John_Brown

25 I( GOD'S ANGRY MAN

Stephen B. Oates

"God sees it," John Brown said with tears in his when Governor John W. Geary, head of the peace

fierce gray eyes. His son Jason nodded in solemn party in Kansas, led a cavalry force out to end the

agreement. They were standing on the bank of the "fratricidal strife" in the Lawrence vicinity and

Marais des Cygnes, watching the free-state settle­ drive the Missourians out of the territory. In early

ment of Osawatomie smoke and blaze against the October, hearing rumors that Geary would arrest

Kansas sky. Yes, God saw it, the old man said: the him, Brown and three of his sons-Jason, Owen,

homes of his friends going up in flames; the body and John, Jr.-rode out of Kansas and headed. east.

of his son Frederick lying in the road near the For already the old man was obsessed with visions

Adairs' place; and the Missouri raiders riding up of "God-fearing men, men who respect them­

. and down the smoke-filled streets looting buildings selves," fighting in mountain passes and ravines for

and stampeding cattle with shouts and gunfire. It the liberation of the slaves. Already he believed that

was August 30, 1856, and the Missourians were God was calling him to a greater destiny than the

sacking Osawatomie in retaliation for Brown's own skirmishes he had been waging against slavery in

violent work some three months before, when he Kansas. What was it the Prophet had said? "That it

and his antislavery band, seeking revenge for nu­ might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by

C merous proslavery atrocities and hoping to create the prophet saying, 'Out of Egypt have I called my
"a restraining fear," had taken five proslavery men son."' And John Brown of Osawatomie was ready

from their cabins along Pottawatomie Creek and now, after all these years of trial, to answer the call

hacked them to death with broadswords. of his God.

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth-that At fifty-six, Brown was lean and hard as stone,

was the war cry of both sides in Bleeding Kansas­ with coarse, iron-gray hair and a head that seemed

and now Osawatomie lay in flames, Brown himself too small for his five-foot-nine-inch frame. If he

had narrowly escaped capture, and one of his own was extremely religious, he could also be dictatorial

sons lay in the Kansas dirt with a proslavery bullet and self-righteous, with an imperious manner that

in his heart. The old man trembled with grief and made him intolerant and unappreciative of others,

rage. "I have only a short time to live-only one especially his own sons. As a businessman, he

death to die," he told Jason, "and I will die fighting could be inept and self-deluded. He could become

for this cause. There will be no more peace in this obsessed with a single idea-now slavery, now

land until slavery is done for. I will give them land speculation, now a wool crusade in Massachu­

something else to do than to extend slave territory. I setts-and pursue his current project with unswerv­

will carry the war into Africa." ing zeal.

Yet he could be kind and gentle, extremely

On September 7, Brown rode into free-state gentle. He could rock a baby lamb in his arms. He

Lawrence with his gun across his saddle and his could stay up several nights caring for a sick child,
eyes burning more fiercely than ever. For many or his ailing father, or his afflicted first wife. He
days he came and went, his mind busy with plots. could hold children on both knees and sing them

He was hiding out somewhere in or near Lawrence the sad, mournful refrains of his favorite hymn,

I�. This article is reprinted from our January 1986, (pp, 10-18) issue of American History Illustrated magazine with the
permission of PRIMEDIA Special Interest Publication, copyright American History Illustrated magazine.
241

