John Brown: Hero or Villain?

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the range of views historians have of John Brown and his raid at Harper's Ferry. The paper explains that for those who believe that Brown helped spur the Civil War, his actions might be considered justified, but for others, his crusade was misdirected and foolish. The paper concludes that how one views Brown may depend on how one views his cause more than his actions.

From the Paper:

"John Brown was an abolitionist who was only one of the supporters of that movement until he led a band of men in an attack on Harpers Ferry, Virginia as part of an effort to start a war. That was not the immediate result, though many have seen Brown's actions as contributing to the start of the Civil War a year or so later. Brown was wounded and taken with other conspirators for trial. He was hanged soon after the trial. Historians have struggled with how to define Brown and his quixotic enterprise ever since, shifting from early condemnation on legal grounds to questioning whether he contribute to the start of the Civil War or not, whether he helped or hurt the abolitionist cause, whether he was sane or insane, and generally whether he was a hero or a villain."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cullick, Jonathan S. "The Making of a Historian: Robert Penn Warren's Biography of John Brown." The Mississippi Quarterly, Volume 51, Issue 1 (1997), 33-37.
• "John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry." Secession Era Editorials Project (2007). December 8, 2007. http://history.furman.edu/~benson/docs/jbmenu.htm.
• Oates, Stephen B. Our Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln, John Brown, and the Civil War Era. Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Press, 1979.
• Pease, Donald E. Revisionary Interventions into the Americanist Canon. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1994.
• Reynolds, David S. John Brown: Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. New York: Knopf, 2005.

More papers on John Brown: Hero or Villain?:

• Term Paper # 109279 : "John Brown: Martyr or Terrorist?"
• Essay # 25238 : "Maximilien Robespierre: Hero or Villain?"
• Essay # 86664 : "John Brown"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: