D2.His.3.9-12: How the Significance of John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raiders Changed over Time

Overview

Lesson Procedure

75-80 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up10 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes
3. Guided Practice15 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure10 minutes

1. Warm-Up10 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Pick a person whose reputation has changed during your lifetime or your family's memory (a public figure, an athlete, an inventor). What changed: what the person did, or what people later knew and cared about? Write three sentences."

   Take three or four answers and sort them into two columns on the board: new facts (something came to light) and new context (the facts stayed the same, but the world around the judges changed). Tell students that historians call the weight we give a person's or group's actions their significance, and that today they will watch it move over fifty years for one event.

2. Direct Instruction20-25 minutes

   Part 1: Significance is a judgment with a date on it. Every claim that something mattered is made by someone, at some time, for some audience. Present the context question set below. Students will write their own questions from these stems all period. Introduce the term presentism: judging people in the past only by what we know and value today, without asking what they could know and what they faced.

   Five context questions for assessing a judgment of significance (an SVHS teaching tool)

   Question	What to ask
   1. Judge	Who is making this judgment, and what was their stake in the events?
   2. Date	When was it made? What had happened by then, and what had not happened yet?
   3. Audience	Whom was it written or spoken for, and what did they want or fear?
   4. Who counts	Which individuals and groups does it credit, blame or leave out?
   5. Shift	What changed between this judgment and the one before it, in events or in the judge's world?

   Part 2: The event and the first judgment. Read Source 1 for the facts as the National Park Service presents them today, then Source 2, written by the President of the United States seventeen days after Brown's execution. Note for students: in Source 2, "sectional" means dividing North from South. Model the context questions on Source 2 with the first worked example.

   1Several members of his family were settling in the territory and they were in desperate need of assistance. The Kansas-Nebraska Act had created a battleground over the spread of slavery. Brown went there to help his family and strike a blow for freedom. His participation in the violence and bloodshed in Kansas resulted in the second most controversial period of his life. Brown was convinced that a bold strike at the heart of slavery would do more than fighting slavery on the plains of Kansas. He laid the groundwork for his final campaign at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).

   2On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and 21 followers captured the U.S. Armory, Arsenal and Rifle Factory at Harpers Ferry. He called it a “trumpet blast” that would lead to an extended mountain campaign in the slave states and make “property in slaves insecure.” Brown’s so-called raid only lasted 36 hours. He underestimated how quickly white people would rise up to put down what they saw as insurrection. Ten of Brown’s men were killed and five escaped.

   3Brown was captured on October 18, 1859, by a detachment of U.S. Marines under the command of Army Colonel Robert E. Lee. Brown and six of his men were imprisoned in nearby Charles Town. Virginia seized the opportunity to try “the insurgents.” Brown was soon found guilty of treason against Virginia, conspiring with slaves to rebel and murder. He was hanged on December 2, 1859.

   4John Brown’s last written words on the day of his execution predicted the Civil War. “I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much blood shed it might be done.”

   1Whilst it is the duty of the President "from time to time to give to Congress information of the state of the Union," I shall not refer in detail to the recent sad and bloody occurrences at Harpers Ferry. Still, it is proper to observe that these events, however bad and cruel in themselves, derive their chief importance from the apprehension that they are but symptoms of an incurable disease in the public mind, which may break out in still more dangerous outrages and terminate at last in an open war by the North to abolish slavery in the South.

   2Whilst for myself I entertain no such apprehension, they ought to afford a solemn warning to us all to beware of the approach of danger. Our Union is a stake of such inestimable value as to demand our constant and watchful vigilance for its preservation. In this view, let me implore my countrymen, North and South, to cultivate the ancient feelings of mutual forbearance and good will toward each other and strive to allay the demon spirit of sectional hatred and strife now alive in the land. This advice proceeds from the heart of an old public functionary whose service commenced in the last generation, among the wise and conservative statesmen of that day, now nearly all passed away, and whose first and dearest earthly wish is to leave his country tranquil, prosperous, united, and powerful.

   3[...] Those who announce abstract doctrines subversive of the Constitution and the Union must not be surprised should their heated partisans advance one step further and attempt by violence to carry these doctrines into practical effect. [...] But I indulge in no such gloomy forebodings. On the contrary, I firmly believe that the events at Harpers Ferry, by causing the people to pause and reflect upon the possible peril to their cherished institutions, will be the means under Providence of allaying the existing excitement and preventing further outbreaks of a similar character. [...]

