Slavery! It is that great evil that is wrenching our precious Union asunder right before our very eyes, and yet our government makes no stand on the issue. Slavery defies the very ideals and principles upon which this magnificent nation was established, and yet our politicians dare not whisper a word against the horrible practice. Who then is left to defend the morals of the country? Who then remains to stand up for what is virtuous? The answer resides all around us. It is the common man, the citizen of the United States that must embrace the call for action and fight for what is right, and no man has done more in the name of abolition than Mr. John Brown.

Brown exemplifies everything that a good moral citizen should be, and he has fearlessly faced down the forces of vice and malignancy that threaten to overrun America. Brown has no prominent background and no fortune with which to support his Holy War, but he does possess a true passion in his cause. Raised in a deeply religious family in Torrington, Connecticut, he learned early in life that slavery was a sin against the creator, and he took this lesson to heart. John lost his mother at the tender age of eight, and this loss would affect him all his life. His father was actively involved in the fight against slavery, and Brown followed this virtuous pattern as he grew older. When Brown left home, he worked at a variety of jobs that furthered the antislavery cause. He worked diligently in programs to help educate free blacks in the state of Pennsylvania and dedicated more than two decades of his life to projects that assisted blacks in various ways. Despite his dedication to the abolitionist cause, Brown managed to raise a family of more than twenty children, all of whom were taught to oppose the evils of slavery.

When several of his sons moved to the Kansas and became involved in the horrible struggle that was raging between the peaceful antislavery settlers and the barbaric, invading army of border ruffians who sought to admit Kansas as a slave state against the will of its own population. Brown’s sons wrote to their father to request his assistance in the growing conflict, and Brown immediately came to the aid of his fellow free soilers who were being brutalized by the slavery proponents seeking to force them into a fight. When marauding ruffians ruthlessly murdered several Kansans in the town of Lawrence, Kansas, Brown and his sons struck back in the name of freedom. They took out vengeance against the murderers on May the 24^th of 1856 when they rode into the town of Pottawatomie Creek and risked their own lives to bring the terrorizing bandits to justice. Five pro-slavery invaders were executed that night, turning Brown and his heroic family into one of the most revered antislavery forces in Kansas. The eventual triumph of free soilers over the invading ruffians has been due in no small part to Brown and his sons and their willingness to stand up to the forces of evil.

Such is the history of the great man who has now attempted to win an even greater victory in the name of emancipation. The bold and daring raid on Harpers Ferry clearly demonstrates the fervor that Brown has for his noble cause, and it can only be hoped that others share the ardency of Brown and his army. Words have failed to furnish results in the fight against slavery, leaving us with the sole option of resorting to action. The indolence with which our leaders have chosen to avoid addressing the issue of slavery has clearly shown that the only way to obtain the results that we demand is through direct attacks on the mechanisms of the great evil in our society. John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry is a perfect example of such an act.

Having been planning for months, Brown had consulted many prominent northern abolitionists and enlisted the financial help of many who sympathized with him. Such prominent public figures as Frederick Douglass were aware of the impending incursion, but many, including Douglass, advised against Brown’s courageous plan, telling Brown that he was "walking into a perfect steel trap," and that he’d never get out alive. It is disheartening to know that those which we trust to support our cause might raise their voices in objection to it, and this fact only serves to further the notion that is people such as Brown and events such as Harpers Ferry that are to bring about real change in the fight against slavery and the vile practices of the South. Thankfully for all true abolitionists, Brown did receive support from other leading northerners, including Gerrit Smith, Thomas Higginson, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Franklin B. Sandborn. As a result of such support, Brown decided to continue with his daring plot.

Forced to go into hiding after a craven traitor publicly revealed the scheme, Brown cunningly assumed the name of Isaac Smith and succeeded in procuring a piece of rental property suitable for the mission he had in mind. Leasing a small farm just across the Potomac from his target, Brown awaited the arrival of his brave army of insurgents. Twenty courageous men answered Brown’s call to arms and joined him at the small Maryland farm, where they gathered their arms and prepared for the liberation. Late on the night of October 16^th of 1859, Brown and his abolitionist army quietly crossed the Potomac by way of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge. The attack had begun.

