User:CaroleHenson/sandbox - John Brown (abolitionist) uncited content

John Brown (abolitionist) — Talk:John Brown (abolitionist)

Draft of content needing sources for years. The sections just reflect the level in the article, and not necessarily the section and subsection relationship.

Note: The content is updated based upon what I found in the cited sources. The article history records the changes to the content from the uncited content that was taken from the article.

 Done here, that also includes some edits by others.–CaroleHenson (talk) 20:38, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Preparations

Integrate within this section

To attain financial backing and political support for the raid on Harpers Ferry, Brown met with abolitionists in Massachusetts, New York, and Connecticut. The main sources of funds came from the "Secret Six", Franklin B. Sanborn, secretary of the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee (MSKC), Samuel G. Howe M.D., businessman George L. Stearns, real estate tycoon Gerrit Smith, transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church Theodore Parker, and Unitarian minister Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Brown, Parker, and Higginson were united in their quest to end slavery, but had very different religious beliefs. In Boston, he met Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He met William Lloyd Garrison who were on opposite sides of the debate about the use of force. Garrison was a pacificist. Brown believed that force was needed to end slavery. Even with the Secret Six, Brown had not collected all that was needed to fund the raid. He wrote an appeal John Brown Farewell to abolitionists in the east with some success.

While in New York City, Brown was introduced to Hugh Forbes, an English mercenary, who had experience as a military tactician fighting with Giuseppe Garibaldi. Concerned about Brown's strategy, Forbes undermined and delayed the plans for the raid.

 Done here–CaroleHenson (talk) 06:33, 4 October 2023 (UTC)

Insert as last paragraph of this section into the appropriate subsection

• In late September, the 950 pikes arrived from Charles Blair.

I think that is already done, just with a little less specificity at John Brown (abolitionist)#Weapons, which is covered at John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry#Brown's preparation–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:16, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• Kagi's draft plan called for a brigade of 4,500 men

Is this necessary? I don't see it in the main raid article?–CaroleHenson (talk) 07:17, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• Brown had only 21 men (16 white and 5 black: three free blacks, one freed slave, and a fugitive slave). They ranged in age from 21 to 49. See John Brown (abolitionist)#Brown's forces.

• Twelve had been with Brown in Kansas raids.

I am only counting ten raiders that were with Brown in Kansas from pp 47, 70–71, 101–104:

• Jeremiah Anderson
• Oliver Brown
• Owen Brown
• John E. Cook
• Albert Hazlett
• John Henry Kagi
• William Leeman
• Aaron Dwight Stevens
• Henry Thompson
• Charles Plummer Tidd

Who are the other two men that fought with Brown in Kansas and were raiders?–CaroleHenson (talk) 02:37, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

For now, I broke the list of raiders into two groups, the ones who fought with Brown in Kansas (10, 11 including Brown) and the new recruits (10).–CaroleHenson (talk) 03:31, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• On October 16, 1859, Brown (leaving three men behind as a rear guard) led 18 men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry Armory.

 Done Made this change. I did not mention three left behind as a rear guard, which is covered in the John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry#Timeline of the raid.–CaroleHenson (talk) 03:50, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• He had received 200 Beecher's Bibles – breechloading .52 (13.2 mm) caliber Sharps rifles – and pikes from northern abolitionist societies in preparation for the raid.

I think that is already done, just with a little less specificity at John Brown (abolitionist)#Weapons, which is covered at John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry#Brown's preparation–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:13, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• The armory was a large complex of buildings that contained 100,000 muskets and rifles, which Brown planned to seize and use to arm local slaves.

 Done, heref.–CaroleHenson (talk) 07:17, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

• They would then head south, drawing off more and more slaves from plantations, and fighting only in self-defense.

 Done here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 04:06, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

I meant to say here that they initially intended only to use weapons in self-defense.–CaroleHenson (talk) 17:54, 7 October 2023 (UTC)

• As Douglass and Brown's family testified, his strategy was essentially to deplete Virginia of its slaves, causing the institution to collapse in one county after another, until the movement spread into the South, wreaking havoc on the economic viability of the pro-slavery states.

Broke down into bullets to address one-by-one, also considering that some of the detail may be better covered in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and will look for some broad summary content re: weapons, the plan, etc.–CaroleHenson (talk) 02:16, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

I have completed all but the 2nd bullet re: Kagi's opinion / plan (necessary?) and the last bullet about wreaking havoc (isn't that evident?).–CaroleHenson (talk) 07:33, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

The raid

The third paragraph, after the paragraph that starts "Things started to go wrong"

News of the raid reached Baltimore early that morning and Washington by late morning. (Something already in the article with governor and president's names.)

