[colorado tanker]

I didn't realize that Brown was convicted of treason against the State of Virginia, not the United States, even though his crime was seizing a United States arsenal and fighting U.S. troops. Gives an interesting mindset into the thinking of both Virginians and the U.S. Government at the time.

It's also interesting that southerners viewed the seizure of Harpers' Ferry insurrection while the seizure of Fort Sumpter was not.

Brown's story to me illustrates why Americans should not resort lightly to the Jeffersonian "right of insurrection" even when evil is afoot in the land. The democratic process worked and the election of Lincoln brought the slavery issue to a head.

John Brown gets good press because he was anti-slavery and seemed to foreshadow the victory of abolitionism a few years later. While Brown did not target the Harpers Ferry civilians, I would still classify him as a terrorist for his attacks on Missouri civilians from the Kansas side of the border.

[stand watie]

FYI, Harper's Ferry Arsenal was VA-owned, rather than US-owned, though it manufactured weapons, ammunition & pyrotechnics for the federal government & several state's militias..

it was guarded, therefore, by VA-paid & sworn VA police, armed guards & VMI cadets.

john brown should have been tried for the coldblooded murder of Heywood Shepard, but the Commonwealth's Attorney was concerned that an all-white jury might aquit a white man for killing a free black man, so he was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of VA.

the story of the criminal acts @ HFA is far more complicated than you learned in school.

free dixie,sw