   Part 3: Judgments from a participant and from twenty years later. Read Source 3, written by Osborne P. Anderson in 1861, and Source 5, the introduction to the 1881 pamphlet that printed Douglass's address at Storer College, a school in Harpers Ferry for Black students. Work the second and third examples aloud.

   1My sole purpose in publishing the following Narrative is to save from oblivion the facts connected with one of the most important movements of this age, with reference to the overthrow of American slavery. My own personal experience in it, under the orders of Capt. Brown, on the 16th and 17th of October, 1859, as the only man alive who was at Harper’s Ferry during the entire time--the unsuccessful groping after these facts, by individuals, impossible to be obtained, except from an actor in the scene--and the conviction that the cause of impartial liberty requires this duty at my hands--alone have been the motives for writing and circulating the little book herewith presented.

   2I will not, under such circumstances, insult nor burden the intelligent with excuses for defects in composition, nor for the attempt to give the facts. A plain, unadorned, truthful story is wanted, and that by one who knows what he says, who is known to have been at the great encounter, and to have labored in shaping the same. My identity as a member of Capt. Brown’s company cannot be questioned, successfully, by any who are bent upon suppressing the truth; neither will it be by any in Canada or the United States familiar with John Brown and his plans, as those know his men personally, or by reputation, who enjoyed his confidence sufficiently to know thoroughly his plans.

   3The readers of this narrative will therefore keep steadily in view the main point--that they are perusing a story of events which have happened under the eye of the great Captain, or are incidental thereto, and not a compendium of the “plans” of Capt. Brown; for as his plans were not consummated, and as their fulfilment is committed to the future, no one to whom they are known will recklessly expose all of them to the public gaze. Much has been given as true that never happened; much has been omitted that should have been made known; many things have been left unsaid, because, up to within a short time, but two could say them; one of them has been offered up, a sacrifice to the Moloch, Slavery; being that other one, I propose to perform the duty, trusting to that portion of the public who love the right for an appreciation of my endeavor.

   1In substance, this address, now for the first time published, was prepared several years ago, and has been delivered in many parts of the North. Its publication now in pamphlet form is due to its delivery at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., on Decoration day, 1881, and to the fact that the proceeds from the sale of it are to be used toward the endowment of a John Brown Professorship in Storer College, Harper's Ferry--an institution mainly devoted to the education of colored youth.

   2That such an address could be delivered at such a place, at such a time, is strikingly significant, and illustrates the rapid, vast and wonderful changes through which the American people have been passing since 1859. Twenty years ago Frederick Douglass and others were mobbed in the city of Boston, and driven from Tremont Temple for uttering sentiments concerning John Brown similar to those contained in this address. Yet now he goes freely to the very spot where John Brown committed the offense which caused all Virginia to clamor for his life, and without reserve or qualification, commends him as a hero and martyr in the cause of liberty. This incident is rendered all the more significant by the fact that Hon. Andrew Hunter, of Charlestown,--the District Attorney who prosecuted John Brown and secured his execution,--sat on the platform directly behind Mr. Douglass during the delivery of the entire address and at the close of it shook hands with him, and congratulated him, and invited him to Charlestown (where John Brown was hanged), adding that if Robert E. Lee were living, he would give him his hand also.

   • Judge and audience: an individual in 1859 (Source 2, paragraph 2)

     Student question: "What was Buchanan's stake in how Congress understood the raid?"

     Result: Buchanan writes as the head of a divided Union. He says "Our Union is a stake of such inestimable value as to demand our constant and watchful vigilance for its preservation" and asks "my countrymen, North and South, to cultivate the ancient feelings of mutual forbearance" (Source 2, paragraph 2). His context shapes the significance he assigns: for him the raid matters mainly as a threat to the Union, not as an event in the history of slavery.

   • Shift: the same act, twenty years apart (Source 5, paragraph 2)

     Student question: "What had changed between 1861 and 1881 that let Douglass praise Brown at Harpers Ferry itself?"

     Result: The introduction says that "Twenty years ago Frederick Douglass and others were mobbed in the city of Boston" for praising Brown, yet in 1881 Douglass spoke at "the very spot," and the prosecutor, Andrew Hunter, "sat on the platform directly behind Mr. Douglass" and shook his hand (Source 5, paragraph 2). The facts of 1859 had not changed; the context had. The introduction itself calls the event "strikingly significant," a judgment about 1881 as much as about 1859.