242 I America Divided

"Blow ye the trumpet, blow." He could stand at the their children died. He soon remarried, his new c·-.)
graves of four of his children who had died of dys­ wife a large, reticent sixteen-year-old named Mary
entery, weeping and praising God and keep the Ann Day. Mary gave him thirteen children, seven Cl
Commandments-and exhibit the most excruciat­ of whom died in childhood. There were tragedies in
ing anxiety when the older ones began questioning his worldly concerns too: he was wiped out in the (-J
the value of religion. All his life he could treat Panic of 1837, declared bankrupt in 1842. Caught
America's "poor, despised Africans" as his up in the reckless, go-ahead spirit of the age. Brown
equals-a significant trait in view of the anti-Negro recouped his fortunes and plunged into another
prejudice that prevailed in North and South alike in business venture, and another. Each ended in fail-
his time. And he could feel an almost paralyzing ure.
bitterness toward bondage itself-that "sum of vil­
lainies"-and toward all those in the United States As he grew older, Brown became more self­
who sought to preserve and perpetuate it. righteous and fixed in his convictions than ever. He
lectured his children about Providential interposi­
He was born in 1800 in a stark, shutterless farm­ tion and their trial on earth, beseeching them to suf­
house in West Torrington, Connecticut. His father, fer the word of exhortation. At the same time, he
a cobbler and tanner who soon moved the family to became increasingly distressed about the oppres­
Ohio's Western Reserve, taught the boy to fear an sion of Negroes in the North as well as the South.
austere Calvinist God who demanded the most ex­ He worked on the Underground Railroad in Ohio
acting obedience from the frail, wretched sinners and publicly opposed the state's "black laws." He
He placed on trial in this world. Brown's father also even tried to integrate a Congregational Church he
instructed him from earliest childhood to oppose attended there, only to be expelled for his effort.
slavery as "a great sin against God." The boy's After that, he grew more violent in his denuncia­
mother died when he was eight, a tragedy that left tions of slavery. He would gladly lay down his life
him devastated with grief. When his father remar­ for the destruction of that institution, because
ried, young John refused to accept his stepmother "death for a good cause," he told a friend, was
emotionally and "pined after his own mother for "glorious."
years." He grew into an arrogant and contentious
young man who ordered others about, said a While living in Springfield, Massachusetts, Brown
brother, like "a King against whom there is no ris­ not only chided Negroes for passively submitting to
ing up." Although he dropped out of school at an white oppression, but devised a secret scheme to
early age, he read the Bible and committed its en­ run slaves out of the South through a "Subterranean
tire contents to memory, taking pleasure in correct­ Pass Way." He told Frederick Douglass, the great
ing anyone who quoted it wrongly. In 1816, he Negro abolitionist, that he wanted to arm the black
aspired to become a minister and traveled east to men he liberated, because using guns would give
study. But an eye inflammation and want of funds them "a sense of manhood." In 1851 Brown ex­
forced him to abandon his plans. horted Negroes to kill any Southerner or federal of­
ficer who tried to enforce the fugitive slave law,
Back in Ohio, he built his own tannery and and enlisted forty-four Springfield blacks into a
married pious and plain Dianthe Lusk. Dianthe bore mutual-defense organization called the "Branch of
seven children, whom Brown rigorously disciplined the United States League of Gileadites," based on
with a rod in one hand and the Bible in the other. In the story of Gideon in the Book of Judges.
western Pennsylvania, where they lived for ten
years, he organized an Independent Congregational But to Brown's despair, the curse of slavery
seemed to be spreading. On May 30, 1854, Presi­
Society and frequently preached in a makeshift dent Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill, which overturned the old Missouri Compro­
sanctuary on the second floor of his tannery. He re­ mise line and decreed that henceforth the citizens of
minded his flock that they were all "poor depend­ each territory would vote on whether or not to have
ent, sinning, & self-condemned mortals" who slavery. Until they did so, Southerners were free to
looked to God as a constant, directive presence in take their slaves into most of the western territories.
their lives. In the late 1820s, Brown entered a bitter At once, antislavery Northerners decried the act as
season of trial. Dianthe showed symptoms of deep­ part of a Southern conspiracy to seize the frontier-
rooted emotional troubles, and then she and two of

God's Angry Man I 243

( and maybe the North as well. The first step in the murdered innocent God-fearing people-people
plot was to occupy the new territory of Kansas in like his own son. What Kansas needed, Brown con­

the western heartland. "Come on, gentlemen of the tended was men who would fight-and it needed

slave States," cried Senator William H. Seward of money, too, a great deal of money. He went on to

New York: "Since there is no escaping your chal­ speak of his family sufferings, of how his wife and

lenge, I accept it in behalf of the cause of freedom. daughters were living in near-destitution, in a farm­

