John Brown: Freedom Fighter Or A Terrorist

Lots of people think that Jonh Brown was either a freedom fighter or a terrorist, no in between. To me, Brown seems like a terrorist. Once something went against his beliefs he through these big fits that killed and injured many people.

Between the dates 1849 and 1850, two things happened which resulted in putting Brown onto a path to Harpers Ferry, and on the way to being an American legend. One of the events was an attempt to challenge with the large wool productions. The law that was passed penalized people who helped runaway slaves and people had to return the runaways. Brown founded The League of Gileadites since that law was passed. The League of Gileadites was a militant group dedicated to stopping the slaves’ captures. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, that started a war between the different sides of slavery. In 1855, Brown went to Kansas after hearing about the law. He did not like this and did a lot of destruction. On May 24, 1856, Brown and his men went into Pottawatomie Creek and did a lot of damage to that town. They dragged the settlers out of their homes, killing five and wounding lots of others. That set off a war in Kansas. By the end of the year, over 200 people had been killed and property damage reached into the millions of dollars.

In 1859, Brown owned the Kennedy farmhouse. Northern supporters sent 198 breech-loading, and .52 caliber Sharps carbines. They were known as “Beecher’s Bibles.” The Harpers Ferry was a group of buildings that had hundreds of different guns. Brown led a small group out from the farmhouse and crossed the Potomac River, on Sunday, October 16, 1859. They captured the railroad and wagon bridges going into the town and cut the telegraph wires throughout the area. Also, they took over several buildings. After that, Brown’s men then went into close-by farms and kidnapped nearly 60 hostages.

Over those years, John Brown went throughout New England collecting money. Brown was now considered a criminal in Kansas and Missouri and there was a reward for him. But to the Northerners, he was a good person with good morals and just doing God’s will. He had devised a plan to travel to the South and arm slaves to start a slave rebellion. Many did not know the specifics of his plan. John Brown planned to build a force of between 1500, and 4000 men, but that did not go as planned. It ended very quickly.