"John Brown in One Word" Topic

Brown was convicted and executed for incitement of a slave rebellion and his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. What single word best describes him?

* revolutionary
* terrorist
* abolitionist
* martyr
* visionary
* hero
* icon
etc.

Terrorist.

Could have used other words for the list. Radical. Crazy. Insurrectionist. Seems most of the words on list describe him positively.

Yes, terrorist. Good objectives, bad methodology.

Seems most of the words on list describe him positively.

I grabbed a variety from the Wikipedia article.

loony

Socio-psychopathic…

Bellwether

I'd go with Abolitionist.

But hero fits too. The Union soldiers did sing songs about him!

I didn't know anything about him until I read the Harpers Ferry (Osprey Raid) book. It was very informative, and I highly recommend it. Prior to reading it, all I knew was the crazed looking picture in all the history textbooks.

Abolitionist

Icon – could have also gone with mouldering.

Grandson had to write a report on him. thesis: hero or terrorist? Grandson said both but should have added madman.

Saw what you did there , 20th maine. ;)

Terrorist of the most dangerous kind. Murderer would also fit.

Lunatic is the first word that springs to mind, but perhaps zealot is better

I think the best quote about him is from The Good Lord Bird – "the captain was nuttier than a squirrel's "

Flashman's take was that he was a: ‘… sincere, worthy, autocratic, good-natured, terrible, dangerous old zealot, hard as nails, iron-willed, brave beyond belief, and possessed of all the muscular Christian virtues which I can't stand.'

Terrorist

Zealot, murderer, lunatic, terrorist

"On the night of May 24, 1856, Brown led a raiding party of four of his sons, his son-in-law, and two other men to Pottawatomie Creek. For the most part, this raid was unplanned and almost spontaneous. Brown acted in retaliation for a raid on the free state settlement at Lawrence, the killings of free state settlers in Kansas, and persistent threats by the proslavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek. Brown and his men entered three cabins, interrogated a number of men, and eventually killed five of them, all with swords and knives. Some were killed quickly, while others, who resisted, were cut in many places. Brown and his men then departed."

Hamas would be proud. I rank him right there with "Bloody Bill Anderson". There were lots like them.

Well – since he achieved his aim – the end of the blight of slavery in the democratic USA then Freedom Fighter would also be appropriate. But that's two words….

It would take three: loony, murderous abolitionist.

Is one man's terrorist simply another man's freedom fighter? Or is that old maxim too cynical?

Blount, freedom fighter is about cause, terrorist is about methodology.

His Cause was just--unlike the true terrorist who blows up civilians in order to further the cause of genocide of someone else.

But killing for the "greater cause" is still murder, and Old John Brown clearly crossed the line that only helped widen the yawning divide between North and South.

If his cause was vindicated, we can't approve of his methods.

Personally, I've never had such sympathy for a murdering nut job who should have been on someone's "Watch List."

TVAG

I second Glengarry5. Hw was crazy

I think zealot is the most appropriate description, as the parallels between himself and the original, Biblical zealots are spot on. Both were obviously willing to use extreme measures to pursue a noble cause, but he were also intolerant and scornful of those who did not hold with their violent methods. Their extremism made it nearly impossible to form substantial relationships with allies and would-be allies. And finally, they were ultimately more useful as martyrs and examples than as participants.

Abolitionist

Hamas, hezbollah, Isis, all believe they have a cause and believe they are freedom fighters. They are obviously freedom fighters to others as well. They believe in their cause and believe God ordains it. Civilian deaths are of no consequence. What they do to their perceived enemies, is justified by God. They are doing Gods work on earth. They believe there is a better place for them if they martyr themselves to perform gods work on earth.

Sounds pretty much like John Brown to me.

"In 1856, three years before his celebrated raid on Harpers Ferry, John Brown, with four of his sons and three others, dragged five unarmed men and boys from their homes along Kansas's Pottawatomie Creek, and hacked and dismembered their bodies as if they were cattle being butchered in a stockyard. Two years later, Brown led a raid into Missouri, where he and his followers killed a planter and freed eleven slaves. Brown's party also absconded with wagons, mules, harnesses, and horses – a pattern of plunder that Brown followed in other forays. During his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, seventeen people died. "The first was a black railroad baggage handler"; others shot and killed by Brown's men included the town's popular mayor and two townsfolk."

