A Nation Divided
Black Moderates And Black Militants
On the eve of the Revolution there was justification for assuming that
slavery in the Northern states was withering away. By 1800 most of the
Northern states had either done away with slavery or had made provision
for its gradual abolition. Although this might not change the status of
an adult slave, he knew his children, when they reached maturity, would
be free. This meant that the important issue in the North was that of
identity. What would be the place of Negroes who were not fully accepted
as Americans? While Northern states were willing to grant freedom to the
Afro-Americans, they continued to view them as inferiors. Many observers
remarked that race prejudice actually increased with the abolition of
slavery. Northern freedmen concluded, like their slave brothers in the
South, that they would have to work out their own salvation. This left
them to wrestle with such questions as: "Am I an American?" "Am I an
African?" "Am I inferior?" "How can I establish my manhood and gain
acceptance?"
In the years immediately preceding the Revolution, there were slaves who
had wrestled with some of these questions: Jupiter Hammon and Phillis
Wheatley. They tried to establish their claim to manhood through literary
ability. Both were poets and wrote romantic poetry in the spirit of the
day. In 1761 Jupiter Hammon, a Long Island slave, published his poem: "An
Evening Thought. Salvation by Christ with Penitential Cries". Twelve
years later Phillis Wheatley published a slim volume of poetry which was
written in a style much like that of Alexander Pope. Born in Africa in
1753, she had been brought to America as a child and had served in the
Wheatley home in Boston. When she displayed some literary ability, her
master granted freedom to her and, to some extent, became her patron. Her
volume of poetry was published while she was visiting England and is
generally considered superior to the poetry of Jupiter Hammon. Although
on one occasion Hammon did suggest that slavery was evil, he instructed
slaves to bear it with patience. Neither he nor Phillis Wheatley made any
direct challenge to race prejudice. Instead, they strove to gain
acceptance as talented individuals who might help others of their race to
improve their situation. Unfortunately, white society regarded them only
as unusual individual exceptions and continued to maintain its racial
views.
Gustavus Vassa was born in Africa in 1745 and was brought to America as a
slave. Eventually, after serving several masters, he became the property
of a Philadelphia merchant who let him buy his own freedom. After
working for some time as a sailor, he settled in England, where he felt
he would encounter less racial discrimination. There he became an active
worker in the British anti-slavery movement. In 1789 he published his
autobiography, "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Oloudah Equiano,
or Gustavus Vassa", in which he bitterly attacked Christians for
participating in the slave trade.
In 1792, Benjamin Banneker, a freedman from Maryland, wrote to Thomas
Jefferson complaining that it was time to eradicate false racial
stereotypes. While expressing doubts regarding the merits of slavery in
his "Notes on Virginia", Jefferson had expressed his belief in the
inferiority of the African. Banneker had educated himself, especially in
mathematics and astronomy, and in 1789 he was one of those who helped to
survey the District of Columbia. Later, he predicted a solar eclipse. In
1791 he had begun the publication of a series of almanacs, and the next
year he sent one of these to Jefferson in an attempt to challenge his
racial views. Jefferson was so impressed with the work that he sent it
to the French Academy of Science. However, he seemed to view Banneker as
an exception rather than fresh evidence undermining white stereotypes.
In Massachusetts Paul Cuffe was rapidly becoming a black capitalist.
After having worked as a sailor, he managed to buy a business of his own.
Over the years, he came to own considerable property in Boston, and
eventually he had an entire fleet of ships sailing along the Atlantic
coast, visiting the Caribbean and crossing the ocean to Africa. During
the Revolution, he and his brother, both of whom owned property and paid
taxes, raised the question of political rights. Claiming "no taxation
without representation", they both refused to pay their taxes because
they were denied the ballot. Their protest led Massachusetts to permit
blacks to vote on the same basis as whites. Nevertheless, over the years
Cuffe developed reservations about the future of the African in America.
In 1815, at his own expense, he transported thirty-eight blacks back to
Africa. This was one of the first attempts at African colonization.
Apparently the costs and other problems surrounding the project were so
great that he never pursued it further.
As it became increasingly apparent that the end of slavery would not mean
the end of discrimination, cooperative action by Afro-Americans seemed to
be the only basis from which to gain acceptance, and in 1775 the African
Lodge No. 459, the first Afro-American Masonic lodge in America, was
founded. Prince Hall, its founder, was born in Barbados and came to
America with the idea of identifying himself with Afro-Americans. He
became a minister in the Methodist Church, where he dedicated himself to
their advancement. However, he concluded that only through working
together through black cooperation, could any progress be made. After
being refused recognition by the American masons, his lodge was
legitimized by a branch of the British Masons connected with army
stationed in Boston. Before long African lodges as well as other
fraternal organizations sprang up all across the country. Denied access
to white society, blacks found it necessary to form various kinds of
organizations for their own welfare.
