the United States) held their own "Free State" convention in Topeka, Kansas in the fall of 1855, and drew up a constitution that prohibited slavery in Kansas, and also barred free blacks from the territory. Like the Free Soilers who settled in California and Oregon, most Northerners in Kansas wanted the territory to be free and white.

(paragraph 4) Kansas now had two legislatures - one pro-slavery, the other against. President Franklin Pierce supported the proslavery legislature and asked the United States Congress to admit Kansas to the Union as a slave state.

(paragraph 5) The situation then became violent. On May 21, 1856, 800 proslavery men, many from Missouri, marched into Lawrence, Kansas, to arrest the leaders of the antislavery government. They burned the local hotel, looted a number of houses, destroyed two antislavery printing presses, and killed one man. This became know as the “sack of Lawrence.”

2. Briefly summarize paragraphs 3, 4, & 5 - What happened in Kansas after the 1855 vote on whether Kansas would or would not allow slavery?

(paragraph 6) In response to this violence, John Brown, a Bible-quoting Calvinist who believed he had a personal duty to overthrow slavery, announced that the time had come "to fight fire with fire" and "strike terror in the hearts of proslavery men.” The next day Brown led a group of six men and dragged five proslavery men and boys from their beds at Pottawatomie Creek in Kansas. Brown’s men split open the proslavery men’s skulls with a sword and cut off their hands. The men said that Brown did not commit any of the actual murders himself, but he was their leader and made the decisions as to who should be killed and who was to be spared.

3. Briefly summarize paragraph 6 – What did John Brown do at Pottawatomie Creek and why did he do it?

Text from:

• “Bleeding Kansas and Bleeding Sumner” , the Gilder Lehrman Institute,

• To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown,

by Stephen B. Oates. Harper & Row, 1970,

Part IV – Historians’ Comments on John Brown’s actions in Kansas (sources 1 & 2)

Below are comments by historians on Brown’s actions at Pottawatomie Creek in 1856. Read over the comments and for each decide whether the historian had a positive or negative view of Brown. Explain your thinking.

Source #1 Source #2

|A. [What happened at] Pottawatomie was cold blooded murder. [It was] |John Brown was brave, committed, and unalterably opposed to slavery. But |

|killing people based on anger, and vengeance. That blood was all over the |he was also violent. He killed men—or ordered them killed—in Kansas… |

|weapons and hands of John Brown and his men at Pottawatomie. | |

|–Dennis Frye, historian |Those killed at Pottawatomie were, for the most part, combatants |

| |[fighters] in a ruthless civil war. One of the men killed had threatened |

| |to kill Brown and his sons and other Free State settlers. All those killed|

|B. The [Pottawatomie Creek] massacre and the mutilation of the corpses |supported slavery in the fight over the status of freedom in Kansas. |

|certainly worsened the situation in "Bleeding Kansas," igniting the |- from the Introduction to Terrible Swift Sword —The Legacy of John Brown,|

|conflict's most violent phase, which ultimately left about fifty-five |Edited by Peggy A. Russo and Paul Finkelman, 2005 |

|settlers dead. | |

|- Steven Mintz, historian | |

| | |

|--------------------- |--------------------- |

|Negative or Positive view of Brown? __________ |Negative or Positive view of Brown?__________ |

|Why? |Why? |

Considering what you read about “Bleeding Kansas” and the historians’ comments, would you, based on this limited information, support the argument that John Brown is an American hero? Why or why not?

Three Years Later - October, 1859

The paragraph below describes where and how the story of John Brown's fight against slavery continued.

On October 16, 1859, John Brown led 21 men (5 blacks and 16 whites) on a raid of the federal arsenal [place where weapons are kept] at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He planned to take the weapons and use them to start a slave revolt. The plan did not work. Brown was wounded and quickly captured, and moved to Charlestown, Virginia, where he was tried and convicted of treason. John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.

- from Africans in America,

Part V – Evidence: Two Primary Sources (sources 3 & 4)

What John Said About his Raid on Harpers Ferry – Why?

