I'm mr. beat I'm here in Osawatomie
Kansas in front of the John Brown Museum
John Brown that's right
the infamous abolitionist probably the
most infamous abolitionist in history he
moved to Kansas during the Bleeding
Kansas era he wanted Kansas to be a free
state he ended up killing people in the
name of ending slavery was John Brown a
hero or was he a terrorist but first
let's go back to the beginning John
Brown was born in Torrington Connecticut
on May 9th 1800
oh and Ruth Brown he was the fourth one
born of their eight kids no he didn't
look like that when he was a baby no one
knows what he looked like when he was a
baby silly Brown's family moved around a
lot when he was a kid but he spent most
of his youth in Ohio he had a very
religious upbringing Owen and Ruth also
raised John to absolutely hate slavery
at 16 years old he left his family and
went to Plainfield Massachusetts where
he studied to become a Congregationalist
minister ultimately though Brown went
into the same business as his dad he
raised cattle and worked as a Tanner you
know making leather from animal skins at
one point he was also a surveyor you
know checking out the land and stuff in
1820 he married Diane Thiel usk the
couple eventually had seven children
together and ended up settling in New
Richmond Pennsylvania this is what's
left of the tannery John Brown ran while
living there between 1825 and 1835 a
tannery was an important stop on the
Underground Railroad no it wasn't an
actual railroad yes silly goose the
Underground Railroad was just what they
called the secret network of routes and
safe houses used to aid runaway slaves
it's estimated that Brown helped more
than 2,500 slaves at that tannery the
1830s didn't begin so well for Brown in
1831 his four-year-old son Frederick
died Brown himself got really sick and
his businesses struggled causing him to
get in big debts the next year Diane
Theed died while giving birth to an
unnamed son who also died shortly
afterward clearly this was a local
and browns life but he soon met someone
new Mary Ann day she was 16 he was 32
they married on June 14th 1833
eventually they had 13 more kids
together although only six of them made
it to adulthood in 1836 the Browns moved
to what is now Kent Ohio the next year
after a pro-slavery mob murdered the
influential abolitionist elijah parish
Lovejoy
round stood up in the back of a church
and said quote here before God in the
presence of these witnesses from this
time I consecrate my life to the
destruction of slavery unquote meanwhile
in Ohio he had attempted again to
operate a tannery but struggle to make
money from it by 1839 he was again
heavily in debt and ended up losing his
farm and getting arrested when he
refused to give it up to its new owner
a federal court declared him bankrupt on
September 28th 1842 the next year four
of his kids died of dysentery around
this time Brown had taken an interest in
Sheep and Wool he partnered what they do
named Simon Perkins and became a
shepherd but he never made much money
from wool either in 1846 he returned to
New England convincing Perkins to come
with him and moving the family to
Springfield Massachusetts where the
whole abolitionist movement was starting
to take off Brown's experiences in
Springfield had a profound effect on him
it was there he got to see lectures by
two African American abolitionists who
had escaped slavery earlier in life
Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth
he also got to see the famous
abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison by
1850 the wool business had struggled
again and Brown had become more
radicalized than ever in other words now
increasingly Brown talked about violence
as the only solution to end slavery
Brown told folks that God had personally
selected him to lead a major slave
rebellion in response to the Fugitive
Slave Law passed that year as part of
the compromise
as of 1850 he created a militant group
to protect runaway slaves by this time
he and his family lived in North Elba
New York where a rich abolitionist named
Garret Smith actually gave away free
lands who African Americans at a farming
colony called Timbuktu Brown wanted to
assist blacks trying to establish new
communities in the area and Smith gave
him some land to farm while he did so
Brown was happy there but his attention
shifted back west after the passage of a
horrible law known as the
kansas-nebraska Act the law created the
territories of Kansas and Nebraska and
established popular sovereignty in both
territories allowing the settlers who
lived in both to decide whether or not
to have slavery there well five of John
Brown's sons John Brown jr. Jason Owen
frederick ii and salmon all decided to