I'll stick to: "Zealot, murderer, lunatic, terrorist", for John and all the others.

On the other hand…the owning of people, the breaking up of families, the raping and beatings, the lynchings when "property" had the temerity to run away….are these not crimes of equal scale being perpetrated on millions with the Conivence of the not enslaved population?

Against the enormity of these crimes John Brown was barely getting started.

Since the thread is on opinion of JB, I'll stick to judgements of him.

How he planned to lead his revolution was by killing the planter class. That is men, women and children. Yeah, he is a hero alright.

+1 35thOVI

Ghoul.

A lot depends on how abhorrent you find slavery and oppression.

The people of his time (in the north anyway) saw him as a martyr or hero.
Interestingly, It was only later generations that painted him differently, when the Civil War began to be redefined.

Some people in the North saw him that way. Not the majority. The Republican Party condemned his actions. As did most politicians and leaders in the North. Only abolitionists really saw him as a martyr.

"A lot depends on how abhorrent you find slavery and oppression.

The people of his time (in the north anyway) saw him as a martyr or hero."

Interestingly as I've said before, Hamas, Isis and other Islamic fundamentalist terrorists feel the same way about the Jews of Israel(their occupation of Muslim land is abhorrent). They believe their cause is just and approved by Allah. Whatever they do to accomplish their goal, rape, torture, live burnings, beheading, killing, is all ok, as long as it is for the greater goal.

Many in the Middle East, and other Muslim countries, as well as many on our college campuses and cities see them as martyrs and heroes.

So, does that make what they do ok?

I'm sure Bloody Bill Anderson and Quantrill believed what they did was for a greater cause, freedom from the perceived oppression of the evil Unionists. Their horrendous acts, were therefore justified in their own minds and in those who viewed them as heroes of the Confederacy.

They were no different than Brown and his men, in my opinion.

Let's ask someone who was actually there, instead of doing some weird 21st century moral equivalency exercise. It makes the answer a lot simpler.

Letter of Mahala Doyle to John Brown, when he was in jail awaiting execution, November 20, 1859: "Altho vengence is not mine, I confess, that I do feel gratified to hear that you ware stopt in your fiendish career at Harper's Ferry, with the loss of your two sons, you can now appreciate my distress, in Kansas, when you then and there entered my house at midnight and arrested my husband and two boys and took them out of the yard and in cold blood shot them dead in my hearing, you cant say you done it to free our slaves, we had none and never expected to own one, but has only made me a poor disconsolate widow with helpless children while I feel for your folly. I do hope & trust that you will meet your just reward. O how it pained my Heart to hear the dying groans of my Husband and children if this scrawl give you any consolation you are welcome to it.
NB [postscript] my son John Doyle whose life I begged of (you) is now grown up and is very desirous to be at Charleston [Charles Town] on the day of your execution would certainly be there if his means would permit it, that he might adjust the rope around your neck if Gov. Wise would permit it."[6]

How about "conflicted"?

I am disgusted that anyone would suggest that people here who dislike Brown or condemn him somehow don't find slavery and oppression abhorrent. That is a vile slander of everyone here.
I can hold that slavery was and still is vile and abhorrent and also think that Brown's motivations regarding it are not sufficient to redeem him from the fact that he was a bloody-minded, blood-lusting, disgusting, evil fanatic. The two positions are not contradictory, and weren't back then, either.

Bearded?

Instigator

Most of those in the north were revolted by what John Brown sought to do at Harper's Ferry until Virginia decided to seek to execute him. Some sources suggest Virginia officials were hoping to have Brown declared insane, but Brown frustrated that effort.

"Against the enormity of these crimes John Brown was barely getting started."

And thus October 7th is justified.

Criminal…his beliefs don't enter into it for me because he took the path of murdering people.

Since slavery was finally abolished I suppose another word would be:

successful

He achieved exactly what he set out to do…

zealot

" He achieved exactly what he set out to do…"

Cause a massive bloodbath of a war? Yeah, he did that, I guess.

Me, I favor peaceful, Constitutional resolutions of disagreements, not bloody, violent upheaval.

Zealot. Covers a broad range of sins…

If Brown was a terrorist, then so was Washington.

Nut

Mouldering

Let's forget Harper's Ferry for a minute.
Let's go back to Kansas and he is nothing but a cold blooded murderer.
And I'm saying this as a True Blue Yankee Abolitionist.

ĹUNÀTIC!!!