John Brown Thoughts on Slavery

Portrait of John Brown

John Brown remains one of the most controversial figures in American history, a man whose radical abolitionism and willingness to use violence divided the nation on the eve of civil war. His actions at Harpers Ferry in 1859 would cement his legacy as either a martyred freedom fighter or a dangerous fanatic, depending on one's perspective.

On the evening of October 16, 1859, Brown and a band of twenty-two armed men left their Maryland farmhouse hideout and launched an assault on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His goal was audacious: seize the arsenal's weapons, distribute them to enslaved people, and ignite a widespread slave insurrection across the South. The raid quickly failed as local militia and federal troops surrounded the armory, killing several of Brown's men including two of his sons.

John Browns Farmhouse Raid

Brown's beliefs were rooted in an unshakeable religious conviction that slavery was a sin against God. He frequently cited biblical passages, particularly Hebrews 13:3, which commands believers to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." For Brown, this wasn't mere metaphor—it was a divine mandate that required action.

When Brown stood trial for murder, treason, and inciting insurrection, his courtroom speech on November 2, 1859, became legendary. He denied any wrongdoing, stating he had "interfered in behalf of His despised poor" and believed this interference "was not wrong, but right." His words resonated beyond the courtroom, electrifying both abolitionists and slaveholders.

Brown drew a stark contrast between society's values and its treatment of the enslaved. He noted that had he committed the same acts on behalf of "the rich, the powerful, the intelligent," he would have been rewarded rather than condemned. Because he stood with "the poor" and "the despised," he faced execution.

The radical abolitionist had precedent for his methods. Earlier in 1858, he had successfully liberated enslaved people in Missouri without violence and safely escorted them to Canada. He hoped to replicate this success on a grander scale at Harpers Ferry, though he failed to generate the mass uprising he envisioned.

Brown's final written statement before his execution proved prophetic. He wrote: "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." Less than two years later, the Civil War began, validating his grim prediction that slavery would not end peacefully.

Civil War how John Brown Predicted

The trial itself was rushed and compromised. Brown lay wounded on a cot throughout the proceedings, and his request to delay for his lawyer's arrival was denied. An assigned attorney attempted to mount an insanity defense against Brown's wishes, a strategy that failed to sway the jury.

Throughout his imprisonment and trial, Brown maintained an unwavering moral certainty. He expressed no regrets about his actions and stated he would "forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice" if necessary. He pitied "the poor in bondage that have none to help them" and insisted his motives were pure, driven by "sympathy with the oppressed and the wronged."

Killing of John Brown

Brown's execution on December 2, 1859, transformed him into a martyr for the abolitionist cause. Church bells rang in the North, and his actions inflamed sectional tensions that made compromise increasingly impossible. The song "John Brown's Body" became a marching anthem for Union troops during the Civil War.

History has wrestled with Brown's legacy ever since. He used violence in pursuit of justice, murdered slaveholders in Kansas, and died attempting to start a slave rebellion. Yet his core argument—that slavery was an intolerable evil requiring immediate action—ultimately prevailed. The question remains whether his violent methods were justified by the righteousness of his cause, a debate that continues to resonate in discussions of resistance and social change today.

AI Disclosure: I used AI to find my information on scholarly sources and actual quotes from John Brown. I then had it write me my blog post outline, where I then put it all together and edited it while adding images, and captions.