get up and move to Kansas Territory to
help it become a free state not a slave
state they ended up near the town of
Osawatomie shortly after his sons
arrived in Kansas it became known as
quote bloody Kansas or quote Bleeding
Kansas due to the violence there between
anti-slavery folks and pro-slavery folks
trying to establish power there or more
about this violence you should most
definitely check out my video why Kansas
hates Missouri it was crazy man anyway
it was this violence that caused John
Brown himself to move out to Kansas
reason he ultimately came here was it
just said John Brown jr. I wrote him a
letter that stated you know father would
heat guns more than anything else
because they had come out here with a
rifle with a pistol in a shotgun and
that's all my brothers had between them
I mean he was a father worried about the
safety of his sons after all he got
there in the fall of 1855 along with his
son Oliver and son-in-law Henry Thompson
they all helped to make Kansas a free
State John Brown out of concern for his
family came out here and literally
stopped at four or five abolitionist
town
and gathered up enough weapons to show
up a wagon like I said earlier I'm in
front of the John Brown Museum and
inside that museum is the Adair cabin
Brown and his sons spent much time here
it was the home of Fleur Ella Adair
rounds half sister and her husband the
Reverend Samuel Adair they let John
Brown and his sons stay there sometimes
and they can come and go from here
because it was very close to a sodomy
which was an abolitionist stronghold the
original location of that cabinet was
about a mile from this location they
moved it here built a museum around it
and today you can still see how it
really looked later Brown added on an
addition as a place where runaway slaves
could stay but yeah this cabin became a
headquarters of source for Brown and his
sons keep in mind that at the time John
Brown moved to Kansas he was a nobody he
wasn't famous nobody knew who he was
until he started killing people killing
people yep that started in 1856 in May
21st of that year a group of pro-slavery
forces destroyed and looted much of
Lawrence one of the leading anti-slavery
towns in Kansas when Brown found out
about this he was angry very angry he
also was angry very angry after he heard
about Preston Brooks beating the crap
out of the anti-slavery Senator Charles
Sumner the day after the sacking of
Lawrence I have a video about that too
by the way Brown had had enough on the
night of May 24th and morning of May
25th he led a group of abolitionists who
dragged pro-slavery settlers out of
their homes and murdered them this is
the approximate location of where it
happened and it became known as the
Pottawatomie massacre Brown went into
hiding but Captain Henry pate captured
and arrested two of his sons John Brown
jr. and Jason and destroyed the family
homestead
on June 2nd round caught up to pate and
a group of Missourians he was leading
near what today is Baldwin City after
some fighting Brown and his forces
captured 22 of pâtés men and
held them for ransom Brown agreed to
release them after pate released his
sons this became known as the Battle of
blackjack
after this Brown and his sons went back
into hiding but continuing to lead
guerrilla attacks throughout
northeastern Kansas on August 30th
General John William read in between 250
and 400 pro-slavery forces attacked
Osawatomie despite being outnumbered
more than seven to one Brown and his
small group put up a good fight trying
to defend the town however they killed
Brown's son Frederick the second and
ultimately took the town over looting
and burning it to the ground still Brown
emerged as an abolitionist hero after
that battle the violence calmed down
quite a bit in the fall and Brown and
three of his sons returned back east to
try to raise money for the abolitionist
cause for the next two years he not only
raised money but gathered weapons he was
planning something big he returned to
Kansas in the summer of 1858 to continue
leading raids and freeing slaves he also
spent some time in Iowa but ultimately
ended up back east to carry out a plan
he had in his head for decades he wanted
to raid the southern slave states to
free all the slaves it was ambitious it
was crazy it was totally John Brown
Brown even wrote a constitution for the
area in the southern slave states war
after he took them over his constitution
called for things like direct elections
of the President and vice-presidents
working on roads and other public
projects as a punishment for crimes and
the banning of quotes profane swearing
filthy conversation indecent behavior
indecent exposure of the person and
