John Brown Frederick Douglas ABOLITIONISTS FRIENDS FRENEMIES John

John Brown & Frederick Douglas ABOLITIONISTS , FRIENDS, FRENEMIES

John Brown • Born in 1800 in rural Connecticut to a strict Calvinist family. • Farmer, laborer, ardent abolitionist • Member of the Underground Railroad and the League of Gileadlites • Believed in violence as a reasonable solution to ending slavery.

League of Gileadites • Hardcore, militant anti-slavery group • Founded as a response to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. • They were in Springfield , Massachusetts and swore to protect each other and all of the slaves that had escaped by force if necessary.

The League’s Creed • Be firm, determined, and cool; but let it be understood that you are not to be driven to desperation without making it an awful dear job to others as well as to you. • Give them to know distinctly that those who live in wooden houses should not throw fire, and that you are just as able to suffer as your white neighbors. After effecting a rescue, if you are assailed, go into the houses of your most prominent and influential white friends with your wives; and that will effectually fasten upon them the suspicion of being connected with you, and will compel them to make a common cause with you, whether they would otherwise live up to their profession or not. This would leave them no choice in the matter. Some would doubtless prove themselves true of their own choice; others would flinch. That would be taking them at their own words. • You may make a tumult in the court-room where a trial is going on, by burning gunpowder freely in paper packages, if you cannot think of any better way to create a momentary alarm, and might possibly give one or more of your enemies a hoist. But in such case the prisoner will need to take the hint at once, and bestir himself; and so should his friends improve the opportunity for a general rush. A lasso might possibly be applied to a slave-catcher for once with good effect. Hold on to your weapons, and never be persuaded to leave them, part with them, or have them far away from you. • Stand by one another and by your friends, while a drop of blood remains; and be hanged, if you must, but tell no tales out of school. Make no confession… The duty of the aged, infirm, and young members of the League shall be to give instant notice to all members in case of an attack upon any of our people.

Fugitive Slave Act of 1850

Fugitive Slave Act • Part of Compromise of 1850— • law forcibly compelled citizens to assist in the capture of runaway slaves. It also denied slaves the right to a jury trial and increased the penalty for interfering with the rendition process to $1000 (35, 000 today) and six months in jail. In order to ensure the statute was enforced, the 1850 law also placed control of individual cases in the hands of federal commissioners. These agents were paid more for returning a suspected slave than for freeing them, leading many to argue the law was biased in favor of Southern slaveholders. • The passage of the Fugitive Slave Acts resulted in many free blacks being illegally captured and sold into slavery.

John Brown • After the Pottawatomie Massacre, a force of pro-slavery men destroyed the Brown family farm and then participated in the Sack of Lawrence. • John Brown and his followers set up a “Free State” settlement in Palmyra, Kansas. He and his sons and followers fought back and forth with the Pro-Slavery forces even though he was greatly outnumbered. • In September of 1856 there was finally a truce between the sides and he went back East to work with the League and plan Harper’s Ferry.

Frederick Douglas • Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a range of causes, including women’s rights and Irish home rule. Among Douglass’s writings are several autobiographies eloquently describing his experiences in slavery and his life after the Civil War, including the wellknown work Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. He died on February 20, 1895.

Frederick Douglas • Frederick Douglas spent most of his life after he was freed fighting for the abolition of slavery • He went on speaking tours, wrote his book, wrote a news paper, the North Star • He was always about legal abolishment of the practice though.

Friendship & Frenemies • Frederick Douglas and John Brown met in 1847. • After the meeting Douglas said, "From this night spent with John Brown in Springfield, Mass. 1847 while I continued to write and speak against slavery, I became all the same less hopeful for its peaceful abolition. My utterances became more and more tinged by the color of this man's strong impressions. "

Frederick Douglas & Harper’s Ferry • However, by 1859, Douglass began to doubt that peaceful means could end slavery. Frederick Douglass met secretly with abolitionist John Brown who was planning to attack Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown planned to capture 100, 000 guns, free slaves, and start a war. Douglass decided not to join Brown, saying the attack would be a mistake. “Here we separated; he to go to Harper’s Ferry, I to [New York]. ” Being a part of the conspiracy, not the attack, Douglass himself had to flee to Canada.

Harper’s Ferry • In October 1859, the U. S. military arsenal at Harpers Ferry was the target of an assault by an armed band of abolitionists led by John Brown (1800 -59). (Originally part of Virginia, Harpers Ferry is located in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia near the convergence of the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. ) The raid was intended to be the first stage in an elaborate plan to establish an independent stronghold of freed slaves in the mountains of Maryland Virginia. Brown was captured during the raid and later convicted of treason and hanged, but the raid inflamed white Southern fears of slave rebellions and increased the mounting tension between Northern and Southern states before the American Civil War (1861 -65). Harper’s Ferry Video from the Smithsonian Channel

HARPERS FERRY RAID: OCTOBER 16 -18, 1859 • On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and his band overran the federal arsenal. Some of his men rounded up a handful of hostages, including a few slaves. Word of the raid spread and by the following day Brown and his men were surrounded. On October 18, a company of U. S. Marines, led by Colonel Robert E. Lee (1808 -70) and Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart (1833 -64), overran Brown and his followers. Brown was wounded and captured, while 10 of his men were killed, including two of his sons. John Brown’s Last Speech