American Experience; John Brown's Holy War; Interview with historian Dennis Frye 5 of 6

but john browne raid was a sensational event not just for harpers ferry and not just for virginia but the whole nation the country was mesmerized by this thirty six hour event in harpers ferry fixated upon even before the marines had captured by our newspaper editors had set the reporters to the scene of the illustrators and also the writers to try to capture the climax of this is that after brown's capture he was quickly interrogated the governor virginia had arrived senator mason sen nunn state senator from virginia was their coarse curly was there even though landingham center or laningham from ohio had come to harpers ferry art to try to find out if there were any republicans who were involved in this conspiracy and so the interrogation began

shortly after brown the caption remember this may have been wounded he's been slashed over the head with a sword he was knocked unconscious after lieutenant green sort failed to penetrate the body he's just come out of this unconscious state he's surrounded by these these interrogators in the arm repay masters office and their reporters are there as well ready to record every word of this interview it's amazing that this debilitated wounded old man was so focused so deliberate and so calm in the words that each breast and that first interviewed today's latinas it's there is sort of this movie and then load it was taken out and they said the idea is that he has indeed

this drama at harpers ferry soon became the nation's drama through prayer through the newspapers armed during the interview with brown the reporter recording every word as soon as the interview ended they were to the telegraph office and telegraphing the news are to the new york newspapers and very shortly thereafter papers all away from maine in illinois and indiana and kansas to texas and always here in alabama and georgia were reporting on the raid at harpers ferry and the consequences of this raid that captured brown the attempt at a free slaves its center is so what we find is that that newspapers became the medium people everywhere day after day for weeks brought their newspapers and read on the

front page an editorial page about john brown's raid are pushed for they wanted they couldn't get enough information the paper's couldn't print enough people just knew that something sensational had happened something that was not just sensational but was a sensation brown maybe people feel he raised the emotional thermometer and people began to express very strong opinions about slavery the newspaper or wells this nation it made people think it made people react the newspapers made people emotional and suddenly we found people everywhere tens of thousands hundreds of thousands of people in our united states talking about john brown

it's very serious virginia has a prisoner and the prisoner can write letters uncensored can speak to reporters visitors uncensored and his word got out so easily the virginia far he's could have easily play at john brown into a cell brought him out to his trial had him in the court room put back in his cell never levinson in the letters and never speak to anyone yet there was this open policy that virginia advocated that allow brown to get his message out unhindered we're

now where nobody's that they were reading happened at the consciousness and say i'm a lot like the restaurant virginia one of the show that it was not this barbara state that john brown stated it was that they were not a bunch of barbarians that these are civilized people these are law abiding people who respect the life and property of other people so it makes perfect sense but virginia allow newspaper access to brown and access by others so that he could speak because of virginia attended the censure brown or attempted to keep him quiet them what that did is actually make virginia look like a villain not around it would make virginia look like the barbarian not brown and so really was in virginia's interest theoretically to

appear as a civilized lead and state of the south that is going to try this man fairly and justice will be done now it's over for governor henry wise get more press than anyone to help elevate the status of john brown lives in the initial interview after brown's capture our push their it was very impressed with brown i remember the newspaper reporters are not only listening to what brown had to say when a recording the comments of others and when governor wise would call him such a calm collected brave courageous man we had the enemy talking about brown and very positive terms and so wise himself brought brown stature through his compliments of john brown

and the immediate aftermath of the rate as saying guys was too feels it's necessary to try well is now a captive but they should try him the raid he conducted was an attack against the united states the assault on state property he capture united states are in our show he seized united states weapons and he was captured by united states troops should john brown be tried in the united states court for committing a federal crime against the united states of america over g argued no not all

bridging you argued that brown should be tried by virginians that he had attacked the state of virginia that he had assaulted the people of virginia that he had taken the property of virginia that he committed treason against virginia and conspire against virginians and had murdered virginians governor wallace believed and convince the president of united states president buchanan that this is virginia's man that virginia should be responsible for placing him in court and trying him and that justice according to virginia law will be done one week

