In the 1850s, an organized method of chattel slavery existed in the United States.
In the North, a portion of anti-slavery people, called abolitionists, stood for equality and stomped their feet for immediate emancipation. Most abolitionists, however, were committed to a pacifist program that involved noble arguments and passionate jeremiads.
By the end of the decade, a few abolitionists were thinking of some political action, but few had a real strategy for stopping the slavery explosion.
Man with a plan
One man did have a plan. His name was John Brown; he had escaped arrest in the Pottawatomie affair in Kansas and now had a far more ambitious project. He believed he would be doing God’s will by ending human suffering at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
John Brown’s abortive raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 stands out as a critical episode in the spiraling sequence of events that led Northerners and Southerners into the Civil War.
John Brown was a tall charismatic figure bedecked with blazing eyes and a bushy-grey beard, giving him the look of a prophet out of the Old Testament. Others viewed this father of 20 children as “the demon of unreasoning fanaticism.”
Brown had a harsh Calvinist “eye for an eye” upbringing, peppered with abolition and Underground Railroad activity. His adult life was littered with unsuccessful business failures, as a tanner, land speculator and herdsman.
Convinced of the need for a slave insurrection, the 59-year-old militant abolitionist departed Ohio in 1855 to join his five sons in the Osawatomie Colony in Kansas, where he became a captain of the local militia company.
A small band of Free State men led by Brown helped initiate the Civil War by murdering five allegedly proslavery settlers along the Pottawatomie Creek in May 1856.
The wiry and rugged guerrilla liberator’s experience in the Kansas civil war convinced him that a slave power conspiracy existed to seize the national territories for slavery.
Having long since lost faith in combating slavery by peaceful means, he vowed to strike a violent blow at the heart of slavery. He would be God’s personal instrument to eradicate the inhumane institution.
By the spring of 1857, Brown had decided to seize a mountain fortress in Virginia with a small guerrilla force and initiate a slave rebellion that would grow in strength and overthrow the slave power.
Seeking allies
To that end, Brown began the first of many “so-called” fundraising functions among the abolitionists in the North. Under the guise of seeking funds to continue the Free State fight in Kansas, Brown secured the friendship and aid of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee — a group obligated to helping the Free Soil forces in the territories.
Within this group, there were six prominent antislavery figures who agreed to form the “Secret Committee of Six” to advise Brown and raise money for his yet secret mission.
The group included Franklin Sanborn, school teacher; Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Unitarian minister; Theodore Parker, Unitarian minister; Samuel Howe, physician; George Stearns, merchant; and Gerrit Smith, wealthy New York landowner.
During the fading months of 1857, Brown began to assemble and train a small group of adventurers and militant abolitionists in preparation for his mission. In May of 1858, he organized a “Constitutional Convention” of 34 Blacks and 11 whites in Canada.
There, he outlined his plan to invade Virginia, liberate and arm the slaves, and organize the liberated slaves into a government. The original plan for invading Virginia was delayed when one of his disgruntled followers partially betrayed the plans to several prominent politicians.
This betrayal frightened the Secret Six so much that they urged Brown to return to Kansas and create a diversionary operation.
In December 1858, “an eye for an eye” Brown attacked a community in Missouri, liberating 11 slaves and escorting them to Canada. He then returned to the task at Harpers Ferry.
Time for action
Harpers Ferry, situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, was the initial target because he needed weapons from the federal arsenal to arm the liberated slaves. Brown and three men arrived on July 3, 1859, and set up headquarters at the Kennedy farm, seven miles east of Harpers Ferry in Maryland. The rest of Brown’s 21 recruits slowly trickled in to avoid notice.
On the night of Oct. 16, 19 men assaulted the arsenal, the armory and nearby rifle works, and then seized several hostages. Fearing a slave insurrection, the townspeople, armed with liquor and rifles, gathered in the street, warned a Baltimore and Ohio train and sounded the church bells to alarm the countryside.
By 11 a.m. the next morning, a general battle was in progress between Brown’s men, holed up in the small engine house of the armory, and the excited townspeople, farmers and local militia.
During the night of Oct. 17, a detachment of U.S. Marines under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee arrived and took up positions in front of the armory. Brown refused to surrender and the Marines stormed the armory with bayonets and sledgehammers, wounding Brown and routing his followers.
Ten of Brown’s men, including two of his sons, were killed in the raid. Five raiders were captured; two were taken prisoner several days later, and five escaped without a trace.
Trial. Gov. Henry A. Wise of Virginia decided that the “Old Man” and his raiders should be tried in Virginia rather than by federal authorities, even though their attack had been against federal property.
The trial was held at Charles Town, Virginia Oct. 31, 1859. All were found guilty of inciting a slave rebellion, murder and treason against the state of Virginia.
Despite some attempts to spare his life, Brown rejected them all, the soon-to-be martyr to all Northern abolitionists was hanged along with six of his fellow conspirators.
Reaction
The reaction of the country to the extraordinary event was ominous. The South withdrew into a defense of its peculiar institution, stifled criticism and intensified into hatred and suspicion of the “Black Republican party.”
The North, on the other hand, was less shocked than it should have been. To incite slave insurrection was indefensible, but if Brown’s plan had succeeded nothing would have been accomplished.
Harpers Ferry was not in a populated slave area. In some towns, bells were tolled and guns fired in honor of the dead saint, but most responsible northern leaders gave no such support to Brown’s action.
Nonetheless, a powerful undercurrent of sympathy for John Brown was evident. In two years’ time, northern soldiers were marching south to the tune of: “John Brown’s body lies a molding in the grave but his soul goes marching on.”
That’s your history!
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