In the meantime, local farmers, shopkeepers, and militia pinned down the raiders in the armory by firing from the heights behind the town. Some of the local men were shot by Brown's men. At noon, a company of militia seized the bridge, blocking the only escape route. (in the article)

Brown then moved his prisoners and remaining raiders into the fire engine house, a small brick building at the armory's entrance. He had the doors and windows barred and loopholes cut through the brick walls. The surrounding forces barraged the engine house, and the men inside fired back with occasional fury. Brown sent his son Watson and another supporter out under a white flag, but the angry crowd shot them. Intermittent shooting then broke out, and Brown's son Oliver was wounded. His son begged his father to kill him and end his suffering, but Brown said "If you must die, die like a man." A few minutes later, Oliver was dead. The exchanges lasted throughout the day.

A couple of edits where the content is in the article. I provided a link to John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry#Timeline of the raid for this section. It seems like it's best to keep the detail in that article. I haven't made any edits for this, but anyone that disagrees, please feel free to add the content.–CaroleHenson (talk) 08:40, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Insert at the end of the paragraph that begins "By the morning of October 18"

Army First Lieutenant J. E. B. Stuart approached under a white flag and told the raiders their lives would be spared if they surrendered. Brown refused, saying, "No, I prefer to die here." Stuart then gave a signal. The Marines used sledgehammers and a makeshift battering ram to break down the engine room door. Lieutenant Israel Greene cornered Brown and struck him several times, wounding his head. In three minutes Brown and the survivors were captives.

 Done here. Necessary content and seque.–CaroleHenson (talk) 08:40, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Insert at first paragraph.

Brown and the others captured were held in the office of the armory. On October 18, 1859, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, Virginia Senator James M. Mason, and Representative Clement Vallandigham of Ohio arrived in Harpers Ferry. Mason led the three-hour questioning session of Brown.

 Done here. Source says several hours.–CaroleHenson (talk) 09:46, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

The trial

Insert as third paragraph.

Although the attack had taken place on federal property, Wise wanted him tried in Virginia, and President Buchanan did not object. Murder was not a federal crime, nor was inciting a slave insurrection, and federal action would bring abolitionist protests.

 Done here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 19:59, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Brown and his men were tried in Charles Town, the nearby seat of Jefferson County, just 7 miles (11 km) west of Harpers Ferry. –CaroleHenson (talk) 19:59, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

 Done except the # of miles, here

The trial began October 27, after a doctor pronounced the still-wounded Brown fit for trial. Brown was charged with murdering four white men and a black man, inciting a slave insurrection, and treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia.

 Done Added charges and tried with his men here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 20:23, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

A series of lawyers were assigned to him, including Lawson Botts, Thomas C. Green, Samuel Chilton, a lawyer from Washington D.C., and George Hoyt, but it was Hiram Griswold, a lawyer from Cleveland, who concluded the defense on October 31. In his closing statement, Griswold argued that Brown could not be found guilty of treason against a state to which he owed no loyalty and of which he was not a resident, that Brown had not killed anyone himself, and that the raid's failure indicated that Brown had not conspired with slaves. Andrew Hunter, the leading attorney in Charles Town and Governor Wise's personal lawyer, presented the closing arguments for the prosecution.

I didn't address this since the trial article Virginia v. John Brown covers this and the article is already long.–CaroleHenson (talk) 20:23, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Rescue plans

Insert after the paragraph that begins with "However, Brown said several times" in Death section, for events on December 1 and 2.

On December 1, Brown's wife arrived by train in Charles Town, where she joined him at the county jail for his last meal. She was denied permission to stay the night, prompting Brown to lose his composure and temper for the only time during the ordeal.

 Done Not the same wording, but I added this based on the content from the source here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 17:55, 6 October 2023 (UTC)

Death and aftermath

Insert as last paragraph

Brown was accompanied by the sheriff and his assistants, but not by a minister since no abolitionist minister was available. Since the region was in the grips of virtual hysteria, most Northerners, including journalists, were run out of town, and it is unlikely any anti-slavery clergyman would have been safe, even if one were to have sought to visit Brown. He elected to receive no religious services in the jail or at the scaffold. He was hanged at 11:15 a.m. and pronounced dead at 11:50 a.m.

 Done - not the same wording, but about the military presence, no minister, time of hanging and death here.–CaroleHenson (talk) 18:27, 6 October 2023 (UTC)