JOHN BROWN'S 1859 HARPERS FERRY RAID   Was “the time for compromise gone?”  Was this the blow that “began the war that ended slavery?”

Illustration ifrom Harper's Weekly, November 12, 1859

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Overview:

Click here for background and an overview of John Brown's Harpers Ferry Raid

Objectives:

1. Learn about the events in the 1850s leading to disunion and war, in particular John Brown's Harpers Ferry raid and its aftermath.
2. Promote historical empathy and understanding for the key actors in these historical events..
3. Interrogate primary source documents and build historical understanding of Brown's raid and its role in the events leading to war.

Resources:

• Secession Era Editorials Project/ John Brown's Raid.  Housed at Furman University, this archive has digitized newspaper editorials -- North and South, Democratic, Whig and Republican -- contending over four issues that divided American in the 1850s: The Kansas-Nebraska Act, the caning of Senator Charles Sumner, the Dred Scott Decision and John Brown's Raid at Harpers Ferry.

• John Brown Archive/ Lost Museum.  The John Brown archive is part of the Lost Museum, a cyberspace recreation P. T. Barnum’s American Museum, which burned down under mysterious circumstances in 1865.  The museum, known as a site of popular entertainment and instruction, included exhibits celebrating Brown.

Activity:

Preparation.  Read the chapter in your course textbook about the rapid-fire events of the 1850s that escalated sectional tensions and led to war.  Pay particular attention to the Compromise of 1850, the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852, the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act,  the founding of the Republican Party in 1854, "Bleeding Kansas" and the caning of Senator Charles Sumner in 1856, the Dred Scott decision in 1857 and Lincoln's election in 1860.

Step One.  The class will divide into groups with eight (or more) students.  Each group briefly meets, assigning roles from the following list. to members.   Groups should make sure that each role on the list is assigned to at least one member of the group.

1. A southern newspaper editor who believes that northern reaction to the Harper’s Ferry raid leaves the South no choice but to secede from the union if it is to preserve the institution of slavery.
2. A northern Republican newspaper editor who believes that the Democratic party and its southern allies promoted the expansion of slavery by creating an environment of lawlessness and violence which in the process pushed opponents of slavery like Brown to desperate acts like the Harpers Ferry Raid.
3. A Democratic party newspaper editor (either South or North) who sees John Brown’s raid as the logical outgrowth of inflammatory Republican party positions and rhetoric.
4. A Democratic party newspaper editor (either South or North) who sees the Harpers Ferry Raid’s failure to realize its goal of exciting a slave insurrection as proof that slaves are happy with their lot and do not seek freedom.
5. A black abolitionist minister who sees Brown’s ends as just and his means as necessary.
6. An abolitionist who saw John Brown as a martyr and his raid as a success in the crusade against slavery.
7. A newspaper editor who, in order to preserve the union, sees the need to isolate what he sees as extremists on both sides – zealots for and against slavery.
8. A woman reformer and abolitionist who abhors violence as means but defends Brown's courage and moral example.

Step two.  Analyze and take notes on the following texts and images.  As you do, consider the following questions as they apply to each primary source.  What is the point of view and intent of the author or artist?  How can you tell?  Who is the intended audience?  In the text documents, how would you characterize the language -- hot or cool/ objective or subjective?  What evidence (words, sentences) would you use to make this judgment about the use of language?  How would you characterize the argument -- is it logical given the basic assumptions of the author?  How are the images constructed to create a mood or to make a point? 

A speech by William Henry Seward, On Irrepressible Conflict, (25 October, 1858)

Newspaper editorials from the Secession Era Editorials Project/ John Brown's Raid.  The political party affiliation of the newspaper, when either Republican or Democratic, is noted in brackets.

• Albany, New York Evening Journal [Republican], (20 October 1859)
• Springfield, Illinois State Register [Democratic], (20 October 1859)
• Chicago, Illinois Press and Tribune [Republican], (20 October 1859)
• Nashville, Tennessee Union and American [Democratic], (21 October 1859)
• Nashville, Tennessee Republican Banner and Nashville Whig, (24 October 1859)
• Nashville, Tennessee Republican Banner and Nashville Whig, (25 October 1859)
• Wilmington, North Carolina Daily Herald, (26 October 1859)
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Gazette [Republican], (3 December 1859)
• Raleigh, North Carolina Register, (3 December 1859)
• Cincinnati, Ohio Enquirer [Democratic], (4 December 59)
• Wilmington, North Carolina Daily Herald, (5 December 1859)

Statements and letters by abolitionists:

