John Brown's Struggle Against Slavery

Mr. John Brown, unequivocally a white man of action, a man who was never discouraged from his mission of abolishing slavery. John Brown comprehended that there are certainly universal rights that all humans have, excluding race and/or gender. In adolescence, John Brown became a strong believer in the wrongs of slavery and wanted to wage a war against slavery. Mr. Brown did just that and fought for this “anti-slavery” case throughout his entire life. Brown’s hatred of slavery led him to seize the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in October 1859 and freed many slaves in the area. John Brown’s only intention was to attempt to free slaves. Brown once did successfully and peacefully, when he went to Missouri, took slaves, didn’t pull ONE trigger,

Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement) compared John Brown to Jesus. Henry David Thoreau (American essayist, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor and historian) placed John Brown above the “freedom fighters” of the American Revolution. Quite often, the “freedom fighters” are also known as Revolutionaries, Continentals, Rebels, or American Whigs, but most importantly patriots. Taking that into consideration, Thoreau considered John Brown as someone whom is much greater than a “patriot”. Frederick Douglass (African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman) said that “while John Brown lived for black people, John Brown had died for them.”. W.E. B. Du Bios (American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor) called Brown the white American who had “come nearest to touching the real souls of black folk.” If John Brown was a terrorist or a villain, would these successful versatile activists really have anything positive to say about him? Doubt it. Therefore, we may all agree that John Brown is a recognized