What was John Browns raid Why was it important

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What was John Browns raid? Why was it important?
Written by Mrs. EdwardsAugust 2004
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Legend
Narrator 1
Frederick Douglass
Narrator 2
Abraham Lincoln
John Brown
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John Brown wasnt brown. He was white and
maybe a little crazy. Well, his mother was crazy
and so people thought he was too. It wasnt just
because of his mother either! He did some
strange things.
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Hi, there! Its 1855. Im John Brown and I have
just moved here to Kansas with my five grown-up
sons. Were here to fight against the big
proslavery movement that is going on here.
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Good day! I am Frederick Douglass. I used to be
a slave, but now I spend my time speaking against
slavery. I am a famous orator. An orator is a
speaker. Thats me!
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Hey, Frederick Douglass, Ive got a great plan!
Im planning a huge slave rebellion. All of the
ex-slaves can create their own state. It will be
up in the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland.
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Well, John, I dont believe in violence, and you
have already killed three people because they
were proslavery. You killed a farmer and his two
sons. I am totally against slavery, but I am
also against violence.
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In 1859 John Brown decided that the thing to do
was to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers
Ferry in Virginia. You know, an arsenal is a
bunch of weapons like guns and cannons and stuff.
This was a federal arsenal. That means that it
belonged to the federal governmentthe United
States of America!!
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Frederick, we need to get all of these weapons
from the Harpers Ferry Arsenal. Id like to just
move into your house for a little while. We can
talk about how we can do this together.
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You can move in, but Im not in on this with you.
You wont come out of this alive. You better
think about what youre doing!
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That John Brown managed to talk 22 men into
helping him with that raid. Frederick Douglas
wasnt one of them. Some of the men who helped
him were black. Some were white. You know
what!! John Brown and his men captured Harpers
Ferry Arsenal too!
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Heres a news bulletin for you! The United
States Government didnt say, Oh, thats fine,
John Brown. You can just have Harpers Ferry
Arsenal. No problem. No, no, no. The
government sent Robert E. Lee with some marines
to surround the arsenal and then capture or kill
John Browns little army.
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John Brown, himself, was captured and tried. He
was sentenced to be hanged.
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Yes, and I had to leave the country! I went to
Canada and then on to England. Even though I had
tried to talk John Brown out of his plans, people
just remembered that we were friends, and I was
blamed too! You just have to be careful who your
friends are.
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This government cant endure with half the people
wanting slavery to be legal and half the people
wanting everyone to be free. It is going to have
to be one or the other for everyone.
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John Browns raid divided the country even more.
The northerners were sad and mad that Virginia
had executed John Brown even though he was so
extreme and was a murderer. The fact that the
northerners thought John Brown was a martyr made
Virginia and the southern states mad. The
country was split in two just like a watermelon!
It was ready for a civil war!
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Works Cited
"Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)." (The Library of
Congress ).Discovering Collection. Gale. TULSA
COUNTY ISD 1. 12 June 2008 lthttp//find.galegroup
.com/srcx/infomark.do?contentSetGS RCtyperetri
evetabIDT001prodIdDCdocIdEJ221000 8977sourc
egalesrcprodDISCuserGroupNametuls2293 1versi
on1.0gt. "Douglass, Frederick." (The Library of
Congress ).Discovering Collection. Gale. TULSA
COUNTY ISD 1. 12 June 2008 lthttp//find.galegroup
.com/srcx/infomark.do?contentSetG SRCtyperetri
evetabIDT001prodIdDCdocIdEJ221 0006175sourc
egalesrcprodDISCuserGroupNametul s22931versi
on1.0gt.
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Edwards, Judith. Abolitionists and Slave
Resistance Breaking the Chains of Slavery .
1st. Berkeley Heights, NJ Enslow,
2004. Stewart, James Brewer. "Brown, John."
Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2008. Grolier
Online. 12 June 2008 lthttp//gme.grolier.com/cgi
-bin/article?assetid0043990-0gt.