• Lydia Maria Child correspondence with Virginia Governor Henry Wise and John Brown in the aftermath of the Harpers Ferry raid.
• Frederick Douglass, "No Progress Without Struggle" -- in a an address on West India Emancipation, August 4, 1857, Douglass, the most famous African-American abolitionist in the 19th century, argues that change is impossible without struggle.
• Address by Sella Martin, an African-American pastor and abolitionist in Boston on December 2, 1859, the day John Brown was hung. (From the John Brown Archive/ Lost Museum)
• "Day of Mourning' Meeting in an African-American Church, December 2, 1859. (From the John Brown Archive/ Lost Museum)
• Frederick Douglass at Harpers Ferry in a speech on May 30, 1881 commemorating John Brown's raid. (From the Harpers ferry National Historic Park)

Optional:  If you want to explore more abolitionist voices, look at the following:

• Henry David Thoreau, A Plea for Captain John Brown, Read to the citizens of Concord, Mass., Sunday Evening, October 30, 1859.  For background material on this address, go to PBS/The American Experience/John Brown's Holy War/Henry David Thoreau
• John Greenleaf Whittier, Brown of Ossawatomie -- a poem, (From the John Brown Archive/ Lost Museum)

Optional:  You make also want to read the statements of two of the raiders:

• John Brown's Last Speech to The Court (From Valley of the Shadow, University of Virginia)
• Last Words of John Copeland to His Family (From PBS/Africans in America)

Images:

• John Brown Meeting the Slave Mother and Her Child on the Steps of Charlestown Jail on His Way to Execution, a lithograph of a painting that helped to promote the myth that Brown had actually kissed a slave mother and her child en route to his execution. (From the John Brown Archive/ Lost Museum)
• The Arraignment, an illustration intended to to be an objective news account from Harpers Weekly, November 12, 1859. (From the John Brown Archive/ Lost Museum)
• John Brown Daguerreotype (1847), a recently discovered photograph taken by the African-American abolitionist Augustus Washington (from the Smithsonian Civil War Collection)
• Portrait of John Brown (1856), a photograph taken in Kansas in 1856, the same year that Brown led a party of militant abolitionists who slaughtered five pro-slavery settlers in Pottawatomie Creek.  Compare this photograph to the 1847 daguerreotype. (From PBS/Africans in America)
• A Southern Planter Arming His Slaves To Resist Invasion, a Harpers Weekly cartoon suggesting that John Brown's raid galvanized slaveholders and slaves in defense of the South (From HarpWeek Explore History)

Music (optional):

• History of "John Brown's Body," including an audio file and three version of the famous Civil War song (From John Brown's Holy War, The American Experience/PBS)

Step three.  You will post to the BlackBoard discussion forum entitled "John Brown -- Interrogating the Primary Sources." For this step, you will post in your own voice as a student of history and NOT that of your character.

Select one of the primary sources (from the texts and images in step two) that you will use as background for shaping the role you chose in step one. 

Begin your post identifying (1) the role you chose in step one and (2) the document you selected.

Next, write at least four or five sentences on any one of the following:

• Raise a question about something that you do not understand in/about the primary source you chose.
• Raise a question about an issue that you think needs further investigation in order for the class to deepen its understanding of (1) the particular primary source you chose and/or (2) the general response to Brown's raid.
• Make an observation about the source you chose that you think deepens your understanding of Brown's raid and its aftermath.
• Make and explain an observation about your source in response to any of the questions raised in the first paragraph of step two (above).

Finally, respond to the posts of anyone who chose the same role as you in step one.

Step four. Go to your group discussion board.  Post to then forum entitled "Debating John Brown's Harpers Ferry Raid."  In the historical character and voice of the role you chose in step one, assume it is December 3, 1859, the day after John Brown was sent to the gallows.  Post -- in at least ten sentences, hopefully more -- your reactions to the raid, trial and execution. Tell us, in character, what these events mean (in 1859) for the future of the United States of America. As time permits, respond to as many posts as possible, particularly those with whom you sharply disagree.

Step five. The class will meet face-to-face to sum-up.  Did the debate deepen your understanding of the key political and social actors on the eve of the Civil War?  Did it deepen your understanding of the political and social dynamics on the eve of war? Based on your understanding, was sectional compromise possible in the wake of Brown's raid and execution?  Or was this, as Frederick Douglass argued,  the blow that “began the war that ended slavery?”  Explain your answers to these questions.

Step six.  You will have the option of writing an essay* in class for the final exam entitled "The Harpers Ferry Raid and the Road to Civil War."  In the essay you will assess the role of the raid and its aftermath as a cause-and-effect factor leading to war.  You will be expected to:

• Situate the Harpers Ferry Raid in the context of the events leading to war.

• Explain the political, sectional and social dynamic that shaped the response to Brown's raid and moved events towards war.  In particular, look at the Republican and Democratic parties, the media, and abolitionists and their pro-slavery counterparts.

• Consider whether compromise was possible or the war was (to use Seward's term) "irrepressible."

• Draw substantially on documents and primary sources from this activity as evidence for your conclusion.

*The John Brown essay will be one of several options that you will have for completing the essay section of the final exam.  You will be allowed to bring a print copy of the documents to the final as well as a one-sheet (two sides) outline.