To Do: Below are two statements by John Brown about his raid on Harpers Ferry. In the box next to each of the statements briefly summarize, using your own words, what John Brown said. After working with the two sources decide (on next page) whether these statements, taken together, support the argument that John Brown should be considered an American hero.

|Two Statements from John Brown |Short summary of what |What does this quote suggest about whether John Brown |

| |the author of the quote|should or should not be considered an American hero? |

| |is saying. |Include exact words from the quote and quotation marks. |

|Source #3 - John Brown's Last Prophecy |In this passage from |Sample responses: Both sides, depending on your point of |

|Charlestown, Va, 2nd, December, 1859 |1859 John Brown is |view, can be argued from this quote. |

|I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this|arguing that violence | |

|guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. |and bloodshed are |In 1859 John Brown said, “I am now quite certain that the |

|I had as I now think vainly flattered myself that without|necessary if slavery is|crimes of this land will never be purged away but with |

|very much bloodshed; it might be done. |to be abolished in the |blood.” This suggests he should be considered a hero |

| |United States. |because it means he is willing to even use violence to end|

| | |slavery. |

| | |Or |

| | |In 1859 John Brown said, “I am now quite that the crimes |

| | |of this land will never be purged away but with blood.” |

| | |This suggests he not should be considered a hero because |

| | |it means he is arguing for using violence as a means to |

| | |end slavery. |

|Source #4 - From address of John Brown to the Virginia | | |

|Court at Charles Town, Virginia on November 2, 1859 | | |

| | | |

|… I believe that to have interfered as I have done… in | | |

|behalf of His [God] 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 [laws]. -- I submit; so let it be done! | | |

Do these statements from John Brown support the argument that he is an American hero? Why or why not?

Part VI – Evidence: Four Primary Sources (sources 5 – 8)

What was said about John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry

To Do: Read and examine the following statements and in the right hand column state, in your own words, what the writer is arguing about John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry. Does the writer support the idea that John Brown is an American hero, or not?

|The primary source with author and date |Short summary of what the |What does this quote suggest about whether John|

| |author of the quote is |Brown should or should not be considered an |

| |saying. |American hero? |

| | |Include exact words from the quote and |

| | |quotation marks. |

|Source #5 – Abraham Lincoln – December 2, 1859 |Abraham Lincoln is saying |This quote suggests that Brown should not be |

|“Old John Brown has been executed. We cannot object even |that he does not object to |considered an American hero because we can’t |

|though he agreed with us in thinking slavery is wrong. This |Brown’s execution because he |excuse the “violence, bloodshed, and treason” |

|cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason.” |cannot excuse violence and |that resulted from his actions. |

| |bloodshed in the fight | |

| |against slavery. | |

|Source #6 – Frederick Douglass – May 30, 1881 | | |

|“Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended | | |

|American slavery and made this a free Republic. His zeal in | | |

|the cause of my race was far greater than mine. I could live | | |

|for the slave, but he could die for him.” | | |

|Source #7 – Richmond "Whig" Newspaper Editorial Quoted in | | |

|Liberator, Nov. 18, 1859 | | |

|“…old Brown will be hung! That is the decree, of the PEOPLE of| | |

|Virginia, without a dissenting voice…The miserable old traitor| | |

|and murderer belongs to the gallows, and the gallows will have| | |

|its own.” | | |

|Source #8- J. Sella sermon to a crowd of nearly 4,000 black | | |

|and white abolitionists. | | |

|“When a physician cuts out a cancer from my face, I am not to | | |

|blame the physician for the use of the knife; but the impure | | |

|blood, the obstructed veins, the disordered system, that have | | |

|caused the cancer… So John Brown, to save the country, went | | |

|down to cut off the Virginia cancer.” | | |

|From - The Liberator, December 9, 1859 | | |

Part VII – Evidence: Secondary Sources (sources 9 – 12)

What Four Historians Say about John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry

To do: Read and examine the following statements by historians and write, in the right middle column, what the historian is arguing about John Brown and his raid on Harpers Ferry. In the far column decide if the historian supports the idea that John Brown is an American hero, or not? Include a quote from the source to support your conclusion.

|Four Historians on John Brown |What the historian is |Does this historian support the argument that John |

| |saying – brief summary in |Brown is an American Hero? Why or why not? |

| |your own words |Include exact words from the passage and quotation |

| | |marks. |

|Source #9 – from Margaret Washington, historian: |The historian Margaret |Margaret Washington would support the argument that|

|John Brown was most definitely a hero in the eyes of African|Washington argues John |John Brown is an American hero. She says this |

|Americans. He was a hero in the eyes of many people who were|Brown was a hero in the |because he was willing to “die for his |

|involved in the antislavery movement. Even the pacifists, |eyes of African Americans |convictions,” paying the “supreme price” for the |

|who did not believe in violence, saw John Brown as a hero |and many others because he |freedom of African Americans. |

|because he was willing to die for his convictions…Though |was willing to die in order| |

