John Brown Dbq

The North-South relations changed from 1859 to 1863. These changes are expressed by the views about John Brown and his raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Before the war began, the North viewed Brown as nothing but trouble, but they saw his intentions to abolish slavery as understandable. In the documents, you can clearly see as the war approaches, the views about Brown drastically changed in the North and show that the North wants one thing and that is the abolishment of slavery.

In document A, Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, disapproves of Brown's method to abolish slavery but he did agree with Brown's motives behind his actions. Although Greeley disapproves of the method, he wishes slavery could be abolished through other actions. He shows this when he writes "there and fit and unfit modes of combating a great evil; we think Brown at Harper's Ferry pursued the latter... And, while we heartily wish every slave in the world would run away from his master tomorrow and never be retaken, we should not feel justified in entering a slave state to incite them to do so...". This view of Brown showed the rising tension between the North and the South due to the North wanting the abolish slavery.

In document C, in the Topeka Tribune, the editor states that there are two groups of people, Republicans and the "'men belonging to the Wendell Phillips school". The editor says "these men, belonging to the Wendell Phillips school, call him patriot and christian... bestowing upon him all the praise due to a hero...". The Republicans apologize for Brown's actions but underneath they praise him. Both groups of people praise Brown for what he did. Now, two years before the war, the North-South relations were quickly deteriorating as the issue of slavery was becoming everybody's problem.

The Democrats, who were a southern party, blamed the northern Republicans for Brown's actions. This caused problems for the republicans running...