Secondary Source- John Brown

As I read the primary source of the letter sent form Charles White to his brother in-law, many speculations arose of the position he was writing the letter from. I wondered what Mr. White’s biases were against both the slave’s desire to escape and join Mr. Brown and his disgust for Mr. Brown. In the letter, Charles used strong words against John Brown such as “When the villains ran,” and “his [Brown’s] devilish design.” These strong opinions lead me to realize the biases the author has and take that into consideration when interpreting. My knowledge of this primary source before I read it was very limited. I knew of the John Brown Raid, but this was really my first introduction to a primary source.

            For my secondary source, I used a chapter in the book After The Fact: The Art of Historical Detection  by James Davidson and Mark Lytle. This chapter is titled The Madness of John Brown which indicates from the start that John Brown was possibly insane. In this chapter, the authors present many different reasons of why John Brown started this raid. The chapter raises this question: “Was John Brown a heroic martyr- a white man in a racist society willing to lay down his life on behalf of slaves? Or was he a madman whose taste for wanton violence propelled the nation toward avoidance tragedy (p.148)?”

            Reading this chapter, I found that John Brown’s men had been staying in a barn outside of Harpers Ferry for two months hiding out and planning some sort of raid. The group was made up of five black men and sixteen whites who includes three of Brown’s sons

. Brown’s plan was to capture Harpers Ferry and have surrounding countryside slaves to join the conquest and move down south freeing slaves along the way. As the primary source also said, the raid was not planned very well for the most part unsuccessful.

John Brown's last attempt to win the raid
while hiding in the engine house. 

            The attack began with two men cutting telephone lines and running through the town while others seized guns from the armory and hostages.  The morning was full of chaos as Brown and his men light the sky with gunshots and people scurrying around town to find protection. This, however, was short lived. By noon the militia who were present and armed farmers had the people of the raid cornered in an engine house. Thirty-six hours after the first shot on Harpers Ferry, John Brown’s raid to end slavery had ended.

Source: 

Davidson, James West, and Mark H. Lytle. "The Madness of John Brown." After the Fact: The Art of                 Historical Detection. 6th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 148-69. Print.