Was John Brown Crazy - Effective Educator



Was John Brown Crazy?

Background Information: John Brown was one of the most controversial people in early American history. To some, he was a true champion of human rights and martyr for the cause of abolitionism. To others, he was insane, a lunatic who violently attacked innocent Americans. These differing perspectives are even evident in the images of Brown – two contrasting images follow below. Examine the evidence about John Brown that follows and complete the chart provided.

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| |Does It Suggest He Was Crazy? (Y |

|Facts About John Brown |= Yes, N = No, NR = Not Relevant)|

|1. John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800, the 4th of 8 children. He moved to Ohio with his | |

|family at age 5. | |

|2. At age 16, Brown moved to Massachusetts to attend school, but soon ran out of money and | |

|returned to Ohio. | |

|3. In 1820, at the age of 20, Brown married. Their first child was born ~1 year later. A few | |

|years after the marriage, the family moved to Pennsylvania, where Brown built a cabin, a barn, | |

|and a tannery. | |

|4. In the early 1830s, one of Brown’s 7 children died, as did his wife. Brown remarried and had | |

|13 additional children with his 2nd wife. | |

|5. In 1837, in response to the murder of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy, Brown publicly stated: | |

|“Here before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the| |

|destruction of slavery!” | |

|6. Throughout the 1840s, Brown raised sheep on a family farm, and was known as a local expert on | |

|sheep. | |

|7. In 1855, Brown learned that pro-slavery forces were gathering in Kansas. His adult sons who | |

|lived in Kansas were worried about potential violence. Brown moved to Kansas. | |

|8. On his way to Kansas, Brown attended an anti-slavery convention in Albany, NY. | |

|9. In May 1856, the city of Lawrence, Kansas was overtaken by a pro-slavery mob. Several | |

|buildings were destroyed, and one man was killed. Shortly thereafter, Preston Brooks caned | |

|anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor. Both of these acts of violence upset | |

|Brown. | |

|10. Brown’s father also died in early May, 1856. | |

|11. On May 24, 1856, Brown and several other abolitionists took five pro-slavery settlers from | |

|their cabins at night, and hacked them to death with swords. | |

|12. In August 1856, pro-slavery settlers killed one of Brown’s sons. Brown left Kansas by the end| |

|of the year. | |

|13. Brown spent much of 1857 and 1858 meeting with and raising money from abolitionists, such as | |

|Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Tubman and Henry David Thoreau. | |

|14. In December 1858, Brown raided a small settlement in Missouri. He freed 11 slaves and took | |

|two white men captive. The next month he helped take 11 freed slaves to Detriot and then to | |

|Canada. | |

|15. Brown’s initial plan for raid called for thousands of men. Only 21 showed up to support his | |

|raid on Harper’s Ferry. The men were armed with both guns and pikes. | |

|16. The Harpers Ferry Armory was a building complex that contained over 100,000 guns. Brown | |

|planned to seize these guns and use them to free local slaves. They would then head south and | |

|free additional slaves. | |

|17. At first, Brown and his men captured the armory easily as it was guarded by only one | |

|watchman. However, local residents trapped Brown and his men in the armory. Moreover, several | |

|hours later news reached of the raid reached Washington DC when a train that had passed through | |

|Harpers Ferry arrived in the capitol. | |

|18. Brown sent his son out of the armory under a white flag. The crowd shot and killed him. | |

|19. By the raid’s 3rd day, the armory was surrounded by U. S. Marines, but refused to surrender. | |

|The Marines attacked, and within a few minutes all of Brown’s men were killed or captured. Brown| |

|was captured. | |

|20. Brown’s trial began one week later. A doctor pronounced him fit for trial. He was charged | |

|with murdered 5 people and conspiring with slaves to revolt. He was found guilty one week after | |

|the trial began, and sentenced to be hanged one month later. | |

|21. When Brown learned of his conviction he said: “The bible teaches me that all things | |

|whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further,| |

|to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that | |

|instruction. 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!" | |

|22. Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. In attendance were Stonewall Jackson (future | |

|Confederate general) and John Wilkes Booth (future assassin of Lincoln). | |

|23. On the day of his death Brown wrote: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of | |

|this guilty land will 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." | |

|24. During the Civil War, Union soldiers sang the song John Brown’s Body as a source of | |

|inspiration. | |

|25. Some historians have referred to Brown as “a demended dreamer”, “psychologically unbalanced”,| |

|“fanatical”. and one of the “great liberators of mankind.” | |

|26. One historian referred to Brown as one of the “great liberators of mankind.” When asked if | |

|there were any good white people in the world, Malcolm X named John Brown. | |

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