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| Sunday, 19 June 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Famous trials that shook
the world :
The trial of John Brown by Lionel Wijesiri
Martyr, madman, murderer or hero: John Brown remains one of American history's most controversial and misunderstood figures. In the 1850s, he and his ragtag guerrilla group embarked on a righteous crusade against slavery that was based on religious faith, yet carried out with shocking violence. His execution set off a chain of events that led to the American Civil War. John Brown was born on May 9, 1800 and was raised by his parents under strict religious and moral principles. When he was five-years-old, his family left their hometown and moved to Hudson, Ohio. Here his abhorrence of slavery became very strong. Personally witnessing the abuse of a young black slave, he is said to have pledged, 'to wage an eternal war against slavery.' While living in Hudson, John Brown married his first wife, and began raising a family. He married again later in life after his first wife died, and in all fathered twenty children, twelve surviving past childhood. He ingrained all his children with his fierce anti-slavery passion. There was never much money in the Brown households. He and his family raised some of their food, and they kept sheep. John provided a meagre income by dressing out leather. But his focus was always on the abolition of slavery. During the period 1834 and 1848, Brown organised anti-slave-minded citizens into groups in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Massachusetts and North Elba. His belief was that the more groups he organise, the sooner the slave states would have to recognise the trend and adopt emancipation. By 1848 Jonn Brown had become widely known in abolitionist circles, and he began receiving contributions from these supporters. This support enabled John Brown to travel more frequently, organising resistance to slavery. Meanwhile, in Washington, pro-slavery advocates were controlling the Senate, the Supreme Court, and even the White House. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was approved by the Congress. The Act gave bounty hunters in the South the right to hunt down runaway slaves - anywhere. Still, the South kept pressuring Congress to open up new lands to slavery. As a result The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854 giving settlers the right to decide by vote whether their territories would be slave or free. (For years, slavery had been barred from the territories of Kansas and Nebraska). By 1855, Brown began to realise that his vow was still unfulfilled. He was exhausted, and all he wanted, he said, was to 'lay my bones to rest.' But a thousand miles away, history was waiting for him, in Kansas. On March 30, 1855, pro-slavery forces invaded Kansas. A horde of 5000 heavily armed Missourians - known as the 'Border Ruffians' - rode into the territory. From then on, prison awaited any man who spoke out against slavery. The abolitionists were outnumbered and outgunned. Brown eventually decided to move to Kansas. He took with him guns and ammunitions, which he had collected from sympathetic free-state committees. In the evening of May 24, 1856, Brown, and seven others killed with broadswords five settlers who were presumed to be pro-slavery on Pottawatomie Creek, and on June 2, Brown led a successful attack on a band of Missourians led by Captain Henry Pate, who came to arrest him. John Brown's struggle with pro-slavery forces in Kansas brought him national attention, and he became a hero to many Northern abolitionists. That autumn, Brown went into hiding and engaged in guerrilla activities. The October elections that year saw a free-state victory for Kansas. Brown made his men return. Over the next few months he travelled again through Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts to draw up more support for the cause. Brown began thinking seriously of a plan to create a fugitive slave colony. He envisioned a colony that was well armed, able to defend itself in the event of an attack. He also thought that if he could establish such a base, then more and more fugitive slaves would join, and further weaken the slave holders' positions. The military had an arsenal depot at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Brown developed a plan to capture the arsenal, and late on October 16, 1859, he and his band of recruits, put their plan into action. At first, the raid went like clockwork. The arsenal, with its huge stockpile of guns, was protected by just one guard. He quickly surrendered. The news raced out straight to Washington. Then, Browns' plans went astray. No spontaneous army of slaves had come to join him, as expected; instead, the enemy was gathering. At noon, a company of Virginia militiamen stormed into town. They charged over the bridge, and the only true escape route was gone. After 12 hours, John Brown's revolution was coming apart. Nine invaders were dead. Five others were cut off, isolated. Two had escaped across the river. Brown gathered those who were left in a small brick building, the engine house. On the morning of October 18, Marines stormed the building. Brown was then beaten unconscious. For most of the day, Brown lay bound and bleeding, listening to a lynch mob howl outside. Just seven days after the raid, the wounded John Brown had to be helped into the courthouse in Charlestown. The trial took less than a week. Brown's lawyer tried to have him declared insane. Brown rose up on his cot to denounce the idea that he was mad. On November 2, the jury, after deliberating for just 45 minutes, reached its verdict. Guilty of murder. Guilty of treason. Guilty of inciting slave insurrection. On December 2, 1859, John Brown was executed. But his last words would not be forgotten. 'I am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood.' Less than a year-and-a-half later, the American Civil War broke out. John Brown began the war that ended American slavery and made America a free Republic. And that makes him so tragically revealing and emblematic of American history and of their culture. |
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