We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of house in the Adirondacks of upstate New York,
Kansas, and God give the victory to the side that is while he and his sons fought God's war against
stronger in numbers as it is in right." In response, slavery and the evil forces that sought to spread it.
hundreds of pioneers, mostly from the northwestern His vow that he and his remaining sons would
states, started for Kansas to make new lives for
themselves on a "free-soil" frontier. Among them never stop fighting until the war was won brought
were five of Brown's sons. In the spring of 1855, enthusiastic applause from the townspeople...

border Missourians invaded Kansas, voted illegally In February 1858 Brown was at Gerri! Smith's
in elections there, and vowed to exterminate "every
Goddamned abolitionist in the Territory." Brown's mansion in Peterboro, New York, holding intense
sons wrote him that an armed struggle between discussions with Smith, a wealthy reformer, and
freedom and despotism was about to commence in young Franklin Sanborn, a Concord schoolteacher

Kansas, and they urged him to join them with and secretary of the Massachusetts State Kansas
plenty of weapons. Committee. Brown argued that it was too late to
settle the slave question through politics or any

Brown had already decided to migrate to Kansas other peaceful means. The Southern defense of
for purposes of business and settlement. But when slavery as "a positive good," the proslavery poli­
he received his sons' letters, he gathered an arsenal cies of the Buchanan administration, the infamous
of guns and broadswords and headed for Kansas to Dred Scott decision-all had convinced Brown that
help save it from "Satan's legions." Violence broke bondage had become too entrenched in American
out several months after he arrived, as Missourians life ever to be expunged except by revolutionary
again crossed the border to kill free-state men and violence. There was no recourse left to the black
terrorize free-state settlements. Brown flung him­ man, he said, but in God and a massive slave upris­
self into the struggle with uninhibited fury, riding to ing in which the blood of slaveholders would be
meet the Philistine slaveholders as Gideon had gone spilled. This was a terrible thing, but slavery was a
after the Midianites. The result was the shocking terrible wrong, the same as murder, and the unre­
Pottawatomie murders, then open civil war, the pentant Southerners deserved to be violently pun­
sacking of Osawatomie, and the killing of Brown's ished for it.
son Frederick. The Kansas civil war must have
made it all clear to him now. God was at last calling It was God's will, Brown continued, that he
him to a special destiny ("in all thy ways acknow­ should incite this insurrection-by a forced march
on Virginia, the queen of the slave states, with a
ledge Him & He shall direct thy paths") and had guerrilla contingent he was already raising. And
chosen this terrible conflict, including the death of even ifthe insurrection failed, it would nevertheless
his own son, to show Brown what must be done to congeal Northern hatred of slavery and thus pro­
voke a crisis, perhaps a civil war, in which the
avenge the crimes of this "slave-cursed" land. North would break the black man's chains on the
battlefield.
But to accomplish his "mission," as he called
it, Brown needed to raise money and guns, an army, But Brown needed financial support if his war

and the support of influential men. In early 1857 he

launched a fund-raising campaign across the North­ for slave liberation was to succeed. Would Smith

east that had all the fervor of a religious revival. and Sanborn help? While Smith seemed willing,

Standing one wintry night in the Town House in Sanborn raised objections. But Brown's conviction,

( Concord, Massachusetts, with Ralph Waldo Emer­ and the fiery obstinacy that burned in his eyes, won
son, Henry David Thoreau, and other eminences in Sanborn over in the end. "I expect to effect a

his audience, Brown recounted the Kansas civil war mighty conquest," Brown assured him, "even

blow by blow, telling how the Border Ruffians had though it be like the last victory ofSamson."