|they did not excuse what he did and would not have done it |to end slavery. | |

|themselves they felt that slavery was so wrong that anything| | |

|that was done to end it was justified | | |

|…he was certainly a hero to African Americans because he | | |

|paid a supreme price for their freedom... | | |

|- from “John Brown’s Holy War,” PBS Documentary, 1999 | | |

|Source #10 - from David M. Kennedy, historian: | | |

|His [John Brown] crackbrained [crazy] scheme was to invade | | |

|the South secretly with a handful of followers, call upon | | |

|the slaves to rise [rebel], give them weapons, and establish| | |

|a kind of free black state as place of safety... At Harpers| | |

|Ferry, he seized the federal weapon storage in October 1859,| | |

|during which several innocent people were killed, including | | |

|a free black, and wounding ten or so more. But the slaves | | |

|did not know of Brown’s raid and failed to rebel… | | |

| | | |

|- from David M. Kennedy,The American Pageant, Houghton | | |

|Mifflin, 2002, p. 422-423 | | |

|Source #11 – from James Davidson and Mark Lytle, historians | | |

|Thirty-six hours after the first shot, John Brown's war on | | |

|slavery had ended. … The raid had been a total failure. | | |

|Not a single slave had risen to join Brown's army. Ten of | | |

|the raiders [the men who joined Brown] lay dead or dying; | | |

|the rest scattered or captured…Seven other people had been | | |

|killed and nine more wounded during the raid. | | |

|Most historians would agree that raid on Harpers Ferry was | | |

|to the Civil War what the Boston Massacre had been to the | | |

|American Revolution: an incendiary event. In a time of | | |

|aroused passions, profound suspicions, and irreconcilable | | |

|differences [between North and South], Brown and his men put| | |

|a match to the fuse. [After their attack] there seemed to | | |

|be no drawing back for either North or South. The shouts of| | |

|angry men overwhelmed the voices of compromise. | | |

|from -Davidson & West, “After the Fact: The Madness of John | | |

|Brown,” Knopf, 1982, p. 148 - 149 | | |

|Source #12 - from Deborah Dandridge, historian: | | |

| | | |

|Not only did John Brown sacrifice his life to bring down the| | |

|nation's [evil] system of chattel slavery, but unlike most | | |

|white abolitionists, he devoted a great deal of his life to | | |

|fostering the practice of racial equality. During the 1830s,| | |

|he and his family took up residence in a mostly African | | |

|American community where he earned a reputation for treating| | |

|everyone as his [equals] | | |

|… By the time he began to take up arms against the forces of| | |

|slavery in Kansas, John Brown had developed allies and | | |

|friends among many African American leaders, of whom | | |

|Frederick Douglass, his long-term friend, was the closest… | | |

|- From The Brown Quarterly, Volume 3, No. 3 (Winter 2000) | | |

Part VIII – What do you say about whether John Brown is an American hero?

Decide whether John Brown is an American hero. Check the box that represents your judgment.

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I do not think John Brown is an American hero.

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I think that John Brown is an American hero.

Now that you have made your judgment your task is to support this decision by writing a coherent and thoughtful essay.

Writing Assignment:

John Brown is a controversial individual in American history. Individuals alive at the time of his raid on Harpers Ferry had different views on his actions. Historians who have studied his actions and his place in the history of the United States also differ on how they view him and his actions.

Your task is to write an essay that answers the following question.

“Is John Brown an American Hero?”

Your essay will be included in a group essays to be read by 8th grade history teachers from middle schools throughout Oakland, so be sure you understand what the question asks you to do and the instructions that follow. The best essays from across the district may be published in a magazine of the history writing from students in Oakland.

Instructions:

Write a multi-paragraph essay that answers this question. Your answer should support your argument with

▪ A title that prepares the reader for what you will argue [say] about John Brown

▪ A thoughtful, well-developed thesis that clearly identifies your argument.

▪ an opening paragraph that includes the definition of a hero used to develop your response to the question (the thesis); the thesis, and the major reasons you will use to support thesis

▪ Information about the time period and John Brown learned in class

▪ Evidence from the primary and secondary sources you have read (include important quotations)

▪ Explanations of how the evidence you have chosen supports your thesis (answer)

▪ Your response (counterargument) to evidence that could be used to argue for a different answer.

Title:

|Name: | |

|School: | |

|Teacher: Period: ______ | |

|Grade: Date: | |

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Historical Background:

Please read before going on to Part V-VIII.

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