Brief Summary: The Legacy Of John Brown

As history was about to be changed, John Brown informed Fredrick Douglas about his plans; he summoned that, “When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I want you to help hive them.” For John Brown, striking was not the hard part, getting the ‘bees to swarm’ was. Growing up in Connecticut, John Brown was an abolitionist who always hated the idea of slavery. With two previous marriages and twenty children, Brown did not miss out on any opportunity to spread his anti-slavery views. To help slaves Brown moved his family and himself to places like Massachusetts, Kansas, and Connecticut to help fugitive slaves cross the border into Canada to become free. John Brown had gathered many people to join his anti-slavery acts. Once he had a big …show more content…
In the fall of 1859, Brown and his fellow prisoners were transported eight miles to a prison in Charles Town where they would be tried to their deaths. After being brought to the court, three charges were arranged: treason against Virginia, inciting slaves to rebellion, and murder. “If you want my blood, you can have it any moment, without this mockery of a trial” (law2.umkc.edu). Brown said these moving words shortly after hearing these charges. Brown wanted to make it clear that he knew what he did was wrong, but it had to be done, therefore why fight for innocence. Unmoved, the judge marked Brown’s trial date, October 26. “Henry David Thoreau delivered to a Concord audience his “A Plea for Captain John Brown” in which he praised Brown as ‘a man of ideas and principles’” (law2.umkc.edu) John Brown’s trial was reported all over the North as it would sentence the death of one of the greatest abolitionist leader from the North. For many, pleading insanity was a prediction as it might lighten his sentence. Accordingly, his attorneys had began collecting evidence to support their theory. However, John Brown wanted no part of the investigation of his sanity as he knew that he was not insane. As Brown admitted before that he knew what he did was wrong, he knew he had to be punished. Proceeding with the trial, the prosecution began with presenting witnesses that laid out the events of …show more content…
The Civil War began with the battle at Fort Sumter. “On April 10, 1861, knowing that resupplies were on their way from the North to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina, provisional Confederate forces in Charleston demanded the fort’s surrender” (historynet.com). As the Fort Sumter’s commander refused to do so, Confederate cannons open fired on April 20. The following day, the fort’s commander, Major Anderson surrendered. War had begun and for the next four years, the most casualties would be reported than any other American wars combined. “It cost 600,000 American lives, more than in World War I and World War II” (digitalhistory.uh.edu). More and more farmers, townspeople, and slaves would be enlisted in the army to fight for what they believed in. Many battles were fought in between these four years; North and South both winning and losing a comparable amount of bloodshed. Battle after battle, neither side would back down no matter how much it cost. That is until April 2, 1865 when Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia fell. During this time, “General Lee abandons both cities and moves his army west in hopes of joining Confederate forces under General Johnston in North Carolina” (nps.gov). This allowed the Union troops to occupy Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia the next day. Enraged by the