My Academic Writing Sample # 4
This paper, entitled 'The Madness of John Brown' was written for my HIS 378 Class - Historiography & Historical Methodologies. In case you might be wondering, historiography is the study of history, or how one studies history and interprets events. Methodology is the method used by various historians, and there are different methods to be used; whether one uses journals, diaries, letters, photographs, oral interviews, etc.
Note: John Brown, for those of you who do not know, was the one who raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 in the hopes of leading a slave insurrection. He was an abolitionist who advocated freeing the slaves. However, it only further aggravated the situation between the North and the South and hastened us to the brink of Civil War, which broke out only a year and a half later.
Side Note: For those of you who also do not know this, West Virginia was created during the Civil War when that portion of Virginia did not want to secede from the Union, and thus they petitioned President Abraham Lincoln to become a state in their own right. Lincoln granted them statehood and thus it became West Virginia. But note that in 1859, Harper's Ferry was still part of Virginia; today it is Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.
Side Note: For those of you who also do not know this, West Virginia was created during the Civil War when that portion of Virginia did not want to secede from the Union, and thus they petitioned President Abraham Lincoln to become a state in their own right. Lincoln granted them statehood and thus it became West Virginia. But note that in 1859, Harper's Ferry was still part of Virginia; today it is Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.
The topic for this paper will be on Chapter 7 - 'The Madness of John Brown'. The question that is being raised by this chapter is whether mental illness played a defining role in who John Brown was and the responsibility or lack thereof for his actions when he planned and executed the raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia in October 1859. This event, considered by historians to be an incendiary event, led both the North and the South to the point of no return, in regards to the fact that we were headed for civil war. So the question in this chapter is whether mental illness helped shape John Brown's identity over the course of his lifetime, or did he suffer a momentary lapse in planning and executing such a poorly led raid, resulting in deaths of his men, including his own sons and the fact that no slaves helped, which he had counted on.
The event in question was the raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia on October 16, 1859. The raid lasted for two days, from the 16th through the 18th with not anything to show for it. John Brown and twenty men waited at a farmhouse a few miles from the federal arsenal. An arsenal is a place where "...military weapons were stored" (Thinkquest, 2001). The purpose for the raid was to acquire the weapons, which would then in turn be used for the slave insurrection that Brown was hoping to achieve, to end the abomination of slavery.
Unique to John Brown was the fact that prior to the Harper Ferry's raid, he rewrote the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution making them less ambiguous about the slavery issue, in fact denouncing it and calling for a "...black/white alliance to oust slavery" (Mead, 2009). As a precursor to the raid, Brown's version of the U.S. Constitution's preamble states that "...slavery is a state of barbarous, unprovoked and unjustifiable war of one portion of the citizens against another...and that slaves have the right to take their rights by force if needed; if the governments won't give them what is naturally endowed as stated in our Declaration of Independence" (Mead, 2009).
To begin with, John Brown was born in 1800 into a deeply religious family who held strict views of slavery; it was a sin and an abomination to hold a human being in bondage. So we see the earliest foundation of Brown's beliefs. Then in 1812, as a twelve-year old boy he traveled some distance through the wilderness of Michigan to deliver a herd of cattle. After being invited to lodge with a man there, who had a boy slave, Brown witnessed the "...beating of the boy slave before his very eyes" (PBS, 1999), a memory that would haunt Brown forever, and further incite his passionate beliefs against slavery.
Another important event that helped pave the way for the Harper's Ferry raid was the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas in May of 1856. Pro-slavery and antislavery factions were at odds in the small town of Lawrence, Kansas; however the pro-slavery faction attacked and killed antislavery men. In retribution for these acts, Brown considered it his duty to avenge the deaths of the 'free soilers' as they were called. So on the nights of May 24th and 25th of 1856, John Brown and his party, including four of his sons, attacked a pro-slavery settlement on the banks of the Pottawatomie Creek, murdering five men; although it is known that neither of these men owned slaves or had anything to do with the attack on Lawrence. John Brown himself did not commit any of the murders, but he was the undisputed leader and made all of the decisions regarding who lived and who died. The massacre was but a "...prelude to Brown's grander scheme to destroy slavery as it was in the south" (Davidson, & Lytle, 2009, p. 155). Kansas, where this massacre took place, was the breeding ground for the divisions that were tearing this country apart. The new territory served as "...surrogate in the battle between two different and opposing ideologies...irreconcilable views on whether the United States should be governed as a free state or as slave states" (Bell, 2005).
After the Harper's Ferry Raid, one of the actual participants, a black man by the name of Osborne P. Anderson actually wrote an account, as he lived it. This makes this primary source document of vital importance to those studying this event, as he was one of only a few that survived the raid. John Brown, of course, survived, but he was tried, found guilty and hung for his crime in December of 1859; just two months after the raid. Mr. Anderson talks about how the plan was formed and Brown's days in Canada while he formed his plan and gathered his men about him. Then on the 17th of October, he talks about how the people of the village "...could be seen leaving their homes in all directions...fear evidenced in their countenances and movements" (Anderson, 1859). This narrative is informative and important because it is the only document of its kind to have been written by an actual participant who survived and decided it was worth writing about. He also tells of an old colored woman who greeted Brown and his raiders with enthusiasm as this was the "...answer to a long held prayer...a dream come true; the freeing of slaves" (Anderson, 1859).
John Brown has been noted as being "...a combination of humility and arrogance, submission and aggression, murder and martyrdom" (Finkelman, & Russo, 2005, p. 146). It is these differences in his behavior that is so intriguing to the study of his psychological makeup. How can one man have so many different facades?
In a final note, let us look at how Brown's execution and martyrdom changed the shape of the abolitionist movement in the North, and the coming Civil War. After he was found guilty of treason, inciting an insurrection, and murder in the first degree, on November 2, 1859, Brown addressed the court. In his statement he said, "...If it is deemed necessary for me to forfeit my life for the furtherance of justice, and to mingle my blood with the blood of my family and the slave country whose rights have been oppressed by the wicked, cruel and unjust enactments - I submit, so let it be done" (Nudelman, 2001). In this defining statement, Brown is elevating himself to martyrdom for the cause of abolitionism and the end of slavery. In other words, he has hastened to let it be known that he can empathize and feel the pain of others and act on their behalf. This then, is why to this day, John Brown can be looked upon in both views: as martyr to the cause of abolitionism or a 'madman' with bloodlust.