John Brown Dbq

Let’s set the scene and say that there were people in 1859 being held captive as slaves and they were given weapons by a man called John Brown. He is now telling them to go and start a revolt against slavery. This is a true story of what happened in 1859. John Brown was a well-known abolitionist who wanted everyone to have the same rights and freedom. “He got into many brutal conflicts with pro-slavery groups”(Overview) and tried to kill many people. John Brown was a villain because he wanted to start a revolt, kill innocent people, and lie about saying he did not want to use violence. One of the first reasons that John Brown is a villain is because he wanted to start a revolt against slavery. John Brown purchased pikes that are weapons with

arsenal at Harpers Ferry” (Document C). The facts indicate that John Brown is a Villain because instead of just taking the slaves he wanted to start a revolt that was not necessary. Another reason for John Brown being a villain is because he killed innocent people. John Brown went into a woman’s house called Mahala Doyle. He took her two sons and they were later killed. Doyle sent a letter to John Brown saying that she did not even own slaves and that he killed her family for no reason. “I confess that I do feel gratified to hear that you were stopped in your fiendish career at Harper’s Ferry, with the loss of your two sons you can now appreciate my distress” (Document E). This is her saying how he should feel bad for killing people without even knowing if they own slaves. This shows that John Brown wanted to kill people and hope that they had slaves to be called a hero, and people would say that he was the one who stopped slavery when he was actually a villain. My last reason is that he lied about his intentions and used violence and treason. John Brown stated, “I designed to do the same thing again on a larger scale. That was all I intended to