There is far more to the story than just this.
In John Brown’s efforts to foment a slave rebellion, figuring that training slaves to use guns would be expensive, difficult and less than effective against those raised with their use, he commissioned a blacksmith to make 950 pikes, that were described at the time as Bowie knives mounted on 7 foot poles, which Brown had designed, based on a Bowie knife he had taken from a Missourian.
http://www.civilwar.si.edu/slavery_brown8.html
Importantly, Brown was counting on the slaves being so full of savage rage that they would use their pikes to massacre all who resisted.
This demonstrates the strength the Bowie knife had on the public consciousness at the time. Possibly some comparisons could be drawn with how “assault rifles” are described today, by those ignorant of them.
John Brown was insane. Just about all his relatives were insane. In Eastern, Kansas he murdered a slave holding family including young boys and chopped their bodies into pieces.