244 I AmericaDivided

In March, Brown traveled to Boston, where he re­ cians. Most of Brown's backers were panic-stricken 0
vealed his plan to Theodore Parker and Thomas and voted to send him back to Kansas until things
Wentworth Higginson, two eminent Unitarian min­ cooled off. The old man was not happy about their (_J
isters; to George Luther Stearns, a prominent busi­ decision, but when they offered him an additional
nessman; and to Samuel Gridley Howe, a dashing $2,000 or $3,000 if would leave, Brown grudgingly
physician and reformer. Though Brown undoubt­ rode back to the Territory. That December he exe­
edly mentioned Virginia in their conversations, cuted a bold and bloody slave-running expedition
none of them knew exactly where he intended to into Missouri, one that almost started another civil
strike his blow. Nevertheless, they formed a secret war along the smoldering western border. When
committee of six, including Smith and young San­ told that President Buchanan himself had de­
born, and raised a considerable sum of money for nounced the raid and put a price of $250 on his
him. They all realized that the attempted insurrec­ head, Brown retorted with a price of $2.50 on the
tion might fail. But even so, as Brown had repeat­ head of the president.
edly argued, it might ignite a sectional powder keg
that would explode into civil war in which slavery But it was all a diversion to keep him associ­
would be destroyed. ated with Kansas in the public mind. In the spring
of 1859, suffering from an old case of malaria and
With the support of the Six, Brown now felt "a terrible gathering" in his head, Brown made his
free to work with both hands. In May, he appeared way back to Boston, where he warned his secret
in Chatham, Canada, where he held a secret meet­ backers that there would be no more postpone­
ing in a Negro schoolhouse with eleven whites and ments. In June, he went to Connecticut to expedite
thirty-four blacks. He told them that slaves all over the shipment of pikes and later turned up in Ohio to
Dixie were ready for revolt. At the first sign of a gather a hidden cache of guns. "Now is the time to
leader who wanted to liberate them, "they would help in the movement, if ever," Sanborn wrote Hig­
immediately rise all over the Southern states." And ginson, "for within the next two months the experi­
John Brown of Osawatomie was that leader. He ex­ ment will be made."
plained that he would invade Virginia, in the region
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and march into Ten­ Brown planned to launch his "experiment" at a
nessee and northern Alabama. As he moved thou­ town called Harpers Ferry, situated on a narrow
sands of slaves would rally to his standard. They neck of land at the confluence of the Shenandoah
would then wage war upon the plantations on the and Potomac rivers in the Blue Ridge Mountains of
plains west and east of the mountains, which would northern Virginia. His prime military target there
serve as their base of operations. "But what if was a federal arsenal and armory works whose
troops are brought against you?" someone asked. store of guns he desperately needed for his guerrilla
Brown waved aside all doubts. A small force army. With an advance agent already in town,
trained in guerrilla warfare could easily defend Brown rented a dilapidated two-story farmhouse
those Thermopylae ravines against Southern militia about seven miles away on the Maryland side of the
or the U.S. Army. He believed that "all the free ne­ Potomac, giving his name as "Smith" and telling
groes in the Northern states" would also rally to his neighbors that he was a cattle buyer from New
cause once the invasion began. York. With him were sons, Oliver and Owen, and a
young Kansan who vowed "to make this land of
Brown went on to read a constitution he had liberty and equality shake to the centre."
drawn up that would create a new state once the
slaves were freed, with Brown as commander in While the commander in chief cultivated a
chief and John Henry Kagi as secretary of war. The beard and studied books on guerrilla warfare, a
preamble of Brown's document actually declared handful of additional volunteers trickled in. One
war against slavery, which was itself "a most bar­ was Brown's son Watson, who had left a young
barous, unprovoked, and unjustifiable War" of one wife and a newborn child in the Adirondacks. An­
portion of American citizens upon another. The Ne­ other was a freed mulatto named Dangerfield
Newby, who at forty-eight was the oldest raider and
groes enthusiastically endorsed the sentiments. An · who hoped to liberate his wife and seven children
from a plantation at Brentville, Virginia.
irritating delay arose when a drillmaster Brown had
enlisted in his company defected and told part of
what he knew to a U.S. senator and other politi-

