Name: Sim Rand
Date: April 26, 23
Time: 25-30 minutes
Due: End of Class
In 1854 Kansas was admitted into the Union as neither a free state nor a slave state. This then causing violent conflict between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces, to establish what kind of state Kansas would be. This then gave Kansas the nickname “Bleeding Kansas” after all the violent outbreaks occurring across that state. One specific raid, the Harper;s Ferry Raid, had its own significance led by abolitionist John Brown and his followers. This wasn’t Browns only account of violence as he did kill 5 pro-slavery men before the raid. I believe that his reasoning for violence isn't justified as there are many other ways to bring up an issue instead of violence.
…show more content…
Brown chose violence which caused more harm than help. He made a plan to raise an army of escaped slaves to fight for their freedom. The thing he forgot to think about was how before when enslaved people used violence to justify their freedom, their lives became much more cruel. The plan in my opinion wasn’t thought through well enough to be able to establish anything. Therefore Brown was in total setting the enslaved people up for more violent treatments then at the time. If he had taken the peaceful route he could have made speeches and had peaceful protests that yes would be violent but would most likely bring the idea more into the spotlight, instead of promoting the idea that the Southerners thought the enslaved people were violent. The raid happened at Harpers Ferry in 1859 and lasted till Brown and his followers got arrested by the U.S. Marines. This did capture the attention of the Union, the Northerns making him a Martyr and the Southerners stirring up the idea that there would be more slave rebellions that would cause more violence. This would also lead to violence in Congress when Senator Sumner by Senator Preston Brooks, the outbreak occurred due to opposite opinions that Kansas should or shouldn’t be a slave state. In the end Sumner passed and the Northerns claimed it was an example of Southern violence and the Southerners saw it as the restoration of the South