Voices from the Past – Reacting to John Brown’s Raid

“Harper’s Ferry—The Scene Of The Late Insurrections,” Harper’s Weekly, October 29, 1859,

Photographic Collection, Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

• Who was John Brown?

• What happened at Harpers Ferry?

• What were some of the reactions to the raid at Harpers Ferry?

David Hunter Strother, John Brown, Pierre Morand Memorial, Special Collections, Library of Virginia.

• If a law "is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law."—Thoreau

[Henry David Thoreau, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing slightly right]. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs

Division: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/95513963/

Norfolk and Portsmouth HeraldNovember 26, 1859

. . . “he avowed himself an abolitionist, and asserted that there were many in Norfolk and Portsmouth, but that they were afraid to say so; but he was free, white, and twenty one, and had no hesitation in declaring that if he had five hundred or five thousand dollars he would give one half of it for the release or rescue of John Brown.”The by-standers, were highly indignant at such language, and immediately had information of it lodged with [the Justice of the Peace] who thereupon issued his warrant for the apprehension of Fletcher.

Think about it

• What did John Fletcher do? What was the consequence?

• Should John Fletcher have been punished? Give your reasons why or why not.

“All we ask of strangers coming among us from those States is implicit obedience to our laws, be they good or evil in their eye: if they are not prepared to yield it, let them back up and quit our borders.”—Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald

If a law "is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.“ —Thoreau

What is the expectation of obeying the laws: By Thoreau? By the newspaper’s editor?

Which do you agree with:

Thoreau and the right to break the law in certain cases?

Or the newspaper article: the laws of your place of residence should be followed?

Mahala Doyle

• Moved to Kansas in 1855 with her husband and five children.

• Her husband was pro-slavery.

• On a night in May 1856, John Brown and a company of men took her husband and two eldest sons out of their house and murdered them.

• Brown was not arrested for the murders.

Mitchell's Sectional Map of Kansas, 1859. Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g4200.ct001346

“If Mr. Brown commited an error it was an error of the head—not of the heart. But Sir, "Too err is human. to

forgive divine." You have it in your power to prove you can be magnanamous to a

noble foe. do it—and the blessings of millions shall be yours—Fail to do it—and you shall have touched a chord that shall not cease to vibrate till ‘The bonds of

the oppressor shall be broken and the oppressed

go free.’”

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free

exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a

redress of grievances.

Detail from Constitution (Philadelphia: Printed by Dunlap & Claypoole), 1787, Rare Book and

Special Collections Division, Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention

Broadsides Collection, Library of Congress.