John Brown

December 2 is the anniversary of the execution of John Brown in Charles Town, Virginia. Even today, 155 years later, he is a very controversial figure.

Some feel he was insane but there is no evidence of that. Most historians now agree he was a man who was so opposed to slavery on moral grounds that he was willing to put his life (and that of his sons) on the line to eliminate it.

The trial itself is interesting. John Brown was tried in a Virginia court for treason, but treason is a crime only against a jurisdiction to which one owes allegiance and John Brown did not owe allegiance to Virginia as he was not a citizen there. He was tried for murder but there is no evidence that he intended to murder anyone -- although of course he was willing to do that if necessary to help destroy slavery. 

There were also procedural problems with his trial. Virginia authorities insisted on rushing his trial. It started 9 days after he was captured, when he was still so ill he had to be brought into court on a bed. He asked for a short delay so his lawyer could arrive but that was denied and he was assigned lawyers he did not want. 

After a week-long trial, and jury deliberation of just 45 minutes, he was sentenced to be hanged. That is when his greatest moments began.

John Brown gave interviews, met with Virginia authorities, and wrote letters. Even his most vehement enemies said they found him to be a man of principles. 

Victor Hugo wrote from Europe that the execution of John Brown would be "an uncorrectable sin." Henry David Thoreau wrote an essay describing John Brown as a man whose commitment to justice forced him to fight state-sponsored injustice, and questioned why others who opposed slavery did not act as John Brown did. A modern historian, Stephen B. Oates, has described John Brown as being "one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation."

Present at his execution were Stonewall Jackson, John Wilkes Booth, and Walt Whitman.

His final written comment has become famous:

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had as I now think, vainly, 

flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."

Just a year after John Brown's execution, and after the election of Abraham Lincoln as U.S. President, South Carolina and then other states seceded from the United States, and just four months later the Civil War had begun and fully 5% of the U.S. population were dead within four years --- but John Brown's goal of the end of slavery in the U.S. had been achieved.