That is always a topic of heated debate. I love my history and just visited Harper’s Ferry in September. I admit I am someone who empathizes with John Brown. What to do when faced with the brutal practice of slavery when people were at the mercy of their ‘master’? And when you realize what was going on in Kansas and the war and violence and mock ‘elections’ and no real rule of law. But that history is fascinating and the story of the Browns and their sacrifices to something they felt there was no other way to solve it. And they were right.
Well, he may have had convictions, but to murder innocent people did not help his cause.