after brown's captured seven days he was in the court room for grand jury and he was indicted indicted on murder treason and inciting slave rebellion surreal days later he was a foreclosure and in a trial that lasted three and a half days brown's accusers she would bring witness after witness forward to the stand and speak about the events that are pushed there events such as the mayor was killed that other people were badly wounded that these gunshots occurred here and there and this is what we heard was the attention that they intended to free slaves that the provisional constitution intended to go into effect and so everybody can phone almost in unison that john brown was the conspirator who attended the brain and into slavery

throughout the self and the weidenbaum away so be it after three and a half days to trial ended the jury deliberates for forty five minutes and coming back with its verdict guilty on murder guilty on trees guilty on inciting slave rebellion judge richard parker on november the second less than two weeks after brown's capture or pronounced citizen john brown you will die by hanging on the doubts and the baby said one month later this summer the second six weeks after his capture this follows a lot more

than that it transcends the physical action that's going on brown saw his trial as an opportunity he believed that this was his opportunity to use the courtroom as his pulpit and on that pole put to preach against the evil and peculiar institution of slavery the brown didn't say much but when he did his words are powerful his words would rain through that courtroom but even more importantly they went way beyond the court read the newspaper reporters would listen to every word i recorded and after every moment that they could free themselves from the court they would go to the telegraph all

says and john brown's words within hours after he would honor them would appear in newspapers throughout the land people are innocent people agreed with brown others hated him for his words believe that he was literally satan and corny there was nothing godlike about john brown two million people the self he was guilty of murder he was guilty of treason he didn't attempt slave insurrection he deserves the noose around his neck our system of justice remains firm we are the winners would declare the people of virginia and the people so we have ended this man's luddy most tv's career we

are the true heros not john brown pony he gets one is the one who just started at is sam was this is all just talk about it warriors incredible perhaps jon ronson greatest moment came on the day of his sentencing park tours started that didn't happen they were censoring it happened than the day it was found guilty press john brown's greatest moment came when the verdicts returned from the jury and he was found guilty on all three counts well rose from his car stereo still

injured still weak but he mustered enough strength within yourself to stand before the court and declared that there was a bible in that courtroom and it was from that bible that he received all of his instructions that guy was his master that john brown acknowledged no master in human form that he never did in tandem with that the property he never did intend to serve out insurrection he never did intend to harm or any one of the only reason he had come our pleasure and the only thing that he wanted his life was to free those who were enslaved he was a state that his favorite bible verse was remember them that are bound as you bound with them and he would declare that if you come to harpers ferry and interfere on behalf of the rich and the

powerful instead of god's despise pour that would've been all right but he would have been a great hero to the nation rather than as the one accused of these crops but brown would make it very clear knowledge of that court but to the people of this country that he was god's instrument that he had come to save god's despised for it to elevate them from the heart and terror of slavery to the point where they truly were equal beings in a country that proclaimed freedom equality for all and that message resonated throughout the room and throughout the country and brown indeed had become the conquering prisoner of charles townes

gao the homeless lot when he uses less it's incredibly was so what john brown did more to frighten the south than virtually any other insurrection that occurred prior to browns arrival on the scene oh yes there was not turn that certainly frightened people and there were other rebellions that occurred that that made people afraid but bryan was different browner was a white guy it came into the south the freed slaves brown was from the north well supported by other northerners brown was poison he was a vile of

poison in every well and sister and throughout the south this man frighten people know him because of his belief but because of the actions if there was one of john brown out there are other more how many more john brown's may come into virginia and do the same thing this mandate it how many people are willing to lead slaves are stated as this man attempted to do how many more john brown's are there out there and in the south the reason that there were not just several were not just a few dozen but there were hundreds perhaps thousands of people that would perform the same action brown hat and the fear that overtook the south in the immediate aftermath of this raid and throughout the trial and then even after the trial was a fear that

