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Who was John Brown?
by Fred Freitas
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"Did John Brown fail? John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic." - Frederick Douglass
Background:
The late 1840s and 1850s were a turbulent and complex time in American history as the country ground inexorably toward Civil War. Abolitionist and pro-slavery positions hardened both north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line as events built toward a bloody confrontation. John Brown would be the catalyst that triggered the violent reaction. "I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that withought very much bloodshed; it might be done."
As David W. Blight says in his review of David S. Reynolds's new book on John Brown, "John Brown did not make it easy for people to love him - until he died on the gallows. Perhaps no other figure in American experience straddles the blurred line between myth and history, legend and reality, quite like the domineering, violent, Calvinist abolitionist who attacked the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859 and provided, in a way, the Pearl Harbor of the Civil War." "The Good Terrorist." Washington Post (4/ 24/05), p. TO1.
This lesson attempts to introduce middle school students to John Brown and to separate history from myth and the man from the legend.
Aim/Essential Question:
Who was John Brown and what was his role in triggering the Civil War?
Materials:
This lesson should follow homework assignments and classroom discussions on the causes of the Civil War and events that led to the war.
- Lyrics for "John Brown's Body" http://www.contemplator.com/america/johnbrown.html
- Extended Timeline Activity Sheet (pdf)
- "Historic Character I Am" Poem - John Brown (pdf)
- Module: "The Coming of the Civil War" http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module9/index.html
- Guided Readings: "The Impending Crisis 1850s" http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/module9/intro_pop15.html
- Documents:
- GLC 5508.051 Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court
- Semi-Annual Report of VMI [Virginia Military Institute] Superintendent Francis H. Smith Submitted to the Governor, 1860 January 16, full text online http://www.vmi.edu/archives/Civil_War/jbannrpt.html
- John T. L. Preston letter to his wife, 1859 December 2, full text online http://www.vmi.edu/archives/Civil_War/jbjHplt.html
- GLC02454 to: Owen Brown
- Execution of John Brown Raleigh, North Carolina, Register 3 December 1859 http://history.furman.edu?~benson/docs/ncrrjb59c03a.htm
- "What Shall the South Do?" Wilmington, North Carolina, Daily Herald. 5 December 1859 http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/ncwhjb59c05a.htm
- "Address" [excerpt from sermon] by J. Sella Martin (December 2, 1859) http://chnm.gmu.edu/lostmuseum/martin.html
- "The Fatal Friday" Chicago, Illinois, Press and Tribune, 2 December 1859 http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/ilcpjb59c02a.htm
Objectives:
- Students will review the immediate causes of the Civil War.
- Students will analyze documents about John Brown from multiple perspectives of various people from America's past.
- Students will assess John Brown's role in this period of American history.
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