John Brown Quotes
We can set the spark that lights the fire.
Brown wanted Douglass to join his band of 22 men for the raid on Harper's Ferry. Douglass not only refused to join but tried to dissuade Brown from carrying out the raid.
John Brown, 1800-1859, Abolitionist, Discussing his plans for the raid on Harper's Ferry with Frederick Douglass, 1856, Quoted on PBS The Abolitionists, July 14, 2015
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
One of the interesting arguments made against slavery prior to the Civil War was that as the proportion of slaves increased in America in general and the South in particular, the security risk from a slave rebellion increases markedly to the point that it was just too risky. John Brown’s small attempted slave revolt at Harpers Ferry put the entire state of Virginia in a panic and Virginia had relatively few slaves compared with deep South states.
The last lines of the editorial were tragically accurate in predicting the Civil War. The more the slavery question was debated in the nation, the more polarized the country became. If the South would persist in trying to curtail men’s freedom and maintain slavery, the slaves had the same right of revolution and insurrection as was established in the American Revolution. That was the view of most abolitionists. Southern slave holders, feared an armed slave rebellion more than anything else, and observed that debating the issue of slavery was just riling up Blacks and whites and would instigate such armed revolutions. The Southern solution was to cease debating the slavery question. The Northern solution was to end slavery. Neither side would accept the solution of the other and the Civil War ensued.
It was not successful militarily and Brown and his followers were hanged, but they rapidly became martyrs to the cause of freedom and abolition. As such they inspired not only abolitionists but many of the Northern soldiers in the Civil War. There were verses to the Battle Hymn of the Republic which were often sung by the Union Troops.”
John H. Brown was an American abolitionist leader. Brown felt that violence was necessary to end American slavery, as years of speeches, sermons, petitions, and moral persuasion had failed.
