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John Brown

Brown and most of his men were veteran foes of slavery. In 1849, he and his family had settled at a black community at North Elba in New York state. Brown had become increasingly militant during the 1850s in his quest to eradicate slavery. In 1855, he had migrated to the Kansas Territory to become the leader of a band of anti-slavery guerrillas. Brown learned from his adult sons in the Kansas territory that pro-slavery forces there were militant and that their families were completely unprepared to face attack. Brown was determined to protect his family and oppose the advances of pro-slavery supporters.

Brown and the free state settlers were optimistic that they could bring Kansas into the union as a slavery-free state. But in late 1855 and early 1856 it was increasingly clear to Brown that pro-slavery forces were willing to violate the rule of law in order to force Kansas to become a slave state. Brown was particularly affected by the Sacking of Lawrence in May 1856, in which a sheriff-led posse destroyed newspaper offices and a hotel. Only one man was killed, and it was a Border Ruffian. Preston Brooks's brutal caning of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner also fueled Brown's anger.

The Pottawatomie Massacre occurred during the night of May 24 and the morning of May 25, 1856. In reaction to the sacking of Lawrence (Kansas) by pro-slavery forces, John Brown and a band of abolitionist settlers (some of them members of the Pottawatomie Rifles) killed five pro-slavery settlers north of Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas — James Doyle, William Doyle, Drury Doyle, Allen Wilkinson, and William Sherman — were hacked to death with broadswords. Brown later claimed he did not participate in the killings, however he did say he approved of them. Although neither of Brown's boys were present at the attack, they were beaten by other pro-slavery men of Pottawatomie.

On June 2, 1856 Brown and 29 others met Henry Pate and fought the battle of Black Jack. This started after Brown's two sons were captured and held prisoner by Pate. The five hour long battle went in Brown's favor and Pate and 22 of his followers where captured and held for ransom. Brown agreed to release them as long as they released Brown's son.

In August, a company of over three hundred Missourians under the command of Major General John W. Reid crossed into Kansas and headed towards Osawatomie, Kansas, intending to destroy the Free State settlements there, and then march on Topeka and Lawrence.

On the morning of August 30, 1856, they shot and killed Brown's son Frederick and his neighbor David Garrison on the outskirts of Pottawatomie. Brown, outnumbered more than seven to one, arranged his 38 men behind natural defenses along the road. Firing from cover, they managed to kill at least 20 of Reid's men and wounded 40 more. Reid regrouped, ordering his men to dismount and charge into the woods. Brown's small group scattered and fled across the Marais des Cygnes River. One of Brown's men was killed during the retreat and four were captured. While Brown and his surviving men hid in the woods nearby, the Missourians plundered and burned Osawatomie.

John Brown actively engaged in recruiting abolitionists and in the border skirmishes until 1859, when he left Osawatomie, with some of his sons, and began his march to Harper’s Ferry. Brown drafted a constitiution for a provisional United States government of which he was elected president with which he intended to establish an effective means of freeing the slaves of Maryland and Virginia.

Most of his raiders held comissions in the government's army. Apparently, only the black conspirators held no comissions. Even the ill-concieved plan for the raid had been germinating in Brown's thoughts for some time; he had moved to nearby Kennedy Farm in preparation in July.

Brown claimed he, "knew the proud and hard hearts of the slave-holders, and that they would never consent to give up their slaves, till they felt a big stick about their heads," and that a slave-holding community was, by its nature, in a state of war and, thus drastic actions were necessary and justified. His supporters felt they had a moral imperative to take action:

Millions of fellow-beings require it of us; their cries for help go out to the universe daily and hourly. Whose duty is it to help them? Is it yours? Is it mine? It is every man's, but how few there are to help. But there are a few who dare to answer this call and dare to answer it in a manner that will make this land of liberty and equality shake to the centre.

Jeramiah Goldsmith Anderson
July 5, 1859.

Before dawn on October 16, 1859, John Brown gathered 21 of his followers together and seized the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) as most of its residents slept. Brown was hoping that the seizure of the federal arsenal would spark a spontaneous uprising among the slaves of Virginia and other southern states a rebellion of freed slaves and to lead an "army of emancipation" to overturn the institution of slavery by force. Brown was mistaken; the slaves didn't rise up in rebellion. The militia, on the other hand, did take up their arms, and after an exchange of fire, they were able to force Brown's raiders to take refuge in the town's United States arsenal's brick firehouse and its rifle works. The insurgents took some sixty prominent locals including Col. Lewis Washington (great-grand nephew of George Washington) as hostages.

