A Love of Freedom and Right
Slavery and Abolition
Depending on where they stood on the slavery question, Americans viewed John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry as either a brilliant, if aborted, act of martyrdom for a noble cause, or a horrifying reminder of the potential for a slave uprising and an unwelcome interference from a rabid northern abolitionist in southern affairs. As this editorial suggests, however, both sides came to see violence as an inevitable, even necessary, way to solve the problems of slavery and sectional crisis.
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) <em>Gazette</em>
Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) <em>Gazette</em>, 3 December 1859, from Furman University, <em>Secession Era Editorials Project,</em> http://history.furman.edu/benson/docs/papgjb59c03a.htm.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1859
English
Newspaper/Magazine
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
A Free Black Woman Writes to Imprisoned John Brown
Slavery and Abolition
In October 1859, a militant white abolitionist named John Brown led a small band of black and white anti-slavery fighters in a bold assault on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Their goal was to capture a large store of weapons, liberate slaves, and wage a guerilla was against local slaveholders. Their plan quickly collapsed, however, and Brown and his men were caught, tried, and hung as traitors. To southern planters, Brown symbolized everything that was evil. But, as the following letter shows, many abolitionists and African Americans considered Brown and his raiders heroes. The raid struck a sharp and emotional chord in the African-American community.
Frances Ellen Watkins
American Social History Project, <em>Freedom's Unfinished Revolution: An Inquiry into the Civil War and Reconstruction</em> (New York: New Press, 1996), 51.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1859
English
Diary/Letter
Antebellum America (1816-1860)