John Brown Research Paper

Words: 474
Pages: 2

Have you ever wondered if John Brown was a good or bad man? John Brown’s family raised him to think that slavery was unacceptable. He grew up and started working to free slaves and end the practice of slavery using force. John Brown is important because his ways are very controversial and he led the United States to the Civil War. I believe that John Brown was a villain for many reasons. First, John Brown was a very violent man. Brown asked Charles Blair to give him 1,000 pikes. He would use the pikes to try to attack and steal weapons from Harpers Ferry, and then use the weapons and the pikes to arm slaves and start a slave revolt. This shows that he was going to use the weapons to injure and even kill slave owners who stood in his way. He was willing to use …show more content…
Doyle out of their house and shot them in the front yard. Brown was a monster for killing these people because the family didn’t even own slaves or plan to. He had no reason to enter their house, and especially not to kill them. Lastly, even President Abraham Lincoln said that Brown was wrong in his ways. “We cannot object even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery is wrong. This cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason.” (Abrahan Lincoln, Dec 2, 1859) This shows that people knew that there were other ways to end slavery. John Brown should have found other ways to fight slavery that would work and were not as cruel. Even though John Brown used violence, many people argue that he worked for a good cause. “I never did intend murder or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite the slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.” (John Brown, 1859) Although he says that he wanted to free slaves peacefully, he bought a thousand pikes to use as weapons, and he attacked Harpers Ferry along with many other locations and was the first side to kill. This proves that he didn't want peace and he wanted to free slaves using violence and