John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry

John Brown

John Brown was a fiery abolitionist who wanted slaves to fight for their freedom and to rebel their slaveholders. So in 1859 he organized a raid to capture the arsenal at Harper's Ferry because he wanted the slaves to take up arms and fight. On October 16,1859 , Brown was captured at the arsenal and was hung by the U.S. Marines. Henry David Thoreau believed that the death of John Brown "would strengthen abolitionist feeling in the North," and that Brown was "an angel of light." However, Southerners thought that Brown's raid proved that the Northerners were plotting the murdering of the slaveholders. From the following information, one can conclude that the raid on Harper's Ferry further divided the North and South, therefore contributing to the Civil War.