Even within the church which supposedly stressed brotherhood, separate
African organizations were emerging. During the revolution, George Liele
founded a black Baptist church in Savannah, Georgia. Although similar
churches sprang up throughout the South, the independent church movement
progressed more rapidly in the Northern states. In 1786 Richard Allen,
who had previously purchased his freedom from his Delaware master, began
similar meetings among his own people in Philadelphia. He wanted to found
a separate black church, but he was opposed by Blacks and whites alike.
However, when the officials of St. George's Methodist Church proposed
segregating the congregation, events came to a head. Richard Allen,
Absalom Jones, and others went to the gallery as directed, but the ushers
even objected to their sitting in the front seats of the gallery. When
they were pulled from their knees during prayer, Allen and his friends
left the church, never to return. They immediately formed the Free
African Society and began collecting funds to build a church. This
resulted in the founding of St. Thomas' African Protestant Episcopal
Church headed by Absalom Jones. In spite of the behavior of the
Methodists, Allen believed that Methodism was better suited to his
people's style of worship and gradually he collected a community of
followers. In 1794 the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church was
opened in Philadelphia. In 1816 several A.M.E. congregations met
together to form a national organization with Allen as its bishop.
Similar events in New York City led to the establishment of the African
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Early in 1807 a black Baptist Church was
founded in Philadelphia, and later in that same year congregations were
established in Boston and New York. The New York congregation developed
into the Abyssinian Baptist Church.
The African church became the most important organization within the
Afro-American community. Besides providing spiritual strength and
comfort, it became a community institution, a center for social,
political, and economic life. The minister became the most important
leader of his people. However, the full potential for organizing protest
was overlooked. For the most part, the church taught an other-worldly
religion which strove to provide strength with which to endure the
sorrows of this life, but it did not try too actively to change the
situation. Richard Allen, for example, counseled patience and caution,
advising his people to wait for God to work in His own way. In the
meantime, the Christian was to practice obedience to God and to his
master. Most of the clergy stuck to religious matters and avoided
political questions. However, there were those who took an active part
in politics, and they became leaders in the abolition movement and in the
Negro Convention movement. They included men like Samuel Ringgold Ward
and Henry Highland Garnet.
Another manifestation of group solidarity occurred in the Negro
Convention Movement which began in 1830 and continued until the Civil
War. These meetings brought together leaders from Afro-American
communities throughout the North. They debated important problems,
developed common policies, and spoke out with a united voice. They
consistently urged the abolition of slavery in the Southern states, and
they condemned the legal and social discrimination which was rampant
throughout the North. At the 1843 convention in Buffalo, N.Y., Henry
Highland Garnet tried to persuade the movement to declare violence an
acceptable tool in the destruction of slavery. However, by a vote of 19
to 15, the movement continued to oppose violence and to limit its power
to an appeal based on moral persuasion.
Besides the Convention Movement, there were two other means of achieving
broad leadership. This was still an age of oratory. Frederick Douglass,
William Wells Brown, Sojourner Truth, and many others traveled from town
to town and state to state giving lectures to both black and white
audiences. Also, they exploited the press to reach even larger numbers.
Some of the more famous autobiographies written at this time were those
of Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Austin Steward, and Josiah
Henson, all of whom recorded the horrors of slavery as well as the
humiliations of racial discrimination.
One of the most vehement attacks against slavery and discrimination was
"Walker's Appeal in Four Articles Together with a Preamble to the Colored
Citizens of the World But in Particular and Very Particularly to those of
the United States of America". Although his father had been a slave,
David Walker himself was born free in North Carolina. His hatred of
slavery drove him to Boston, where he became a clothing merchant, but he
was unable to forget his brethren who were still in bondage. The result
was that in 1829, he published a pamphlet which was both a vehement
attack against the institution of slavery and an open invitation for the
slaves to rise up in arms.