In his account of the raid for Century Magazine, Alexander Boteler pointed out that, "…the usages of ordinary warfare had been more than once disregarded, during the day, by the belligerents on both sides." Harper's Ferry mayor Fountain Beckham was clearly unarmed and his hands were in his pockets when he was shot by the insurgents; raider Dangerfield Newby's ears were cut off as trophies; and Jeramiah Anderson was tortured and beaten as he lay dying. Some considered the Harper's Ferry raid to have been the first skirmish of the Civil War:

then and there the first shot was fired and the first blood was shed-the blood of an unoffending
free negro…there and then occurred the first forcible seizure of public property; the first attempt to "hold, occupy, and possess" a military post of the Government; the first outrage perpetrated on the old flag; the first armed resistance to national troops; the first organized effort to establish a Provisional Government at the South, in opposition to that of the United States; the first overt movements to subvert the authority of the constitution and to destroy the integrity of the Union.

Alexander Boteler
"Recollections of the John Brown Raid by a Virginian Who Witnessed the Fight"
Century Magazine
July 1883.

Governor John Letcher quickly requested the assistance of the federal government. The nearest troops available were the Marines stationed in Washington. That afternoon, First Lieutenant Israel Greene led 86 Marines and 2 howitzers to Harper's Ferry. Accompanying Greene was Major William Russell, a veteran of the Mexican War and now the Corps's paymaster, who as a staff officer had no actual command authority but who could act as an advisor.

Greene's Marines reached Harper's Ferry at midnight and reported to the Army officers in command, Colonel Robert E. Lee and his aide First Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart. The upper hand which nighttime surprise had afforded the raiders quickly eroded, and by the evening of October 17, the conspirators who were still alive were still holed-up. The next morning, Stuart approached the firehouse under the protection of a white flag with a note from Lee calling for Brown's surrender. Brown refused.

In order to be able to distinguish between insurgents and hostages, marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee waited for daylight on October 18 to storm the building. He and 12 Marines charged the firehouse and eventually knocked a hole in the double doors. Because there were hostages, Lee had ordered that no firearms could be used in the assault, and the Marines struggled inside armed only with their swords and bayonets. Greene was the first man through. Major Russell followed armed only with a rattan walking stick. The two Marines who entered after Russell were shot by Brown's men. Greene managed to make it to the back of the firehouse where the hostages were being held and found Colonel Washington, who pointed out Brown. Greene charged the kneeling man as he was reloading his carbine and cut at his head with his dress sword, knocking Brown unconscious.

The rest of the Marines followed Greene and Russell and killed two of Brown's group. The rest of Brown's men surrendered. No hostages had been harmed. The raid enflamed the emotions of parties on both sides of the conflict while Northern and Southern press fanned the flames that had been smoldering hotter and hotter with the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the Dred Scott decision, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Fear and anger had now totally eclipsed any other motivations which had been factors in the battle over slavery. Brown had lost two sons in the raid.

For his actions, Brown was quickly tried and convicted of murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state and sentenced to death by hanging, at Charleston, Virginia. The simplicity and sincerity of Brown's address after his sentencing astounded listeners on both sides of the issue.

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 say LET IT BE DONE.

Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court,
when about to receive the sentence of death,
1859.
An American Time Capsule

On December 2, 1859, he was hanged. His actions made John Brown a martyr to abolitionists. Of the five conspirators who escaped from the firehouse and were never caught, four served in the Union Army during the Civil War (only Brown's son Owen did not.) The Harper's Ferry raid remains one of the more controversial events of the country's history. Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry didn't start the American Civil War, but it did dramatically illustrate the tensions growing between the North and the South over the question of slavery in the United States.

The Conflict Begins This acclaimed series takes you beyond the battles and into the personal stories of the War Between the States. Drawing on diaries, photographs and dramatic re-enactments, the intimate side of the epic conflict is exposed. In this gripping, two DVD set, the earliest days of the war come alive through four favorite episodes: John Brown's War, Destiny at Fort Sumter, The Battle of 1st Bull Run, and The 54th Massachusetts.

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