God'sAngry Man I 245

As they awaited more recruits, Brown gathered last obstacles to the attack-and any lingering
C his men upstairs and finally disclosed his plans in
full. Up to this point some of them thought they doubts Brown may have had about his destiny­
disappeared when three late recruits reached the

were going on a large slave-running expedition, but farm in mid-October. One even contributed six

now the old man was saying things that astonished hundred dollars in gold. For Brown, that gold was

them.They were going to attack Harpers Ferry it­ an unmistakable sign that God wanted him to move.
self, gather up the guns in the federal armory, and At dawn on Sunday, October 16, Brown gathered
hold the town until the slaves from the surrounding
area joined them.Then they would strike south­ his little army-sixteen whites and five Negroes­
ward, spreading terror throughout Dixie. for a final worship service. At 8 P.M., leaving a rear
guard at the farm, the old man climbed into a
As Brown spoke, first one recruit and then his wagon loaded with guns and pikes, and led his men
own sons strenuously objected to an attack on Har­ two-by-two into a damp moonless night.
pers Ferry, arguing that it was suicidal for a mere
handful of men to try to capture and hold an entire When the town lights came into view, two raid­
town against militia and possibly federal troops. ers took off through the woods to cut telegraph
Kagi, proud and impressive with his dark beard and lines. Then Brown flung his little army across the
large, alert eyes, actually favored the plan, as did covered railroad and wagon bridge that led into
some of the others.But the malcontents were as im­ Harpers Ferry, deploying Newby, Oliver Brown,
movable as their fierce-eyed chief. Twice there was and others to guard the Potomac and Shenandoah
a threat of mutiny.In a show of anger, Brown re­ bridges ... The raiders darted up Potomac Street
signed as commander in chief-a calculated move and took the watchman at the government works by
that warded off revolt and brought them all back to surprise, pinning him against the gate and securing
his side. both the armory and the arsenal. To the frightened
watchman, Brown must have seemed an apparition,
Still, he knew that the cramped quarters and with his glaring eyes and flowing gray beard. "I
fear of discovery frayed everyone's nerves. If he came here from Kansas," the old man said; "I want
did not attack soon, they might all break under the to free all the negroes in this State ... if the citizens
strain. Where were the pikes anyway? And all the interfere with me I must only bum the town and
volunteers he had expected from New England, have blood."
Pennsylvania, and Kansas? He had sent urgent
So far everything was going perfectly.Kagi and
pleas to his friends there as well as to his Negro al­ two of the Negroes manned Hall's Rifle Works
lies in Canada. Where were the Negroes? They had above the armory on Shenandoah Street. By now,
more of a stake in this than any of the whites.And Owen Brown, one of the rear guard, should have
there was the money problem. The money from the moved to the schoolhouse near the farm where
secret committee had melted away in expenses; slaves from Maryland were to report; Brown's ad­
Sanborn and Howe had sent an additional $205, but
that was not nearly enough to sustain him in an all­ vance agent had assured him that they would
out war. There were so many obstacles and delays . swarm like bees.

.. Could it be that his plans were wrong, that God Around midnight a detachment of raiders

intended some other way? brought three hostages into the armory yard­

But the old man had put too much into this en­ among them colonel Lewis W. Washington, a
terprise to believe that now. He prayed for guid­ wealthy planter and a great-grandnephew of the

ance.He must continue to believe that he was an first president-with their slaves and their house­
instrument in God's hands, that the Almighty hold weapons, including a magnificent sword of
would hurl him like a stone into the black pool of Washington's that Frederick the Great had alleg­

bondage and that He alone would determine the edly given his illustrious relative. In the glare of

outcome. torches, Brown armed the slaves with pikes and or­

dered them to guard the prisoners. He was admiring

Late in September there were propitious signs: the the sword-a fine symbol for the revolution that

950 pikes came in from Chambersburg, and Osborn had begun this night-when a raider reported that

P.Anderson, a brave young Negro, arrived from the telegraph lines east and west of town had been

Canada asserting that he was ready for war. The cut.Now, as soon as Owen came with the slaves,

