A history of the American nation . r repression. In education, as in indus-try, slavery was degrading; it acted like a moral curse, poisoningthe life blood of the people. The Southern people had for many years declared that theagitation of the slavery question was a menace to their declared, too, that the real intent and wishof the Abolitionists was to arouse a slave insurrec-tion and to bring woe and devastation to the wholeSouth. An event nowhappened that seemed tothem to prove them rightin all their charges andsuspicions. This was thefamous raid of John Jkov/ninto Virginia. Brow
A history of the American nation . r repression. In education, as in indus-try, slavery was degrading; it acted like a moral curse, poisoningthe life blood of the people. The Southern people had for many years declared that theagitation of the slavery question was a menace to their declared, too, that the real intent and wishof the Abolitionists was to arouse a slave insurrec-tion and to bring woe and devastation to the wholeSouth. An event nowhappened that seemed tothem to prove them rightin all their charges andsuspicions. This was thefamous raid of John Jkov/ninto Virginia. Brownwas a New Englander bybirth, who had taken anactive part in the bloodystruggle in Kansas. Infact, among borderruffians and fierce Free-State men the old Puritan haddistinguished himself for fearlessness and violence. Nowthat Kansas was secured, he hoped to strike a moreeffective blow for freedom. His design was to seizethe arsenal at Flarpers Ferry, free the blacks in the neigh-borhood, and retreat to some stronghold in the moun-. JoiiN Browns Fort ^Olmgted, The Cotton Kingdom, vol. ii, p. 285. Read Rhodes, vol. i«chap. iv. 376 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN NATION tains. Thence he would make incursions into the neigh-boring regions, and make his name a terror to the whole hoped, indeed, to force the emancipation of the slaves, notperhaps by inciting a general revolt, but by gathering them upfrom time to time and by making property in slaves insecure. Itwas the scheme of a madman, and yet some of the ardent anti-slavery men to whom Brown confided his plan seemed to havehad faith in its success. In the autumn of 1859 he seized thenational arsenal at Harpers Ferry and began to free the slavesin the neighborhood. Troops were soon hurried to the spot and the little band wasoverpowered. Some of the men were shot in the struggle. Brown himself, with several others, was captured. They were speedily brought to trial, convicted, andhanged. The whole country was stirred by this event
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