First, he pointed out that all races of the earth were called men and
assumed to be free with the sole exception of the Africans. He denied
that his people wished to be white, insisting rather that they preferred
to be just as their creator had made them. Urging his brothers not to
show fear because God was on their side, Walker contended that any man
who was not willing to fight for his freedom deserved to remain in
slavery and to be butchered by his captors. Insisting that death was
preferable to slavery, he insisted that, if an uprising occurred, the
slaves would have to be willing to kill or be killed. Moreover, he urged
that it was no worse to kill a man in self-defense than it was to take a
drink of water when thirsty. Rather, a man who would not defend himself
was worse than an infidel, and not deserving of pity.
In addressing the American people, Walker foresaw that if they would
treat Africans as men, they could all live together in harmony. Georgia
offered $10,000 for Walker if taken alive and $1,000 for him dead. A year
later Walker died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, and some
claimed that he had been murdered. His pamphlet circulated widely
throughout the North and the South, and many believed that it helped to
encourage slave insurrections.
"Freedoms Journal", which had been founded in 1827 by Samuel E. Cornish
and John B. Russwurm, was the first in a long series of Afro-American
newspapers. Russwurm had been the first of his race to receive a college
degree in America. In their first editorial, they proclaimed what was
becoming a growing conviction. They said that others had spoken for the
black man for too long. It was time that he spoke for himself. They also
attacked slavery and racial prejudice. They strove to make the paper a
medium for communication and debate within the Afro-American community.
They also intended to use the paper to clarify misconceptions about
Africa. Like many of their contemporaries, Cornish and Russwurm believed
that even those who were friendly to their race were unconsciously
steeped in prejudice. Therefore, it was doubly necessary for
Afro-Americans to speak out for themselves, to expose the prejudices of
bigots and liberals. However, by 1829 Russwurm had become increasingly
bitter about the future of his race in America and came to believe that
returning to Africa was the only way to escape prejudice. He believed
that the colony which had been established in Liberia was in need of
educated leadership, and he went there to become its superintendent of
education. Cornish remained behind and continued to work as a minister
and as a newspaper editor.
The "North Star", later known as Frederick Douglass's paper, was the best
known of the black journals. Its editor, Frederick Douglass, was born a
slave in Maryland in 1817. His mother was a slave named Harriet Bailey,
and the identity of his white father remains unknown. He was raised by
his maternal grandmother on a distant farm and almost never saw his
mother. Like many slaves, he was denied a father, almost denied a mother,
and largely denied any meaningful identity. After working for several
years as a slave both on the plantation and in the city, he determined to
run away. Although an earlier attempt had failed, he now made his way
north to New Bedford, Massachusetts. There he was shocked to discover
that, while some whites gave him protection and help, race prejudice was
still rampant. A skilled craftsman, he was unable to find work. When an
employer was willing to accept him, his fellow workers threatened to walk
off the job. For the next three years, he worked as servant, coachman,
and common laborer earning about a dollar a day.
Then, he met William Lloyd Garrison, the famous white abolitionist, who
was impressed with his slave experiences and his ability to describe
them. At one meeting, after Douglass had spoken, Garrison asked the
audience whether this was a beast or a man. Douglass soon became a
regular lecturer in the abolitionist movement. As he traveled throughout
the North, he was continually harassed by racial discrimination in
trains, coaches, boats, restaurants hotels, and other public places. In
contrast, when he went to England to raise funds for the movement, he was
struck by the fact that he could go any place, including places
frequented by the aristocracy, and be accepted as a man. He said that
wherever he went in England he could always identify an American because
his race prejudice clung to him like clothing. While in England,
abolitionists raised funds which allowed him to purchase his freedom.
When he returned to America, Douglass settled in Rochester, New York,
where he began publication of "The North Star". Rochester was a thriving
city on the Erie Canal, and, because it also had a port on Lake Ontario,
it became an important terminal on the Underground Railroad. While many
runaways settled in Rochester, others boarded steamers for Canada where
they would be beyond the reach of the law. Douglass came to play an
important role on the Underground Railroad, in the life of Rochester and,
through "The North Star", among Northern freedmen. Garrison felt
double-crossed when his most important cohort in the Afro-American
community struck out on his own. Douglass, in agreement with the position
previously taken by Cornish and Russwurm, believed that blacks must
assume leadership in their own cause.
Before long, "The North Star" was recognized as the voice of the black
man in America. Douglass spoke out on all issues through its pages, and
he continued to tour the country lecturing before audiences of both
colors and discussing matters of policy with other abolitionists. He did
not believe in merely exercising patience and obedience. Rather, he
believed it was necessary to prick the white man's conscience with moral
persuasion. His tactics combined nonviolence with self-assertion.