246 America Divided

Brown would garrison the town, take more hos­ seemed, "puzzled" as he watched the bustle of Cl
tages, and move on. armed men in the streets and searched the gray sky
beyond, perhaps hoping for a sign from Providence. CJ
At about 1 :30 in the morning, Brown heard gun­ As the old man waited at the armory, militiamen
shots in the direction of the bridges. His sentinels overran the bridges, driving the sentinels off with CJ
there were firing on men from a train that had just rifles blazing. Oliver Brown and another sentinel
arrived from Wheeling. Then there was another made it back to the armory, but Dangerfield Newby
crack of gunfire. In the darkness and confusion, fell from a sniper's bullet, the first of the raiders to
Brown's men had mortally wounded a free Negro die and the last hope of his slave wife. "Oh dear
who worked at the station as a baggage master. The Dangerfield," read a letter from her in his pocket,
first real blood in Brown's war against slavery had "come this fall without fail, money or no money I
been spilled. want to see you so much: that is one bright hope I
have before me." Newby lay in the street until
By now the gunfire and unusual commotion somebody dragged him into the gutter and sliced
around the arsenal had aroused the townspeople; his ears off as souvenirs.
they gathered in the streets with knives, axes, squir­
rel rifles, with any weapon they could pick up. As the townsmen now swarmed off the heights
What was it? What was happening? A slave insur­ and joined in the fighting, Brown had to admit that
rection, someone said: hundreds ·of them with some he might be trapped, that he could not wait for
Yankee abolitionists murdering and looting around white or slave reinforcements. The only thing he
the annory. Panic-stricken, the townsmen fled with could do, cut off as he was from Kagi at the rifle
their families to the heights in back of town. But in works and from the rear guard in Maryland, was to
all the confusion and hysteria they seemed not to negotiate for a cease-fire, offering to release his
notice the very Negroes they dreaded cowering in hostages if the militia would let him and his men go
their midst, as terrified as they were. free. He sent a raider named Will Thompson out
under a truce flag, but the excited crowd grabbed
Down in town the bell on the Lutheran Church Thompson and took him off at gunpoint. Brown
was tolling the alarm, calling to farmers all over the grew desperate. Gathering the remnants of his force
countryside: Insurrection, Insurrection: tolling on and the hostages in the fire-engine house at the
into the mistswept morning. By that time the alarm front of the armory, he sent his son Watson and an­
was also spreading to other towns, as two villagers other raider out under a second white flag. But the
galloped madly along separate roads yelling at the mob gunned them both down. Watson managed to
top of their lungs: Insurrection at Harpers Ferry! crawl back to the engine house, where he doubled
Slaves raping and butchering the streets! The thing up in agony at his father's feet.
all Southerners had dreaded since Nat Turner's ter­
rible uprising in 1831 was now upon them like a By late afternoon the town was in chaos as half­
black plague. Soon church bells were tolling in drunken and uncontrolled crowds thronged the
towns and villages throughout the area, and shout­ streets. Hearing their shouts from behind the trestle­
ing militiamen were on the march. At the same work below the armory, kindly old Fontaine Beck­
time, Brown had allowed the express train to push ham, the mayor of Harpers Ferry, was distressed at
on; and it was carrying the alarm to Monocacy and what was happening to his town. In his agitation he
Frederick. From Monocacy, the news would tick kept venturing out on the railroad between some
over the telegraphs to Richmond and Washington, freight cars and the water station, trying to see what
D.C., and would soon be blazing in headlines was going on around the beleaguered armory. In­
throughout the South and East. side the engine house, a raider named Edwin Cop­
poc, a Quaker boy from Iowa, drew a bead on
By eleven o'clock that Monday morning a gen­ Beckham from the doorway: Coppoc fired, missed,
eral battle was raging at Harpers Ferry, as armed fired again, "and the dark wings again brushed the
farmers and militiamen poured into town and laid little town" as Mayor Beckham-the best white
down a blistering fire on both the rifle works and friend the Negroes had in the county-slumped to
the fire engine house of the armory where Brown the timbers. In his Will Book the mayor had pro­
and a dozen of his men were gathered. The speed vided for the liberation upon his death of Negro
with which the countryside had mobilized surprised
Brown completely. To Osborn P. Anderson, he