   • Who counts: a group in 1861 (Source 4, paragraph 1)

     Student question: "How did reports at the time describe the enslaved people at Harpers Ferry, and why did Anderson answer them?"

     Result: Anderson writes that reports "made by slaveholders and their satellites" tried "to enforce the belief that the slaves were cowardly," and he makes "an emphatic denial of the gross imputation against them" (Source 4, paragraph 1). The significance of the group was contested from the start: whether enslaved people joined the raid was itself a political argument in 1859-1861.

   • Who counts: a group remembered in 1906 (Source 8, paragraphs 2-3)

     Student question: "How did the Niagara Movement connect itself to the men who fought with Brown?"

     Result: Members held "John Brown's Day," walked in "a silent pilgrimage" to John Brown's Fort, and then heard "Henrietta Leary Evans whose brother and nephew fought along side Brown at Harpers Ferry" (Source 8, paragraphs 2-3). By honoring a raider's family, the 1906 meeting gave the group, not only Brown, a place in the story it was telling about civil rights.

3. Guided Practice15 minutes

   Pairs read Source 4, Anderson's defense of the enslaved people and the Black men in Brown's company, and Source 6, the closing paragraph of Douglass's 1881 address. For each, they write two of their own context questions (at least one "Who counts" question) and answer them on the judgment chart, with one quotation per answer.

   1Of the various contradictory reports made by slaveholders and their satellites about the time of the Harper’s Ferry conflict, none were more untruthful than those relating to the slaves. There was seemingly a studied attempt to enforce the belief that the slaves were cowardly, and that they were really more in favor of Virginia masters and slavery, than of their freedom. As a party who had an intimate knowledge of the conduct of the colored men engaged, I am prepared to make an emphatic denial of the gross imputation against them. They were charged specially with being unreliable, with deserting Captain Brown the first opportunity, and going back to their masters; and with being so indifferent to the work of their salvation from the yoke, as to have to be forced into service by the Captain, contrary to their will.

   [...]

   2As in the war of the American Revolution, the first blood shed was a black man’s, Crispus Attuck’s, so at Harper’s Ferry, the first blood shed by our party, after the arrival of the United States troops, was that of a slave. In the beginning of the encounter; and before the troops had fairly emerged from the bridge, a slave was shot. I saw him fall. Phil, the slave who died in prison, with fear, as it was reported, was wounded at the Ferry, and died from the effects of it. Of the men shot on the rocks, when Kagi’s party were compelled to take to the river, some were slaves, and they suffered death before they would desert their companions, and their bodies fell into the waves beneath. Captain Brown, who was surprised and pleased by the promptitude with which they volunteered, and with their manly bearing at the scene of violence, remarked to me, on that Monday morning, that he was agreeably disappointed in the behavior of the slaves; for he did not expect one out of ten to be willing to fight. The truth of the Harper’s Ferry “raid,” as it has been called, in regard to the part taken by the slaves, and the aid given by colored men generally, demonstrates clearly: First, that the conduct of the slaves is a strong guarantee of the weakness of the institution, should a favorable opportunity occur; and, secondly, that the colored people, as a body, were well represented by numbers, both in the fight, and in the number who suffered martyrdom afterward.

   [...]

   3As it was, even the noble old man’s mistakes were productive of great good, the fact of which the future historian will record, without the embarrassment attending its present narration. [...]

   1But the question is, Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get out of Harper's Ferry before being beaten down by United States soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harper's Ferry to save his life. The true question is, Did John Brown draw his sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? and to this I answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail who so grandly gives himself and all he has to a righteous cause. No man, who in his hour of extremest need, when on his way to meet an ignominious death, could so forget himself as to stop and kiss a little child, one of the hated race for whom he was about to die, could by any possibility fail. Did John Brown fail? Ask Henry A. Wise in whose house less than two years after, a school for the emancipated slaves was taught. Did John Brown fail? Ask James M. Mason, the author of the inhuman fugitive slave bill, who was cooped up in Fort Warren, as a traitor less than two years from the time that he stood over the prostrate body of John Brown. Did John Brown fail? Ask Clement C. Vallandingham, one other of the inquisitorial party; for he too went down in the tremendous whirlpool created by the powerful hand of this bold invader. If John Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did at least begin the war that ended slavery. If we look over the dates, places and men, for which this honor is claimed, we shall find that not Carolina, but Virginia--not Fort Sumpter, but Harper's Ferry and the arsenal--not Col. Anderson, but John Brown, began the war that ended American slavery and made this a free Republic. Until this blow was struck, the prospect for freedom was dim, shadowy and uncertain. The irrepressible conflict was one of words, votes and compromises. When John Brown stretched forth his arm the sky was cleared. The time for compromises was gone--the armed hosts of freedom stood face to face over the chasm of a broken Union--and the clash of arms was at hand. The South staked all upon getting possession of the Federal Government, and failing to do that, drew the sword of rebellion and thus made her own, and not Brown's, the lost cause of the century.

