John Brown saw himself as a tool that God Himself was going to use to wipe out slavery in the American South. Following his raid in Kansas in 1856, he had been devising a plan to purify the entire South through an armed slave rebellion that he himself would lead. John Brown believed that "without shedding of blood there is no remission of sins" (MacPherson, 117). Also, with all of the recent victories for Southern slave-holders (Kansas-Nebraska Act, Dred Scott decision, etc.) Brown thought that "violent counterstroke was the only answer" (Ibid., 117).
Brown persuaded many abolitionists to support is ideas, and Frederick Douglas was one Brown attempted to recruit. Douglass, the night before Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, failed in an attempt to persuade Brown not to go forward with his plan. Brown's plan was this: Capture the Federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, seize all the weapons there, and arm thousands of slaves who were to join him. Brown recruited 17 white and five black men to comprise of his "army."
On Oct. 16, 1859, Brown and his men captured the unguarded arsenal, but then he had no idea what to do next. He waited for the thousands of slaves to join him, but because he sent out little word to them, only a handful actually showed up. The word of the arsenal's capture spread rapidly, and during the night of Oct. 17-18, Brown's men were surrounded by marines commanded by Robert E. Lee and J.E.B. Stuart. Brown refused to surrender, and the marines were forced to storm the building they had surrounded. In all, three local men and several of Brown's followers, including two of his sons, and a total of 17 men had been killed. John Brown's attempt at insurrection had failed
What Brown did not fail in doing was provoking violent uprising. His raid was as much of a cause of the Civil War as anything else, for it was the first nationally known uprising of its kind. And after his execution, those who believed him a saint now saw him as a martyr, and killing him was another opportunity for abolitionists in the North to gain strength.
Source Used: Ordeal By Fire, James MacPherson, 1991.
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