Although the Constitution had indirectly recognized slavery, Douglass
believed that its spirit, as well as that of the American Revolution,
implied the eventual destruction of that institution. Therefore,
political action was a legitimate and necessary tool with which to attack
slavery and racial discrimination. From his knowledge of the South, he
was convinced that slavery could not be overthrown without violence.
However, he insisted that the black man was in no position to take the
leadership in the use of physical force. At the same time, he was
increasingly aware of the depth of racial prejudice of Northern whites,
and he knew that there was a long struggle ahead to gain political,
social, and economic freedom.
White Liberals
In 1832 William Lloyd Garrison and eleven other whites founded the New
England Anti-Slavery Society which, besides working for the abolition of
slavery, fought for the rights of freedmen. Garrison soon became the
fiery and controversial leader of the abolitionist movement and the
editor of "The Liberator". The movement included men like Wendell
Phillips, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, Theodore Dwight Weld, Gerrit Smith,
James Birney, and many others. They condemned the American Colonization
Society for sharing the unchristian prejudices of the slaveholders.
Although the Northern states had abolished slavery, most whites believed
that it was not their business to interfere with the domestic affairs of
the Southern states. They also held that freedmen in the North must be
kept in their place, and they viewed the abolitionists as a dangerous and
radical minority.
The abolition movement itself was weakened by internal fragmentation.
Garrison was jealous of anyone who competed with him for leadership. His
brand of abolitionism attacked the Constitution as a vicious document
giving sanction to slavery. He advocated that the Northern states
separate from the South as a means of removing federal protection from
slavery. Because the government was based on an unholy document, he
concluded that any kind of political action automatically enmeshed one in
this evil system. He was vehemently against the use of violence to
overthrow slavery and insisted that moral persuasion was the only
legitimate tool in the cause. Anyone who did not support his doctrines
faithfully was viewed as an enemy. This meant that he did not cooperate
with abolitionists who condoned the use of violence or with those who
were willing to accept the Constitution and engage in political action.
Ironically, the abolitionist movement was also divided by racial
prejudice. While opposing slavery, some refused to believe in political
equality. Others were willing to grant political equality, but resisted
the idea of social mixing. The Philadelphia anti-slavery society spent
many meetings debating whether it should extend membership to blacks,
and, by a majority of two, it finally voted to drop its color bar.
Black abolitionists became increasingly irritated by the racial attitudes
of their white colleagues. Many of the whites were influential
businessmen, and they were attacked for their own hiring practices. It
was claimed that, when they hired blacks at all, they hired them only in
menial positions. Martin R. Delany, abolitionist, journalist, and
physician, complained that the blacks had taken a back seat in the
movement for too long. He also bitterly attacked whites for thinking that
they knew best what was good for the African. He concluded that both
friend and foe shared the same prejudices.
The Underground Railroad was another project which involved large numbers
of whites. Besides providing financial backing for it, they worked as
conductors and station masters. They helped runaways to safety, and they
sheltered escapees. These men wanted to do more than speak out on the
issue of slavery; they wanted to take action. Helping runaway slaves was
against the law, and these men had such strong convictions that, while
they did not think of themselves as criminals, they were willing to
deliberately break the law. They participated in a kind of civil
disobedience. However, the bravest workers on the underground railroad
were black. If they were caught, especially in the South, they would have
to pay the ultimate price for their heroism. The best known of all the
black conductors was a brave runaway slave woman named Harriet Tubman.
She ventured deep into the South on several occasions to lead large
numbers of slaves to freedom, and she became a national legend. Several
states put a price on her head. During the Civil War she served as a
Union spy behind confederate lines.
Gradually the abolitionist movement and the Underground Railroad won the
support of ever-increasing numbers of white Northerners. At the same
time, the South became increasingly bitter. Abolitionist literature was
banned throughout the South, and most of the abolitionist leaders,
because they had circulated literature in violation of this ban, had a
price put on their heads. The Underground Railroad was more than a
symbolic attack on the institution of slavery. While there is no way of
telling how many slaves traveled to freedom with its help, certainly the
value of human property lost to the South was very high. A slave was
worth about $1,000, and thousands of slaves escaped. The financial loss
was very real. When Southern masters came north to recapture runaway
slaves, Northern consciences were outraged.
Finally, as the new states from the West were being permitted to join the
Union, the question as to whether slavery should be legalized in them
became important. Even Northern white bigots opposed the extension of
slavery into these states. From their point of view, slavery was unfair
competition with free labor, and they wanted the new states for the
purpose of expansion. As the middle of the century approached, dark
clouds of crisis could be seen on the horizon.