unlawful intercourse of the sexes
unquote while Brown got several
delegates to sign his constitution he
struggled to get volunteers to join his
forces throughout 1859 he traveled the
continent trying to get people to help
him with his planned invasion he tried
to get Frederick Douglass to join him
but Douglass politely declined at one
point the Harriet Tubman joined him to
help gather up more former slaves to
join his forces soon Brown
had his eyes on Harpers Ferry Virginia
which today is in West Virginia as the
place where he wanted to begin the
rebellion his plan was to raid a federal
Arsenal there and use the weapons from
the Arsenal to give to local slaves so
that they could then help with the
uprising well spoiler alerts that plan
would fail miserably
first of all round could only gather 21
men to help him raid the Arsenal on the
rainy nights of October 16 1859 Brown
and his men did easily take over the
Arsenal which was guarded by just one
dude they even cut telegraph lines and
rounded up hostages who were nearby
however the next day the Virginia
militia arrived in surround of them
Brown's insurrection was already failing
by the end of the day eight of his men
were dead or dying two of the dead were
Brown's son's Watson and Oliver five
others were separated from the main
group two had been captured and two it
escaped across the Potomac River Brown's
men did end up killing four people the
next day federal troops arrived under
the command of robert e lee and had
surrounded Brown and his remaining men
in an engine house which today is known
as john brown's fort brown refused to
surrender apparently now wanting to be a
martyr at that spot however he would be
a martyr later on at a different spot
the Marines swept in and captured him
along with seven others they were
quickly put on trial for murder
conspiracy and treason against Virginia
it was a quick trial on November 2nd
just a couple weeks after the raid the
jury found Brown guilty on all three
counts the judge sentenced him to be
hanged in public Brown received little
sympathy from most Americans even most
abolitionists distanced themselves from
him saying he was too extreme and that
this was not the way to end slavery man
William Lloyd Garrison called the raid
votes misguided wild and apparently
insane on the morning of his death he
wrote these foreboding words quotes I
John Brown
now quite certain that the crimes of
this guilty land will never be purged
away but with blood many historians
point to his raid on Harpers Ferry as a
big cause of the American Civil War by
the way John Wilkes Booth the famous
actor who later assassinated Abraham
Lincoln snuck into Brown's execution
major Thomas Stonewall Jackson who
became famous later during the American
Civil War which by the way started a
year and a half later also was there he
wrote later that day quotes John Brown
was hung today at about 11 and 1/2 a.m.
he behaved with unflinching firmness
Brown died at 59 years old he was buried
at his old farm in upstate New York and
you can visit his tomb today at what is
now John Brown Farm State Historic Site
like I said John Brown was mostly seen
unfavorably at the time of his death by
both northerners and southerners however
many African American leaders of the
time and later greatly respected him
often referring to him as a martyr for
the cause of ending slavery it wasn't
until the 1970s that the image of John
Brown as a hero made a huge comeback for
those other than African Americans today
however the debate still goes on was
John Brown a hero or a terrorist if you
look at both sides of the issue he was
two groups of terrorists attacking each
other so by our modern definition yes he
was by their definition he was a
guerrilla fighter at the time if you're
going to be fair to John Brown and even
even be fair to the pro-slavery
guerrillas they were guerrilla fighters
I did all Twitter this question last
week and most said he was a hero but
what do you think Neal and Grayson two
of my amazing former students had pretty
good replies why not
antihero or why not both
a shout-out to CJ cavi a patreon
supporter who suggested this video topic
finally I got to make a video about John
Brown also if you want your video topic
suggestion heard yeah you just got
donated on patreon at least at the $15 a
month level or higher that's the Grover
Cleveland level speaking of that level
or higher here is my monthly shout-out
to my patreon supporters Matt Standish
Andrew Schneider JoJo's doc tell Sean
Conant unnamed muffin Austin Rudolph
Zachary F Parker L Caspar Eric V woman
Chris John Johnson Alicia Solberg kit
Walker and president storms thank you
all for your support and thank you for
watching this video