What was John Brown’s raid? Why was it

important?Written by Mrs. Edwards

August 2004

Legend

= Frederick Douglass

= John Brown

= Narrator #1

= Abraham Lincoln

= Narrator #2

John Brown wasn’t brown. He was “white” and maybe a little crazy. Well, his mother was

crazy and so people thought he was too. It wasn’t just because

of his mother either! He did some strange things.

Hi, there! It’s 1855. I’m John Brown and I have

just moved here to Kansas with my five

grown-up sons. We’re here to fight against the big proslavery movement

that is going on here.

Good day! I am Frederick Douglass. I used to be a slave,

but now I spend my time speaking against slavery. I am a

famous orator. An orator is a speaker. That’s me!

Hey, Frederick Douglass, I’ve got a

great plan! I’m planning a huge slave rebellion. All of the ex-slaves can

create their own state. It will be up in the

Appalachian Mountains of Maryland.

Well, John, I don’t believe in violence, and you have

already killed three people because they were proslavery.

You killed a farmer and his two sons. I am totally against slavery, but I am also against

violence.

In 1859 John Brown decided that the thing to do was to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia. You know, an arsenal is a bunch of weapons like guns and cannons and stuff. This was a federal arsenal. That means that it belonged to the federal government—the United States of America!!

Frederick, we need to get all of these weapons from the Harpers

Ferry Arsenal. I’d like to just move into your house for a little

while. We can talk about how we can do this together.

You can move in, but I’m not in on this with you. You won’t

come out of this alive. You better think about what you’re

doing!

That John Brown managed to talk 22 men into helping him with that raid. Frederick Douglas wasn’t one of them. Some of the men who helped him were black. Some were white. You know what!! John Brown and his men captured Harpers Ferry Arsenal too!

Here’s a news bulletin for you! The United States Government didn’t say, “Oh, that’s fine, John Brown. You can just have Harper’s Ferry Arsenal.” No problem. No, no, no. The government sent Robert E. Lee with some marines to surround the arsenal and then capture or kill John Brown’s little army.

John Brown, himself, was captured and tried. He was sentenced to be hanged.

Yes, and I had to leave the country! I went to Canada and

then on to England. Even though I had tried to talk John Brown out of his plans, people

just remembered that we were friends, and I was blamed too!

You just have to be careful who your friends are.

This government can’t endure with half the people wanting slavery to be legal and half the people wanting everyone to be free. It is going

to have to be one or the other for everyone.

John Brown’s raid divided the country even more. The northerners were sad and mad that Virginia had executed John Brown even though he was so extreme and was a murderer. The fact that the northerners thought John Brown was a martyr made Virginia and the southern states mad. The country was split in two just like a watermelon! It was ready for a civil war!

"Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)." (The Library of Congress ).Discovering

Collection. Gale. TULSA COUNTY ISD 1. 12 June 2008

<http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=GS

RC&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=DC&docId=EJ221000

8977&source=gale&srcprod=DISC&userGroupName=tuls2293 1&version=1.0>.

"Douglass, Frederick." (The Library of Congress ).Discovering

Collection. Gale. TULSA COUNTY ISD 1. 12 June 2008

<http://find.galegroup.com/srcx/infomark.do?&contentSet=G

SRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T001&prodId=DC&docId=EJ221

0006175&source=gale&srcprod=DISC&userGroupName=tul s22931&version=1.0>.

Works Cited

Edwards, Judith. Abolitionists and Slave Resistance: Breaking

the Chains of Slavery . 1st. Berkeley Heights, NJ : Enslow, 2004.

Stewart, James Brewer. "Brown, John." Grolier Multimedia

Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier Online. 12 June 2008

<http://gme.grolier.com/cgi-bin/article?assetid=0043990-0>.