John Brown's Raid

Explain the 1859 raid on Harper's Ferry, and why North and South saw it differently.

Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.

What children learn in Level 62

John Brown was a white abolitionist who hated slavery. He believed that talk would never end it, and that only force could.
On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and 21 men, Black and white, seized the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. An arsenal is a place where weapons are stored. He hoped enslaved people would rise up and join him.
No uprising came. Soldiers commanded by Robert E. Lee stormed the building and captured Brown, and several people on both sides died. Brown was put on trial and executed.
Here's why it mattered. Many Northerners came to see Brown as a man who died for freedom. Many white Southerners saw proof that the North wanted to attack them. The same event looked completely different from each side.
Should people use violence for a just cause? Americans argued about Brown then, and they still do. The country was now near breaking.

Georgia Standards of Excellence in Social Studies:

SS4H5.a — Identify Uncle Tom's Cabin and John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry and explain how each of these events was related to the Civil War.