   Teacher check-in: push pairs from "Douglass liked Brown" to a dated claim: what could Douglass say in 1881 that no one could say in 1859? For Source 4, ask what Anderson, as a participant writing in 1861, needed readers to believe, and what his account can and cannot prove.

4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Students read Sources 7 and 8. Note for students: the Niagara Movement was a civil rights organization that W. E. B. Du Bois and others founded at a meeting in Ontario, Canada, in 1905; "Thirteen months later" in Source 8 counts from that meeting. Du Bois, the author of Source 7, was one of its leaders. Each student writes three context questions about Du Bois's 1909 judgment and the Niagara Movement's 1906 meeting, answers them, and then writes a paragraph that begins: "Between 1859 and 1909, the significance of the Harpers Ferry raid changed because ...". The paragraph must name one individual, one group and two dates. The quiz uses Sources 1-8.

   1After the work of Sanborn, Hinton, Connelley, and Redpath, the only excuse for another life of John Brown is an opportunity to lay new emphasis upon the material which they have so carefully collected, and to treat these facts from a different point of view. The view-point adopted in this book is that of the little known but vastly important inner development of the Negro American. John Brown worked not simply for Black Men—he worked with them; and he was a companion of their daily life, knew their faults and virtues, and felt, as few white Americans have felt, the bitter tragedy of their lot. The story of John Brown, then, cannot be complete unless due emphasis is given this phase of his activity. Unfortunately, however, few written records of these friendships and this long continued intimacy exist, so that little new material along these lines can be adduced. For the most part one must be content with quoting the authors mentioned (and I have quoted them freely), and other writers like Anderson, Featherstonhaugh, Barry, Hunter, Boteler, Douglass and Hamilton. But even in the absence of special material the great broad truths are clear, and this book is at once a record of and a tribute to the man who of all Americans has perhaps come nearest to touching the real souls of black folk.

   [...]

   2It is now full fifty years since this white-haired old man lay weltering in the blood which he spilled for broken and despised humanity. Let the nation which he loved and the South to which he spoke, reverently listen again to-day to those words, as prophetic now as then:

   3“You had better—all you people of the South—prepare yourselves for a settlement of this question. It must come up for settlement sooner than you are prepared for it, and the sooner you commence that preparation, the better for you. You may dispose of me very easily—I am nearly disposed of now; but this question is still to be settled—this Negro question, I mean. The end of that is not yet.”

   1Thirteen months later, from August 15 - 19, 1906, the Niagara Movement held its first public meeting in the United States on the campus of Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. Harpers Ferry was symbolic for a number of reasons. First and foremost was the connection to John Brown. It was at Harpers Ferry in 1859 that Brown's raid against slavery struck a blow for freedom. Many felt it was John Brown who fired the first shot of the Civil War. By the latter part of the nineteenth century, John Brown's Fort had become a shrine and a symbol of freedom to African Americans, Union soldiers and the nation's Abolitionists. Harpers Ferry was also the home of Storer College. Freewill Baptists opened Storer in 1867 as a mission school to educate formerly enslaved people. For twenty-five years Storer was the only school in West Virginia that offered African Americans an education beyond the primary level.

   [...]

   2A highlight for those gathered was John Brown's Day. It was a day devoted to honoring the memory of John Brown. At 6:00 a.m. a silent pilgrimage began to John Brown's Fort. The members removed their shoes and socks as they tread upon the "hallowed ground" where the fort stood. The assemblage then marched single-file around the fort singing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "John Brown's Body."

   3The inspirational morning was followed by an equally stirring afternoon. The Niagarites listened to Henrietta Leary Evans whose brother and nephew fought along side Brown at Harpers Ferry, then Lewis Douglass, son of Frederick Douglass, and finally Reverdy C. Ransom, pastor of the Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston. [...]