Growth of Extremism
During the 1850s American racial attitudes grew more extreme. While
slavery continued to flourish throughout the South, discrimination was
rampant throughout the North. Instead of gradually withering away as some
had expected, the peculiar institution had been thriving and spreading
into the Southwest ever since Eli Whitney's discovery of the cotton gin
in 1793 had given new life to the growing of cotton. Slavery was booming
in Alabama and spreading into Louisiana, Mississippi, and even Texas. At
the same time, the North, after experiencing a full decade without
slavery, was still steeped in discrimination and prejudice. After several
years of freedom, Northern blacks still were not gaining economic
advancement, political rights, or social acceptance. As the numbers of
European immigrants had increased, job discrimination grew. The Northern
states were, at the same time, abolishing the political rights of
Afro-Americans. The hopes which had accompanied the end of slavery in
those states were fading into despair. The relentless struggle for
advancement apparently had failed, and increasing numbers became
convinced that more radical action was necessary.
At the same time White supremacy advocates were uneasy because their
views had not been universally accepted, and they were adopting a
stronger defense. The Southern justification of slavery was based on four
main arguments. First, it was claimed that slavery was indispensable to
its economy and that every society, whether slave or free, needed those
who must do its menial labor. Although many Northerners might not agree
that the need for labor was a justification for slavery, many would
concur with second argument, which was that the Negro was destined for a
position of inferiority. Here the racial prejudices of North and the
South overlapped. The third argument was that Christianity had sanctioned
slavery throughout all of history as a means for conversion. This
contention had more justification than the religious colonists would care
to admit. Finally, the South argued that white civilization had
developed a unique high culture precisely because slavery removed the
burden from the white citizens. Again, while Northerners might not
totally agree with this point, many of them did believe in the
superiority of white civilization. Although these points convinced few
outsiders of the necessity for the existence of slavery, they did
underline the widespread belief in black inferiority and white
superiority. From this point of view, the necessity for defending the
glories of white civilization against the corruption of racial
degeneration justified more and more radical action.
Besides mounting this vigorous vocal defense of slavery, the South
stiffened its resistance to the circulation of anti-slavery propaganda.
State laws were passed banning the publication and circulation of
abolitionist materials, and mobs broke into post offices, confiscated
literature from the U.S. mail, and publicly burned it. The Compromise of
1850, at the urging of the South, included the Fugitive Slave Act which
vastly increased the powers of the slave owner to pursue runaway slaves
throughout the North. The law also required that Northern officials
cooperate in this process. Afro-Americans who had been living in Northern
communities for years and who were accepted as respected citizens were
now threatened with recapture by their previous masters. Many of these
leaders were forced to flee. Freedmen who lacked adequate identification
were also endangered by legal kidnapping and enslavement.
Throughout the North both blacks and whites, with the aid of the Federal
Government, were alienated by this new long arm of the peculiar
institution which reached deep into their communities. In fact many
felt, like Frederick Douglass, that this law made the Federal Government
an agent of slavery, and they believed that it forced local governments
to become its co-conspirators. Several Northern states passed new civil
rights laws in an attempt to protect their citizens. Frequently local
vigilance comittees tried to prevent the arrest of blacks in their midst.
On other occasions mobs tried and sometimes succeeded in freeing those
already arrested, In Boston, for example, a federal marshal was killed in
a clash with one such mob. The Fugitive Slave Act was a powerful blow at
the Afro-American communities in the North. It has been estimated that
between 1850 and 1860 some twenty thousand fled to Canada. In the face of
this reversal moderation became meaningless.
The involvement of the Federal Government in supporting slavery led to a
growing alienation within the Afro-American community. Increasingly,
militant leaders reevaluated their position on colonization. Henry
Highland Garnet and Martin R. Delany, both workers in the abolition
movement, reversed their positions and became proponents of emigration.
While Garnet favored emigration to Liberia, Delany became an advocate of
moving to Central and South America. He said that the United States had
violated its own principles of republicanism and equality and that it was
keeping Negroes in economic and political bondage. He concluded that
Negroes were left with a choice between continued degradation in America
or emigration. By 1852 he had come to prefer the latter choice.
In 1854 a colonization convention was held in Cleveland for those who
were interested in emigration within the boundaries of the western
hemisphere. The convention noted that the Afro-American community was
developing a growing sense of racial consciousness and pride. Although
blacks were in the minority in Europe and America, it pointed out that
most of the world's population was colored. Integration into the
mainstream of American life, besides appearing to be impossible, seemed
to demand the denial of selfhood for the black man. Therefore, black
separatism grew in popularity and became a platform from which to
maintain a sense of identity and individual worth.