God's Angry Man 247

Isaac Gilbert, his slave wife and three children. The from Washington by President Buchanan himself,
had arrived during the night, and was now deployed
( Quaker's shot had freed them all. in front of the engine house with bayonets and
In retaliation, a group of furious men dragged
Will Thompson kicking and screaming down to the sledgehammers, while two thousand spectators
Potomac, where they shot him in the head with re­ looked on from sidewalks and buildings as far as

volvers and flung him into the water. According to Brown could see. He had the doors barricaded and

one writer, Thompson "could be seen for a day or loopholed, but he knew they would not hold against

two after, lying at the bottom ofthe river, with his sledgehammers, he knew that this was the end for

ghostly face still exhibiting his fearful death ag­ him and the young men who stood by his side. Yet

ony.'' his face wore an expression of awakened resolu­

By now, Brown's situation in the fire-engine tion. Brown "was the coolest and firmest man I
house had become even more acute. A newly ar­ ever saw," Colonel Washington said. "With one
rived militia company had rushed through the ar­ son dead by his side, and another shot through, he
mory yard from the rear, thus cutting off his last felt the pulse of his dying son with one hand and
means ofretreat. A party of whites had also overrun held his rifle with the other, and commanded his
the rifle works, annihilating Kagi in a crossfire and men with the utmost composure, encouraging them

mortally wounding one black raider and capturing to sell their lives as dearly as they could."

the other; only the intervention of a local physician
kept whites from lynching him. More reinforce­ But the Marines did not attack. Instead a tall,
ments stormed into town that evening; and rifle fire bearded trooper named Jeb Stuart approached under
and drunken shouts punctuated the drizzly dark­ a flag of truce. Brown cracked the door, and with
ness. his rifle aimed at Stuart's head took a note from his
outstretched hand. The note summoned Brown to
Inside the engine house, it was painfully cold surrender unconditionally, with assurances that he
and pitch dark as Brown, four uninjured raiders, would be protected from harm and handed over to
and eleven prisoners watched the night drag by.
One raider lay dead; Watson and Oliver Brown, the proper authorities.

who had also been wounded, lay side by side on the Brown handed the note back with his eyes on

floor, both choking and crying in intense pain. The Stuart's. He would surrender, he said, only on terms
old man, distraught and exhausted, paced back and that would allow him and his men to escape. At that
forth muttering to himself and fingering Washing­ some of the prisoners begged Stuart to ask Colonel
ton's sword. He paused, listening to the clank of Lee himself to come and reason with Brown. But

arms outside, then started pacing again. Oliver, one Stuart replied that Lee would agree only to the

of the prisoners remembered, begged his father terms offered in the note. Then suddenly Stuart

"again and again to be shot, in the agony of his jumped away from the door and waved his cap.

wound." But Brown turned on him. "If you must With the spectators cheering wildly, storming par­

die, die like a man." Then he turned to the prison­ ties rushed the engine house and started battering at

ers in despair. "Gentlemen, ifyou knew ofmy past the thick oak doors.

history you would not blame me for being here. I The raiders fired back desperately, powder

went to Kansas a peaceable man, and the proslavery smoke wreathing out ofthe gun holes and cracks in

people hunted me down like a wolf. I lost one of the building. But it was no use. The Marines tore

my sons there." He stood trembling for a moment, down one of the doors with a heavy ladder and

then called to Oliver. There was no answer. "I swarmed inside, pinning one raider to the wall with

guess he is dead," the old man said, and started a bayonet and running another through as he

pacing again. crawled under a fire engine. Colonel Washington

When the first gray light of morning spread then pointed to Brown, who was kneeling with his

through the high windows of the engine house, rifle cocked, and said, "This is Osawatomie." Lieu­

Brown and the remaining raiders took their places tenant. Israel Green struck Brown with his light

at the gun holes they had dug out of the walls. dress sword before the old man could fire, and then

Brown could only wince at what he saw in the tried to run him through with a savage thrust that

streets outside: a company of United States Marines almost lifted him off the floor, but the blade struck

under Army Colonel Robert E. Lee, dispatched either a bone of Brown's belt buckle and bent dou-

