John Brown: a Terrorist and a Patriot

Was John Brown a terrorist or a patriot? John Brown was contentious abolitionist who helped free slaves. He was a criminal on the outside but a true man on the inside who sparded on a movement. What he did was right, but how he did it was wrong. He was a true man who fought to end slavery. He was also called “the most successful terrorist in American history” by Tony Horowitz. In this case, Brown was successful, but not as a terrorist. He was a man who stood up persistently for the dignity of human kind. As a man who fought for slavery needs to be consider a hero.

Brown was not a terrorist, but a patriot. He demonstrated heroic qualities because he fought to abolish slavery. As he states, “I went into Missouri and took slaves without the snapping of a gun either side, moved them through the country, and finally left them in Canada.” The reason he took slaves to Canada was to free them from slavery. His motive was not to hurt anyone but to help people in need. He wanted to do anything that he could to get rid of slavery. He was a courteous man, what did was horrible in the eyes of people in Kansas and Missouri but definitely a patriot to the north. As Frederick Douglass said, “To the outward eye of men, John Brown was a criminal. But to the inward eye he was a just man and true. His deeds might be disowned, but the spirit which made those deeds possible was worthy of highest honor.” He actions might have been rejected but the soul which made those actions were ethical with great honor. On the contrary, people called him “insane” but was he really? Wouldn't you call Hitler “insane.”? Because he killed millions of people where Brown only killed five which in this case is not considered “violent” or insane. He murdered those people who were supporters of anti-slavery.

What Brown did was the first step to end slavery. He gave Americans hope. “In the name of the young girl sold from the warm clasp of a mother’s arms to the clutches of a libertine or a profligate,--in the name of the slave mother, her heart rocked to and fro by the agony of her mournful separations,--I thank you, that you have been brave enough to reach out your hands to the crushed and blighted of my race.” She thanked him for what he did for her race. This shows that, even though Brown was a white man, he still helped slaves in the time. In the eyes of the northern, he was seen as a freedom fighter. What Brown did was very astonishing. He stood for something he very much believed in and did whatever it took to abolish slavery. He also was a martyr to the north as a hero who was murdered for his beliefs. What he did was very tragic but it was unfair that he fought for pro-slavery and still got hanged. What bad thing did he done that he needed to be hanged? Terrorism, which is described as the intentional violence to achieve a political, religious to end. He, John Brown, who killed civilians but not indiscriminately.

Brown sparded on terrorism. He was a terrorist, killed people in Kansas. “In 1857 his band of men had killed several proslavery settlers in “Bleeding Kansas,” hacking to death five men along Pottawatomie Creek with short, heavy swords”. He was a criminal in Kansas and Missouri. He also stole guns from the government and armed people which included two of his sons. He murdered five men and was found guilty of his actions and was hanged. He used violence to end slavery. Brown and his men were executed for taking over a government facility and murdering five people. His true intentions was to free slaves and people need to start accepting the fact he fought for slavery as a white man which other man could have never done.

John Brown was a hero who helped freed slaves. John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.