Quickly detaining the watchman on the bridge, Brown and company made their way quickly into town. Brown stationed guards at strategic points in the town and then set up his base inside the fire station at the gate of the armory. Once the abolitionists were well in-place, a posse was sent out to take hostages and induce an uprising of the enslaved Negroes against their captors. Another fact that is most disturbing is that the slaves to be found at Harpers Ferry were in such a state of fear of their masters that they apparently failed to discern the opportunity to gain the freedom they so desperately sought, and few ever had the occasion to rid themselves of the shackles of servitude to which they were bound. Despite the less than encouraging reaction from local slaves, Brown and his men continued bravely, still hoping that their plan to free the poor slaves could succeed. As they rounded up prominent citizens to serve as hostages, the abolitionist army began to face resistance in the form of citizens and local militia who sought to destroy those that had come under a banner of liberty. By the afternoon of the 17^th, as troops from surrounding towns began arriving, Brown and his men were forced to withdraw into the fire station along with ten hostages, where they barricaded themselves against the savage attacks of locals. Although he had now been forced into a defensive position and it was apparent that his plan was not going to succeed as he had hoped, Brown still held out hope that he might be able to escape to fight another day.

His fate was sealed however, with the arrival of the General Robert E. Lee and his army of soldiers and marines. Lee coldly delivered an ultimatum to Brown, ordering him to surrender his arms. Lee had considered a nighttime attack, but had instead opted to wait until morning of the 18^th, fearing for the safety of the hostages. Brown heroically refused to succumb to the forces that bore down upon his righteous army and he rejected Lee’s mandate, but he could no longer fend off the crushing hand of the army of oppression. Lee’s troops assaulted the entrenched abolitionists as they tried dauntlessly to defend their tiny fort. Despite the ingenious use of the fire engine as a obstruction, troops smashed through the barricaded doors of the firehouse and brutally killed ten of Brown’s men, including two of his own sons. It was a horrible massacre, and only five of the original twenty-one men who had taken up arms managed to evade capture and death. Brown himself was wounded and taken into custody. The plan that had begun with such noble ambitions found itself crushed under the iron hand of the enslaving armies of the South.

Brown was charged with treason, murder, and insurrection and was brought to trial quickly following the events at Harpers Ferry; an obvious consequence of the general paranoia throughout Virginia and the whole of the South following the raid. At his trial in Virginia District Court, Brown spoke eloquently in defense of his brave actions. He spoke passionately of his fight against slavery and defended his actions as a fight for justice.

"The court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That 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 say, I am too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. 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!" - John Brown, final address to the Virginia District Court, November 2^nd, 1859.

Exactly one month after his powerful address to the court, John Brown was hanged by the state of Virginia for his "crimes." The only crime that any moral person would deem him guilty of would be failure to complete his mission of liberation, and yet he was put to death by the tyrannical Southerners who so fear an act righteousness that they must destroy those who threaten to introduce morality and virtues into their society.

The South may have killed the man, but his fight lives on. Brown shall not have died in vain, for in his death he has brought forth the very issue which threatens the core beliefs of our civilized society and has forced us to look upon slavery for what it is: The horrible degradation of our fellow man. The support that Brown was able to solicit from abolitionists clearly shows that Harpers Ferry is not an isolated incident. It was not merely a fortuitous occurrence of circumstance. The attempted liberation at Harpers Ferry is what John Brown imagined it to be: It is the warning shot in the long battle that is to come, and it is the symbol of all that we as a nation and as a society stand for. We must defend what we know to be morally just and we must do away with that which we know to be morally wrong. John Brown knew this, and now it is up to us to continue the fight which he has begun.

Beverly J. Armento, Gary B. Nash, Christopher L. Salter, and Karen K. Wixson. A More Perfect Union. Atlanta, GA: Houghton Mifflin Social Studies, 1991

- Basic synopsis of Brown’s role in the Bleeding Kansas conflict and the social/political conditions of the time.

"Bleeding Kansas." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe. 1999 Edition

- Wealth of information about the Bleeding Kansas conflict in general.

"Brown, John." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe. 1999 Edition

- Summary of the life of Brown; good source of information about his early life in particular.

"Civil War, American." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe. 1999 Edition

- Describes how the events at Harpers Ferry acted as a catalyst to war.

"Harpers Ferry." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe. 1999 Edition

- General description of the insurrection and the town itself. Used mainly in the summarizing of the actual events of the insurrection.

http://history.furman.edu/%7Ebenson/docs/jbmenu.htm

- Provided insight into the regional opinions and writing styles of the time period.

http://www.civilwarhome.com/johnbrownbio.htm

- Synopsis of abolition activities of Brown prior to Harpers Ferry raid.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/3992/Lesson2/index2.html#14

- Wealth of information about the planning of the raid and the events of the insurrection, all of which was especially well organized. I took the liberty of contacting the site administrator to congratulate them on producing an excellent resource.

http://www.nyhistory.com/gerritsmith/harpers.htm

- Provides some insight into the support Brown received from prominent abolitionists of the day.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2943t.html

- The source of the direct quote used in the preceding document, it also furnished some excellent pictures, including the newspaper clipping shown in the document.

Stein, Conrad R. John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry in American History. Springfield, NJ: Enslow Publishers, 1999

- Enormous volume of information on Brown, the raid, and its impact.