248 I America Divided

ble. Had Green been armed with his heavy battle all you people of the South-prepare yourselves for
sword, which he had left in the barracks in all the a settlement of that question that must come up for
excitement, he would probably have killed Brown settlement sooner than you are prepared for it ...
with that thrust. As the old man fell, Green beat You may dispose of me very easily; I am nearly
him on the head with the hilt of his dress sword un­ disposed of now; but this question is still to be set­
til Brown was unconscious. When Green at last got tled-this negro question I mean-the end of that is
control of himself, he had Brown and the other dead not yet."
and wounded raiders carried outside and laid on the
grass. Colonel Lee inspected Brown himself and While a bitter debate over Brown's raid was
when he regained consciousness the colonel had a taking shape between the South and antislavery
doctor tend to his wounds. Northerners, the old man stood trial in a crowded
courtroom in nearby Charlestown. On November 2,
Thirty-six hours after it had begun, Brown's war the court sentenced him to die on the gallows for
for slave liberation had ended in dismal failure. No murder, treason against the state of Virginia, and
uprisings had taken place anywhere in Virginia or conspiring with slaves to rebel. "Let them hang
Maryland, because the slaves there, lacking organi­ me," Brown rejoiced. "I am worth inconceivably
zation and leadership, having little if any knowl­ more to hang than for any other purpose."
edge of what was going on, and fearing white
reprisals, had been both unable and unwilling to In December, on his way to the gallows, he handed
join him. The raid had cost a total of seventeen one of his guards a last message he had written to
lives. Two slaves, three townsmen, a slaveholder, his countrymen: "I, John Brown am now quite cer­
and Marine had been killed, and nine men had been tain that the crimes of this guilty land; will never be
wounded. Ten of Brown's own recruits, including purged away: but with Blood. I had as I now think:
two of his sons, had been killed or fatally injured. vainly flattered myself that without very much.
Five raiders had been captured and the rest had es­ bloodshed it might be done."
caped, some for a few days, some for good.
As it turned out, Brown was prophetic. For
Brown himself, "cut and thrust and bleeding Harpers Ferry polarized the country as no other
and in bonds," found himself lodged in the paymas­ event had done; it set in motion a spiral of accusa­
ter's office of the armory, where he appeared cool tion and counteraccusation between North and
and indomitable even as a lynch mob outside cried South that bore the country irreversibly toward se­
for his head. That afternoon, while he lay on a pile cession and the beginning of a civil war in which
of old bedding, the governor of Virginia and retinue slavery itself would perish-the very thing the old
of officers, U.S. congressmen, and reporters ques­ man had hoped and prayed would be the ultimate
tioned him for a full three hours. Brown refused to consequences of his Harpers Ferry raid.
implicate anybody else in his war against slavery,
blamed only himself for its failure. How could he His friends and family brought his body home
possibly justify his acts? asked one interrogator. "I to North Elba in the Adirondacks, where they bur­
pity the poor in bondage that have none to help ied him by a large boulder near the Brown farm­
them," he said, with one eye on the martyrdom that house. As they lowered him in to the earth, four
was nearly his now; "that is why I am here: not to members of a Negro family sang "Blow ye the
gratify any personal animosity, revenge or vindic­ trumpet, blow," the hymn that Brown had loved so;
"O, happy is the man who hears. Why should we
tive spirit. It is my sympathy with the oppressed start, and fear to die. With songs and honors sound­
and the wronged, that are as good as you and as ing loud. Ah, lovely appearance of death." Apart
precious in the sight of God." Then he addressed from his impact on the country, all that remained of
the entire gathering-and a divided nation beyond. John Brown now was a silent grave in the stillness
"I wish to say, furthermore, that you had better- of the mountains.

CJ

God's Angry Man I 249

I Review Questions Name-----------

I. Describe the personality ofJohn Brown. In your opinion, was he mentally stable? Why or why not?

2. How did John Brown feel about slavery? Why?

C 3. In the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, what was John Brown trying to achieve?

4. Why would a military strategist consider Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry to be a poorly planned fiasco?

5. What was the impact ofJohn Brown's raid on relations between the North and the South?

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C)