John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, involved only a handful of abolitionists, freed no slaves, and was over in two days. Although many Northerners condemned the raid, by 1863 John Brown had become hero and martyr in the North. To what extent and in what ways do the views about John Brown expressed in the documents illustrate changing North-South relations between 1859 and 1863?
In 1859 before the Civil war the Northern-Southern relationship was strained with such laws as the Kansas-Nebraska act, 'legalizing' slavery through popular soveirgnty in the territories, and the Dredd Scott decision practically legalizing slavery in any territory(without popular sovereignty). Soon after John Brown's famous raid, Northerners condemned him(Doc.
A) for combating a 'great evil'(Slavery) in an 'unfit way'(through fighting), They said this because it was unconstitutional to fight without going through the government and there are other ways to get rid of slavery.
English: Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President ...
Elements of the First Light Division participated ...
Interior of the engine house during John Brown's r...This basically was a last ditch effort to save the south from succeeding from the union and to hold the thread that was holding the relations of the North and South together.
By 1860, the dreaded election of 1860 was here and the Civil war would soon start due to the 'Railsplitter' Lincoln winning the election. Views of John Brown in the North were gaining more momentum as he became more popular(Doc. D). More Northerners began to feel it that John Brown had done it the right way. The Democrats at this time were using tactics to use John Brown against the Republicans that were for it, this failed and showed that most northerners were with John Brown all the way(Doc. E). He began to be more like a martyr in the north toward the end of 1860(Doc. F). When Lincoln was elected the...