Why Did John Brown Raid Essay

Tensions were high during the few years before the Civil War broke out in 1861, and there were many abolitionists during this time. One of the most well-known abolitionists was John Brown, who led a raid on Harpers Ferry armory on October 16th, 1859. The attack on the armory caused the citizens in America to take up sides in the fight against slavery. The biggest question about this raid is what caused John Brown to risk everything by attacking a federal armory?
John Brown, was a man that opposed slavery with every chance he got. His feelings about slavery kept getting stronger until he went to Kansas to join in the fight against slavery in 1855. Brown led four of his sons in a nighttime raid against proslavery homes, where they killed five people. This caused the opposing side to retaliate, and by 1856 around two hundred people had died. This event caused Brown to create a plan that would encite the slaves to rebel, and eventually end slavery once and for all. Brown went searching for people who would sponsor him, and this created a group that was call the “Secret Six,” which was comprised of six antislavery figure heads. Brown’s great plan was to attack Virginia, free the slaves, fight off the militia, and gather the slaves to form their own

While the South hated Brown, the North treated him like a martyr, giving him names such as “an angel of light,” and “Saint John the Just.”. A mere two years late North and South went to war against each other. The North went to war marching to the song named “John Brown’s Body” (Benson 2009, 677-680). The Lawrence Republican, a Kansas newspaper, wrote the following words about the death of John Brown; “It is safe to say that the death of no man in America has ever produced so profound a sensation” (“Harpers”