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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
without 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 and music 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
05508.051 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 describing
John Brown's execution, December 2, 1859 http://www.vmi.edu/archives/Civil_War/jbjtlplt.html
- GLC
02454 Letter from John Brown to his son,
Owen
- Newspaper articles printed at the time of the
Harpers Ferry raid
http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/jbmenu.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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