"John Brown and his message"?

Question

Few people were as controversial in message and tactics in the decade prior to the Civil War. Was he a violent, murderer filled with nothing but rage and hate or was a man with a vision:someone who believed that in America blacks and whites could ultimately live together in peace and harmony? What do you think?

Answer 1

I think that as times change so does historian's perspectives. I have seen J. Brown called a zealot, insane, crazy, fanatical, dedicated, but also a martyr. It seems like no one can agree on whether or not he was "mentally unbalanced." Accounts from his trial seem to point to a deeply dedicated and religious man in full control of his faculties. People have been killing each other for their beliefs for the better part of human history. His vision of a society of free blacks was truly before its time. His methods/massacre at Pottawatomie Creek, and the failed Raid at Harper's Ferry were considered extreme...even by hard line Northern abolitionists. His actions only helped to fuel the fires of mistrust between North and South. I give him a A for effort, but a D- for execution.

Answer 2

Mark, the poster (and BSer) above me had an excellent answer. I don't know if it's true or not, but it's interesting reading.

About John Brown: He was a maniacal psychopath that had no philosophical 'home' until he latched onto the abolitionist movement. His rages, his bizarre behaviors, and his hysterical delusions prior to abolition are well documented.

What made him famous was not so much his acts, but his death. People 'fer and agin' slavery wrapped his execution in yards of ideologic cloth. His name spread.

Now here we sit, in 2007, pondering the 'vision' of the 19th century's version of Charles Manson. Go figure.

Answer 3

He was a man with a vision given those two choices. He was an extremist who wanted to cut slavery off at the head rather than going for the knees first. He was offered a commutation of his sentence if he'd not express his views loudly to everyone but he said he'd rather die than go back on what he believed. He was a courageous man in my opinion

Answer 4

John Brown was a raving gay lunatic!

He thought he was commissioned by God by visions of slave uprisings. When all through out his life people thought of him as a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgered and intimidated smaller or weaker people.
John Brown was also a coward, I know this as fact based on never allowing himself to be alone. I was told this by his great great great grandson Kyle. Whom I have had many conversations with over the years. Kyle has stated many times that not only was John Brown a coward, he was also gay and involved in a interracial relationship with Absalom Jones, later to be known as Absalom Dick Brown.

Finally, years after John Browns death, Absalom ended up winning a landmark court battle against John Browns sons. This was the first time in American history that 2 things happened. One, this was the first time that a court ruled in favor of a black man, and secondly, this was the first time any type of homosexual activities were ever presented in a court case.

John Browns sons did not press this into the supreme court for fear of their fathers sexuality prevailing in history over his hate for slave owners.

My good friend Kyle does not speak kind of Absalom Peter Brown. Kyle would have been part of a proud and honorable family had Absalom not prevailed his fight through the court American court system. History would have been much much kinder the John Brown had it not been for his sexual activities.

Answer 5

He was tried for "treason" and, although many state it was for a just cause, he went about it the wrong way. He murdered innocent people and got caught...Hawthorne even stated that John Brown was justly hanged.
~~

Answer 6

He was nuttier than a fruitcake. Kinda like a white Nat Turner. Well maybe not that bad, but you get the idea.

Answer 7

John Brown - Hallelujah, Holla Back!

Answer 8

I think 'JOHN BROWN'S BODY LIES A MOULDERIN' IN DE GRAVE'.

He was a trouble maker

Answer 9

I would say somewhere in between. Clearly he was a fanatic, but in a righteous cause.