John Brown Martyr

John Brown has always been a controversial antebellum topic. Some have called him a hero for his bravery in the face of battle and death, and some have called him a villain because of his difficult-to-justify actions. John Brown has been called a martyr because of his good motives, but he was really an egomaniac, obsessed with the idea of destroying slavery. Brown’s history of violence in Kansas and Virginia proves this. The Pottawatomie, Kansas massacre, which John Brown planned as revenge for the sack of Lawrence, and orchestrated, was a preemptive strike against pro-slavery settlers. These men were not involved in any way with the sack of Lawrence, and were dragged out of their beds at night, after the pillaging. Brown’s men then proceeded

Even if his motives were good, he used methods such as terrorism to attempt to stop the proslavery force’s spread, which stirred the pot, and made the clash between free-soilers and proslavery forces an even uglier fight than before. Fergus Bordewich has written seven nonfiction books, such as “Washington: The Making of the American Capital” and, according to Fergus Bordewich (2009) in his internet article, “Day Of Reckoning”, Bordewich summarizes that John Brown decided that terrorism and guerilla warfare would work against the proslavery forces, so Brown attacked proslavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek, killing five, so in turn, because of the unjustified attack on the settlers, a band composed of proslavery forces killed a few citizens, including Brown’s son Frederick, and burned down the antislavery town of Osawatomie. The men Brown and his men killed were not even involved in the sack of Lawrence, which motivated Brown to attack in the first place. According to Bordewich, (2009), “A party of Free-Staters led by Brown dragged five pro-slavery men out of their isolated cabins on eastern Kansas’ Pottawatomie Creek and hacked them to death with cutlasses. The horrific nature of the murders

13) Brown had unrealistically high expectations for others and for his own plans. According to Robert McGlone, (2009), Brown was obsessed with slavery and the wrongs of the proslavery forces; and Robert McGlone is an author and who wrote the book “John Brown’s War Against Slavery”, and in his online article, “The ‘Madness’ of John Brown”, it is stated that John Brown was only obsessed, as summarized here: It seems that John Brown was not mentally ill, but committed to his cause. He was egotistical, but he was not insane. (McGlone, 2009) Brown knew exactly what he did, both in Pottawatomie, Kansas, and in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. He was almost too committed to his cause, abolition, and he was willing to murder for it. Brown let his obsession with the wrongs of slavery distort his