Trial Of John Brownmac's History
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- Born in Kentucky in 1900, John Scopes was a teacher in Tennessee who became famous for going on trial for teaching evolution. Scopes was part of an American Civil Liberties Union attempt.
- On October, 16, 1859, John Brown and nearly two dozen comrades seized the armory at Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, hoping to use its massive arsenal in the struggle to forcibly end slavery. Captured and brought to trial at nearby Charles Town, Brown was found guilty of treason.
- The Life, trial, and execution of Captain John Brown, known as 'Old Brown of Ossawatomie,' with a full account of the attempted insurrection at Harper's Ferry.
John Adams was a Founding Father, the first vice president of the United States and the second president. His son, John Quincy Adams, was the nation's sixth president. The story of Davis and other organisers of the protest is told in The Trial Of The Chicago 7, a film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin that premieres on Netflix on 16 October. Its star-studded.
John Brown's Last Speech
On October, 16, 1859, John Brown and nearly two dozen comrades seized the armory at Harper's Ferry in West Virginia, hoping to use its massive arsenal in the struggle to forcibly end slavery. Captured and brought to trial at nearby Charles Town, Brown was found guilty of treason. One month before his execution, John Brown addressed a courtroom in Charlestown, West Virginia, defending his role in the action at Harper's Ferry. Henry David Thoreau, although himself did not favor violence, praised John Brown, and when the fiery preacher was sentenced to death, Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 'He will make the gallows holy as the cross.'
I have, may it please the Court, a few words to say.
In the first place, I deny everything but what I have all along admitted, the design on my part to free the slaves. I intended certainly to have made aclean thing of that matter, as I did last winter, when I went into Missouri andthere took slaves without the snapping of a gun on either side, moved themthrough the country, and finally left them in Canada. I designed to have done thesame thing again, on a larger scale. That was all I intended. I never did intendmurder, or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite slavesto rebellion, or to make insurrection.
I have another objection; and that is, it is unjust that I should suffer sucha penalty. Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit hasbeen fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greaterportion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered inbehalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or inbehalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, orchildren, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in thisinterference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court wouldhave deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.
This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see abook kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament.That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, Ishould do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to 'remember them that are inbonds, as bound with them.' I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, Iam yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believethat to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I havedone in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it isdeemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends ofjustice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with theblood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked,cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!
Let me say one word further.
I feel entirely satisfied with the treatment I have received on my trial.Considering all the circumstances. it has been more generous than I expected. ButI feel no consciousness of guilt. I have stated from the first what was myintention and what was not. I never had any design against the life of anyperson, nor any disposition to commit treason, or excite slaves to rebel, or makeany general insurrection. I never encouraged any man to do so, but alwaysdiscouraged any idea of that kind.
Let me say, also, a word in regard to the statements made by some of thoseconnected with me. I hear it has been stated by some of them that I have inducedthem to join me. But the contrary is true. I do not say this to injure them, butas regretting their weakness. There is not one of them but joined me of his ownaccord, and the greater part of them at their own expense. A number of them Inever saw, and never had a word of conversation with, till the day they came tome; and that was for the purpose I have stated.
Now I have done.
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'I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood.'
handed to a guard just before his hanging
ust after sundown on the evening of Sunday October 16, 1859 John Brown led a group of 21 men (16 white and 5 black) across the Potomac River from Maryland to Virginia. Their immediate objective was the capture of the cache of weapons stored at the U.S. Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Brown's ultimate goal was to destroy the slave system of the South. The arms | John Brown, 1854 From a contemporary photograph |
Brown's raid attained initial success. Slashing the telegraph wires to cut off the town from the outside world, the raiders captured the local armory, arsenal and rifle manufacturing plant. They then rounded up 60 townspeople as hostages. Unfortunately, the raiders were unsuccessful in their attempt to isolate the town. A B&O Railroad train was detained as it passed through, but allowed to continue on its journey to Baltimore. Once it reached its destination, the alarm was raised and federal troops sent to the rescue. In the meantime, the local militia surrounded the town preventing the raiders' escape. Realizing his predicament, John Brown led his men, along with nine hostages, to the small fire engine house adjacent to the armory.
Federal forces arrived on Monday evening and successfully stormed the stronghold the following day, seriously wounding Brown. He was tried and convicted of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia. Just before his hanging on December 2, 1859, Brown uttered a prophetic forewarning of the coming Civil War: 'I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.'