5. Closure10 minutes

   Exit ticket: "Which of the five context questions changed your view of one source the most? Name the source, the question and what you saw differently."

   Teacher notes. (1) The raid was violent, and people died on both sides; Du Bois, for example, records that the town's mayor "ventured out, unarmed, to reconnoitre and was killed" (John Brown, 1909, chapter XI), and that a Black railroad porter (named in other accounts as Heyward Shepherd, a free man) was "shot dead by Brown's guards on the bridge" (chapter XI). Source 1 notes Brown's earlier role in the "violence and bloodshed in Kansas"; Du Bois's own chronology lists "The Pottawatomie murders" of May 1856, when Brown's party killed five proslavery men. Present these deaths plainly as facts, without graphic detail. Students may admire or condemn Brown; the rubrics score how well they explain each judge's context, not the position they take. (2) The sources use the words of their time ("slaves," "colored," "Negro"); they are kept exactly. (3) Religious language in the sources (Buchanan's "Providence," Douglass's "righteous cause") is part of the historical record and is discussed only as evidence of how the writers argued. (4) Both Source 1 and Du Bois call this note Brown's last written words, but they print it differently. Source 1 has "I, John Brown, am now quite certain" and "without very much blood shed"; Du Bois's book (earlier in chapter XIII, in a passage not excerpted here) has "I, John Brown, am quite certain," "as I now think vainly, flattered myself" and "bloodshed." The differences are small, but they are a reminder to check quotations against an original. (5) Balance: the sources on this page include one condemnation (Buchanan) and several admirers writing after emancipation, which is part of how the judgment shifted, not the whole story. Other judges disagreed. In his Cooper Union address of February 27, 1860, for example, Abraham Lincoln denied any Republican part in the raid and argued that it was not a slave uprising, because the enslaved people refused to take part, a direct challenge to Anderson's claim in Source 4. How many enslaved people joined the raid by choice is still disputed, so treat the page's phrase "the enslaved people who joined the raid" as Anderson's account, to be tested. Writers since 1859 have called Brown a martyr, a fanatic, a terrorist and a freedom fighter; students may use any of these labels if they date and support the judgment.

   For the homework: Source 9 (below) gives two sample student claims to evaluate.

   Claim A (an SVHS-written sample student claim)

   John Brown was obviously a hero, and Americans in 1859 could all see it. His raid was the start of the Civil War, so it was the most important event of the 1850s. Anyone who criticized him at the time was simply on the wrong side of history.

   Claim B (an SVHS-written sample student claim)

   Judgments of John Brown changed with the times. Writers in 1859, 1881 and 1909 each saw the raid in the light of what had happened by then and of what their readers cared about. So their judgments tell us about the raid, but they also tell us about the years in which they were written. The raid's significance was not settled in 1859; later events gave it new meanings.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which statement best captures the idea that the significance of an action "changes over time"?

   AThe facts of an event change each time a new book about it is published BLater judges weigh the same acts differently as times change CAn event becomes more significant the longer ago it happened, no matter what DOnly the people who were present can judge an event's significance

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which sentence is an example of presentism?

   ABuchanan, speaking as President in 1859, feared the raid would deepen a split between North and South BDouglass in 1881 could point to the outcome of the war when he judged the raid CAnderson in 1861 wrote as a participant and wanted to correct the reports of the time DPeople in 1859 should have known the raid would be honored by the National Park Service

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 1, paragraph 2, what did Brown expect the raid to start?

   AAn extended mountain campaign in the slave states BA vote in Congress on ending slavery in Virginia CA general strike by workers in the federal armory DA peace conference between Northern and Southern leaders

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   According to Source 1, paragraph 3, of what was Brown found guilty?

   ADesertion from the U.S. Army and the theft of federal rifles from the armory BTreason against the United States and spying for Kansas CTreason against Virginia, conspiring with slaves to rebel, murder DStarting a riot in Charles Town and resisting arrest by the Marines

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 2, paragraph 1, from what does Buchanan say the events at Harpers Ferry "derive their chief importance"?

   AFrom the large number of federal soldiers who were needed to end the raid BFrom fear that they are signs of a deeper sickness that could end in war CFrom the damage done to the armory and the rifles stored there DFrom the fact that the trial took place in a state court

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 2, paragraph 3, what does Buchanan predict the events at Harpers Ferry will do?