that just penetrated the sole up every southern hold its fall leaves falling outside a very pleasant sound quiet and and very respectful wonderful sound frighten people because they didn't know that there were people out there rustling in the leaves that may have done this or pipes or so words that were coming to steal their sleeves and possibly killed the people in the household the south was terrorized it was it was so terrorized that it couldn't sleep at night everyone one had a gun they didn't already have one vigilante groups organized to patrol areas to rock the sat new

melissa companies were organized in county after county and city after city those militia units are already organized became very serious in their drill and their practice of they are a war husbands would not leave their family at night families collected together to protect themselves thinking that numbers or their greatest source of protection the south literally became paralyzed in the aftermath of brown's raid and the subsequent trial paralyzed by fear that new york and new york john brown's would come and commit ravages against their land their whole and their families people were afraid a virginian and i record for most well known route the

south half are eating secessionist were often heated than the ones at the quarter of the north and just hated northerners he's salt brown's raid at harpers ferry as a great opportunity as he would write to stir the sluggish below the south rough and recognized that that fear in the south fear of slave insurrection was a very real motion very real fear but he also believed that he could play on the sphere to bring the solidarity to the cell against the north to bring southerners together in a way they've never been brought together to fight against this evil from the north the john brown pikes these eight foot spear were one foot blade of steel at the end of a rough and determined to be used to his advantage he had a pipe sent to every southern capital

put on display in the capitol rotunda every time it's taken out in the newspapers say come and seen john brown spots and the crowds just thronged to these buildings to witness this actual material evidence of the raid on harpers ferry embodiment of brown the evil it represented and we'll use all that point use all that spear it was frightening because you could envision that being used against your wife you could see that it being driven into your sleeping chopped you could see yourself trying to defend yourself against that way the spiel just strikingly down and if the pike by itself didn't conjure up and off of these terrible

patients were often included a little message assad each one of them and the message read as you look at this spirit death favors favors designed for you by your northern bred john brown really eliminated any reasonable discussion on the issue of slavery and he carved a grand canyon between north and south he went to his land literally because people could not compromise anymore or brown made slavery so heated so passionate so emotional that people just through any reason out the window one sage offer one truth that

piece rules the day when reason rules the mind and john browne it eliminated all reason from the debate over slavery and i'm sure that he considers that one of his greatest accomplishments browns radius of severe trial certainly did exacerbate emotions and reuse the anger from are both more for the cell off in the north people eighty four roland emerson always a may alcott began to preach the virtues of john brown a brave man a courageous man a man of principle amanda morality always and they would refer to him as st john the

just ralph waldo emerson would call an artist goodness and in fact throw actually would compare him to christ one writer would note that as john brown one writer would note that as christ had died to make men the holy john brown had died to make men free many of these alterations these speeches these eulogies were noted in newspapers north and south and as people in the south read the eulogies saw these wonderful tribute to john brown many of the sudden there's began to scratch their head shake your head and say wait wait just a moment here

we convicted this man of murder we found him guilty of treason he attempted to steal our property there's nothing saintly about that there's nothing christ like about that who are these people that are making these comments they certainly can be like we are they certainly can't be part of our culture and naturally could even be part of their own country jefferson davis on the floor of the united states senate would state firmly in adamantly that have we no right to sever our times even if it rushes us into a sea of blood and a legislator

and the virginia legislature would claim shortly after brown's raid ended we welcome you he would say we welcome you to our state and we will meet you with bloody hands and hospitable graves the self determined to defend itself the cell believed that it society its geography its culture had been violated the self determined that it had needed to press forward on its own to ensuring protect its own destiny that it would do so and one rich the newspaper noted for john brown's raid had swelled the ranks of the secessionist by hundred full

and in the north northerners who had first found brown and his reign at harpers ferry off and see do it first acquired that this was the action of a mailman of an insane man the north began to look at itself and examined brown and his words an even more important and examined began to listen to the north began to feel for john brown and feel for the people that he had come to free from slavery and the north began to believe that indeed something must change john brown had taken them from a point of apathy to a point of listening and caring and believing that a new course must come to this nation was in the

south