John Brown's raid and subsequent trial inflamed the dispute between the country's abolitionist and pro-slavery factions hardening the lines that separated the North and the South.
'I determined to summon the insurgents to surrender... I did not expect it would be accepted.'
The federal forces that rushed to rescue Harper's Ferry were led by Colonel Robert E. Lee - soon to become commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Lee described the action at Harpers Ferry in a report to his superiors:
'...on arriving here on the night of the 17th instant,I learned that a party of insurgents, about 11pm on the 16th, had seized the watchmen stationed at the armory, arsenal, rifle factory, and bridge across the Potomac, and taken possession of those points.
They then dispatched six men, under one of their party, called Captain Aaron C.V. Stevens, to arrest the principal citizens in the neighborhood and incite the Negroes to join in the insurrection. The party took Colonel L. W. Washington (the great-grand-nephew of George Washington) from his bed about 1 1/2 am on the 17th, and brought him, with four of his servants, to this place. Mr. J. H. Allstadt and six of his servants were in the same manner seized about 3 am, and arms placed in the hands of the Negroes.
Trial Of John Brownmac's History Summary
Upon their return here, John E. Cook, one of the party sent to Mr. Washington's, was dispatched to Maryland, with Mr. Washington's wagon, two of his servants, and three of Mr. Allstadt's, for arms and ammunition, &c. As day advanced, and the citizens of Harper's Ferry commenced their usual avocations, they were separately captured, to the number of forty, as well as I could learn, and confined in one room of the fire-engine house of the armory, which seems early to have been selected as a point of defense... These companies forced the insurgents to abandon their positions at the bridge and in the village, and to withdraw within the armory enclosure, where they fortified themselves in the fire-engine house, and carried ten of their prisoners for the purpose of insuring their safety and facilitating their escape, whom they termed hostages...
I determined to summon the insurgents to surrender. As soon after daylight as the arrangements were made Lieutenant J. E. B. Stewart, 1st cavalry, who had accompanied me from Washington as staff officer, was dispatched, under a flag, with a written summons... Knowing the character of the leader of the insurgents, I did not expect it would be accepted. I had therefore directed that the volunteer troops, under their respective commanders, should be paraded on the lines assigned them outside the armory, and had prepared a storming party of twelve marines, under their commander, Lieutenant Green, and had placed them close to the engine house, and secure from its fire. Three marines were furnished with sledge-hammers to break in the doors, and the men were instructed how to distinguish our citizens from the insurgents; to attack with the bayonet and not to injure the blacks detained in custody unless they resisted.'
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The Attack on the Engine House
Lieutenant Stewart was also directed not to receive from the insurgents any counter propositions. If they accepted the terms offered, they must immediately deliver up their arms and release their prisoners. If they did not, he must, on leaving the engine-house, give me the signal. My object was, with a view of saving our citizens, to have as short an interval as possible between the summons and attack. The summons, as I had anticipated, was rejected. At the concerted signal the storming party moved quickly to the door and commenced the attack. The fire engines within the house had been placed by the besieged close to the doors. The doors were fastened by ropes, the spring of which prevented their being broken by the blows of the hammers. The men were therefore ordered to drop the hammers, and, with a portion of the reserve, to use as a battering-ram a heavy ladder, with which they dashed in a part of the door and gave admittance to the storming party.
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| US Marines storm the engine house From a contemporary illustration |
From the information derived from the papers found upon the persons and among the baggage of the insurgents, and the statement of those now in custody, it appears that the party consisted of nineteen men - fourteen white and five black. That they were headed by John Brown, of some notoriety in Kansas, who in June last located himself in Maryland, at the Kennedy farm, where he has been engaged in preparing to capture the United States works at Harper's Ferry.
He avows that his object was the liberation of the slaves of Virginia, and of the whole South; and acknowledges that he has been disappointed in his expectations of aid from the black as well as white population, both in the Southern and Northern States. The blacks whom he forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance… The result proves that the plan was the attempt of a fanatic or madman, which could only end in failure; and its temporary success was owing to the panic and confusion he succeeded in creating by magnifying his numbers.'
References:
Robert E. Lee's account appears in: Hart, Albert B., American History Told by Contemporaries vol.4 (1928); Furnas, J.C. The Road to Harper's Ferry (1961); Nelson, Truman John, The Old Man: John Brown at Harper's Ferry (1973).
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How To Cite This Article:
'John Brown's Raid, 1859' EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2004).