John Brown’s Rebellion
FOCUS: As we move past the final failed compromise on slavery, many people start takign actions into their
own hands to try to address it. We’ll look at the VIOLENT solutions today.
DO NOW: “Noncooperation with evil is as much a duty as is
cooperation with good” - Gandhi
Do you agree or disagree with the quote? Are they the same thing?
Explain your point of view.
SECTIONALISM
● WHAT: Placing the interests of your region ahead of the nation as a whole.
WEST
● Constantly new
settlers
● Mining
● Connected by rail
and telegraph
SOUTH
● Economy based on
NORTH
● Large ______
slavery and
● Many Immigrants
plantations
● ___________ &
● “King Cotton”
exports bring $$$$
manufacturing
MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN THESE COMPROMISES!
CLASS READ: Robert E. Lee’s Thoughts on Slavery
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, signed by President Franklin Pierce, established
that popular sovereignty would be used to decide whether slavery would be allowed in
new states. This upset Northern abolitionists and violence in “Bleeding Kansas” raged.
On December 2, 1856, President Franklin Pierce delivered his State of the Union
Address. This address (which Lee references at the beginning of his letter) would be
printed and spread across the US. Lee wrote the following letter to his wife on
December 27, 1856. In it, he expresses his thoughts on slavery.
The steamer [ship] brought the President’s message to Congress, so we are now assured that the government is in
operation and the Union in existence. Not that we had any fears to the contrary, but it is satisfactory always to have
facts to go on. They restrain supposition and conjecture, confirm faith and bring
contentment.
I was much pleased with the President’s message and the report of the Secretary of
War, the only two documents that have reached us. The views of the President and
progressive efforts of certain people of the North to interfere with and change the
domestic institutions of the South, are truthfully and faithfully expressed. The
consequences of their plans and purposes are also clearly set forth. They must also be
aware that their object is both unlawful and entirely foreign to them and their duty. [It]
can only be accomplished by them through the agency of a civil & servile war.
In this enlightened age, there are few I believe, but what will acknowledge, that slavery
as an institution, is a moral and political evil in any Country. It is useless to expatiate
on its disadvantages. I think it, however, is a greater evil to the white man than to the
black race. And while my feelings are strongly enlisted in behalf of the latter, my
sympathies are more strong for the former. The blacks are immeasurably better off here
than in Africa, morally, socially, and physically.
The painful discipline they are undergoing is necessary for their instruction as a race and I hope will prepare and lead
them to better things. How long their subjugation may be necessary is known and ordered by a wise merciful
providence.
Their emancipation will sooner result from the mild and melting influence of Christianity, then the storms and
tempests of fiery controversy. This influence, though slow, is sure. The doctrines and miracles of our Savior have
required nearly 2,000 years to convert but a small part of the human race and even among Christian nations, what
gross errors still exist!
While we see the course of the final abolition of human slavery is onward and we give it the aid of our prayers and
all justifiable means in our power, we must leave the progress, as well as the result, in his hands who sees the end;
who chooses to work by slow influences and with whom 2,000 years are but as a single day.
The abolitionist must know this, and must see that he has neither the right or power of operating except by moral
means and persuasion. If he means well to the slave, he must not create angry feelings in the master. Although he
may not approve the mode which it pleases providence to accomplish its purposes, the result will nevertheless be the
same. The reasons he gives for interference in what he has no concern, holds good for every kind of interference
with our neighbors when we disapprove their conduct. Still, I fear he will persevere in his evil course.
Is it not strange that the descendants of those pilgrim fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own
freedom of opinion, have always proved themselves intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?
Robert E. Lee’s Thoughts on Slavery
Directions: After reading Robert E Lee’s letter to his wife, answer the following questions in complete
sentences. Be sure to support or explain your answers to each.
1. What is ironic about what Lee says in the first paragraph? (HINT: What is he known for?)
After hearing the president's State of the Union Address, Lee says he is happy to learn that the Union is
still in existence. This is ironic because he will be commanding a war against the Union in five years.
2. What “domestic institutions of the South” is Lee referring to in the second paragraph?
The domestic institutions Lee refers to is slavery
3. How does Lee feel about the morals of slavery?
Lee says that slavery is obviously a moral and political evil
4. How does Lee justify slavery’s treatment of African-Americans?
"Morally, socially, and physically," Lee believes Black people in America are better off than they are in
Africa.
5. How does Lee see slavery ending in America? (Hint: Think who is the “he” Lee mentions in the
final paragraphs).
Slavery, Lee believes, will come to a natural end in America when God deems it is time.
JOHN BROWN: Marty or Terrorist?
Was John Brown a “misguided fanatic”?
● John Brown was an abolitionist (someone trying to destroy slavery completely).
● He’s best known for the “Raid at Harper’s Ferry” in Virginia in 1859.
○ NOTE: This is only 1 year before the Civil War begins!
● Abraham Lincoln called John Brown a “Misguided fanatic”
TASK: Using these documents about John Brown, answer the following:
Document A:
1. John Brown delivered this speech on the last day of his trial, after hearing the
jury pronounce him ‘guilty.’ He knew he would be sentenced to die. Given
that context, what does this speech say about him as a person?
That he is courageous and is not afraid to die. He knows what he was doing
and he doesn't have any regrets.
2. Based on this document, do you think John Brown was a “misguided
fanatic”? Why or why not? I do not think John brown was a “misguided
fanatic”. The way he went about doing what he did was wrong.
Document B:
1. What are two reasons why Douglass opposed John Brown’s plan to raid
Harper’s Ferry?
Because he viewed it as a “steel trap”.
2. Douglass’s account is written in 1881, twenty-two years after the raid. Do you
trust his account? Why or why not?
Although Douglas' account may be accurate, it is pretty unlikely that it was
accurate when it was written 22 years later.
3. So the answer is no, I don't believe his story.
4.
5.