   ALead the Southern states to leave the Union within a year BForce Congress to pass a new law against the slave trade CMake Brown a hero in the North for many years to come DCalm the excitement and prevent more outbreaks like it

7. Question 7 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 3, paragraph 1, what reason does Anderson give for publishing his narrative?

   ATo save from oblivion the facts of what he calls a great movement BTo ask Congress for a pardon for the men of the company still held in prison CTo explain every detail of Brown's secret plans to the public DTo earn money for the families of the men killed at the Ferry

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 3, paragraph 3, why does Anderson say he will not expose all of Brown's plans?

   AHe never learned the plans because he joined the company too late to hear them BBrown had asked him to burn every paper about the plans CTheir fulfilment is "committed to the future" DThe plans had already been printed in the newspapers

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   In Source 4, paragraph 2, why does Anderson compare the first blood shed at Harpers Ferry with that of Crispus Attucks?

   ATo show that the raid happened in the same town as the Revolution BTo place an enslaved man's death in a line of Black patriots CTo argue that the raiders had carefully studied the battle tactics of the Revolution DTo prove that Attucks was related to one of Brown's men

10. Question 10 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 4, paragraph 2, what two things does Anderson say the conduct of the enslaved people at Harpers Ferry "demonstrates clearly"?

    ASlavery was weak, and Black people took a full part in the fight and the deaths BBrown's plan was sure to win, and the troops arrived too late to stop it CFree Black people were braver than enslaved people, and Virginia would soon end slavery DThe raid needed more weapons, and it should have started in Kansas

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which sentence states the central claim of Douglass's closing paragraph in Source 6?

    ABrown failed because his men did not arrive from the North in time BBrown should be remembered mainly as a kind man who kissed a child CThe war began at Fort Sumter, and Brown's raid was a separate event DIf Brown did not end the war that ended slavery, he did at least begin it

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In Source 6, what kind of evidence does Douglass use to answer the question "Did John Brown fail?"

    AInterviews with the soldiers who captured Brown at the armory BNumbers from the census on the enslaved population of Virginia CWhat happened to Brown's opponents in the years after 1859 DLetters that Brown wrote from prison to his family

13. Question 13 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 7, paragraph 1, what new point of view does Du Bois bring to the story of John Brown in 1909?

    AThe view of the Virginia officials who tried and sentenced Brown BThe inner life of Black Americans, with whom Brown worked CThe view of the Kansas settlers who opposed slavery DA military history of the armory and its defenses

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    According to Source 8, paragraph 1, how had John Brown's Fort come to be seen by the late 1800s?

    AAs a shrine and a symbol of freedom to several groups BAs a ruin that the town planned to tear down for a railroad CAs a museum of weapons run by the Virginia militia DAs a reminder of a crime that most Americans wanted to forget quickly

15. Question 15 of 20 · Short Answer

    Compare Buchanan's judgment in Source 2 (1859) with Douglass's in Source 6 (1881). Use two context questions to explain how the context of each shaped the significance he gave the raid.

    Show model answer

16. Question 16 of 20 · Short Answer

    Anderson writes that "the future historian will record" the good that came of the raid "without the embarrassment attending its present narration" (Source 4, paragraph 3). Using Sources 3 and 4, explain what made the story hard to tell in 1861 and how this sentence shows that Anderson expected the significance of Brown's company to change.

    Show model answer

17. Question 17 of 20 · Short Answer

    Du Bois ends his 1909 book by quoting Brown's words of 1859 and calling them "as prophetic now as then" (Source 7, paragraph 2). What does he mean, and what does this show about how his own time shaped his judgment?

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18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    Anderson calls himself "the only man alive who was at Harper's Ferry during the entire time" (Source 3, paragraph 1). How does his position add to the value of his judgment, and how does it limit it?

    Show model answer

19. Question 19 of 20 · Short Answer

    Write two questions about the Black members of Brown's company or the enslaved people who joined the raid that Sources 1-8 do not fully answer. For each, name a kind of source that might answer it.

    Show model answer

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Source 1, written by the National Park Service, calls the event "Brown's so-called raid" and says white people rose up "to put down what they saw as insurrection" (paragraph 2). Use one context question to explain what these word choices show about the National Park Service as a present-day judge.

    Show model answer

These standards connect to D2.His.3.9-12: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (Silver Spring, MD: NCSS, 2013). NCSS was not involved in the production of this lesson and does not endorse it.