A Dream Deferred And Civil Rights Leader John Brown
John Brown was an abolitionist living in the 1800’s, before the Civil War. He had been opposed to slavery his entire life. As an adult, he helped the Underground Railroad protect and hide slaves on their way to Canada. After the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Brown moved out west, with his sons to ensure that the new states would be slavery free. However, when pro-slavery settlers from Missouri began moving to Kansas and began burning slave-free towns, John Brown and his sons resorted to violence. John Brown and a group of men, who called themselves the Pottawatomie Rifles, brutally murdered five pro-slavery settlers two days after an attack on a slave-free town. After that, a number of small but bloody battles broke out between settlers who wanted slavery, and those who were against it. John Brown soon began to be seen as a saint among other abolitionists and slaves. Brown began to lead attacks on pro-slavery settlers and their homesteads, freeing the slaves and stealing property. In 1856, he began to contemplate attacking the southern slave owners, and convincing the slaves there to turn against their owners. On October 17, 1859, John Brown and 21 other men attacked a United States arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, in an attempt to gain weapons to help them in their raid on the south. John Brown was captured and taken to Charleston, Virginia, for a trial. His statements during the trial would inspire many to oppose slavery. Brown was sentenced to a hanging, making him an abolitionist martyr.
John Brown’s dream of ending slavery relates to the final line in Langston Hughes’ poem, “A Dream Deferred”, that says “Or does it explode?”. After his death, John Brown’s dream did explode. Although he died before he achieved his dream, I’m sure that his martyrdom inspired many to keep fighting against slavery, and thus began the Civil War. John Brown’s dream was deferred because he was captured before he could raid the south, but more so because he resorted to...
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