However, many militants like Frederick Douglass did not approve of black
nationalism and colonization. They claimed that they were still
Americans and did not constitute a separate nation. Leaders who were not
black nationalists, however, could still be militant. Although Douglass
did not actively support John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, the reason
for his decision was that he doubted its effectiveness and not because he
opposed its violent technique. In fact, Douglass applauded the attack. He
said that Brown had attacked slavery "with the weapons precisely adapted
to bring it to the death," and he contended that, since slavery existed
by "brute force," then it was legitimate to turn its own weapons against
it. Previously the Reverend Moses Dixon had established two fraternal
organizations to train blacks for military action. Although nothing
substantial came from them, the idea of developing guerrilla forces as
the only remaining tool against slavery was gaining support.
Another militant, H. Ford Douglass, concluded that the government had
become so tyrannical that it was possible for him to engage in military
action against it without his becoming a traitor to his country. He said,
"I can hate this government without becoming disloyal because it has
stricken down my manhood, and treated me as a salable commodity. I can
join a foreign enemy and fight against it, without being a traitor,
because it treats me as an ALIEN and a STRANGER, and I am free to avow
that should such a contingency arise I should not hesitate to take any
advantage in order to procure such indemnity for the future."
Robert Purvis, a Philadelphian, also agreed that revolution might be the
only tool left with which to secure redress for grievances. He contended
that to support the government and the constitution on which it was based
was to endorse a despotic state, and he went on to express his abhorrence
for the system which destroyed him and his people. Purvis said that he
could welcome the overthrow of this government and he could hope that it
would be replaced by a better one.
The alienation of the Afro-American from his government was dramatically
underscored and justified in 1857 by the Dred Scott Decision which was
handed down by the Supreme Court. A slave who had resided with his master
in a territory where slavery was forbidden by act of Congress had claimed
his freedom. After returning to slave territory, he sued his master on
the grounds that residence in a non-slave territory had made him free.
The court said that the Missouri Compromise which had established
slave-free territories was unconstitutional, and it went on to state that
blacks were not citizens of the United States and therefore could not
bring a suit in court. In one single decision the court had lashed out at
the Afro-American with two blows. Besides justifying slavery, it had
openly supported the spread of the peculiar institution into the West.
Then, it castrated the freedmen by denying any political rights to them.
They were left with four alternatives: slavery, a freedom rooted in
poverty and prejudice, emigration abroad, or revolution.
Suddenly, the terms of the equation were dramatically altered by an
obscure white man named John Brown. After beginning his public career in
New England as a participant in the abolitionist struggle, Brown became
absolutely outraged by the apparent success that the South was having in
spreading slavery into the new territories. He became one of the most
active leaders in Kansas and rallied support to prevent that state from
falling into the hands of proslavery factions. The slavery debates in
Kansas exploded into open combat. Brown's outrage became a fiery
conviction that God had chosen him to be one of the leaders in the
righteous struggle against slavery. He also came to believe that, if God
had justified violence in defending righteousness in the Old Testament,
it could be used in other places and on a wider scale to topple the
peculiar institution.
Brown spent several weeks in Rochester, New York, at the home of
Frederick Douglass, planning what amounted to a guerrilla campaign
against the South. Despite Brown's urging, Douglass refused to join in
what he believed to be a futile and desperate gesture. However, he wished
Brown the best of luck. The plan was to establish a center of operation
in the Virginia hills. Brown did not expect to defeat the South by force
of arms. Instead, he believed that he could establish a mountain refuge
which would attract ever-increasing numbers of slaves. His hope was that
the drain on the slave system, coupled with the masters' fear of attack,
would so strain the peculiar institution that, bit by bit, the South
would be forced to negotiate some kind of settlement.
However, Brown had to obtain arms and ammunition, and, to keep the
operation going he and his men needed food and other supplies. The result
was the raid on the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. The
attacking party included five blacks: Lewis Sheridan Leary, Dangerfield
Newly, John Anthony Copeland, Osborn Perry Anderson, and Shields Green.
Two of them were killed in the attack, two more were later executed, and
one escaped. The attack failed, and Brown and several others were
executed. Before his execution Brown said that, while they might dispose
of him quite easily, the Negro question itself could not be easily
dismissed. His prediction proved correct, Brown's execution made him a
martyr and at the end led to the victory for which he had yearned.