John Brown was born in Eastern Virginia in 1810. He later fled to Georgia. He believed that an armed struggle was the only means of abolishing slavery in the United States. He waged the war of the African-Americans against their slave masters but eventually became unsuccessful, which led to his escape to Georgia.
Thomas Cobb was born in April 1823 in Jefferson County. In the 1850s, he and his elder sibling headed a movement against pro-slavery crusaders. Thomas Cobb invested in his political career with the help of his brother and agitated for the end of slavery in the South (Art and Jervis, 23).
The Role of John Brown in Ending Slavery
In 1833, Brown remarried after the death of his family members. He ran into debts that led to his incarceration. He vowed to end slavery in 1837 after the death of Elijah Lovejoy. In 1843, the US government declared him a bankrupt in a federal court, which caused his repatriation to Springfield. Brown later met with Springfield’s African-American abolitionists. He began to attend abolitionists’ speeches in Springfield making the town a crucial center of abolitionism (Kinzer, 18).
In the 1850s, the US formulated the Fugitive Slave Act that resulted in the freedom of slaves, their families, and withdrawal of their charges. With this law, Brown formed a group that aided in the re-capture of slaves in order to free them. Brown left Springfield with the assurance that whites would no longer capture slaves. Brown succeeded in his anti-slavery campaign because slaves were no longer captured in Springfield after his departure. The Springfield success was a starting point in the anti-slavery campaign for Brown.
In 1855, Brown left for Kansas where the pro-slavery community was determined to make the town a slave center. Brown became angry due to his father’s death and the government’s sacking of Lawrence, an anti-slavery crusader who was also a government operative. The war intensified in Kansas leading to the death of many people. The pro-slavery crusaders were not successful in acquiring the city of Kansas. In 1856, a force of Missourians destroyed Brown’s homestead.
In the same period, Brown and his forces successfully fought and defeated Pate and his pro-slavery campaigners. Brown’s forces captured Pate’s men. Pate had to release Brown’s sons. This aspect also led to the release of Pate’s men in Brown’s custody. Later, an army of Missourians invaded Kansas and Osawatomie with the view of capturing the cities. Brown arranged a group of thirty – eight men in order to plan retaliatory attacks against Pate.
Unfortunately, the Missourians defeated Brown’s forces leading to the killing of his son. Brown and his forces hid in the woods. The Missourians captured a number of Brown’s men. The pro-slavery crusaders managed to burn the city of Osawatomie.
They forced Brown to go into exile. Brown began looking for funds in order to finance his anti-slavery campaign. He succeeded in buying rifles and other arms to help in the fight against the pro-slavery crusaders. Brown also hired the Hugh Forbes Mercenary that trained his men in war activities.
In 1858, Brown travelled to New York where he wrote a provisional constitution for the US. He wanted the laws of the US to address the issue of slavery. In May 1858, Brown convened an anti-slavery meeting in which delegates signed a document that showed that many people in the US wanted changes in the US Constitution in order to end slavery.
In the same year, Brown led an invasion of his army into a suburb in Kansas leading to the arrest of two whites and the liberation of a dozen of slaves. He later travelled to Harpers Ferry in July 1859 to organize another invasion. His men later joined him in Harpers Ferry where they conquered the armory. In October 1859, Brown and seven of his men were captured by the US Marines. The US army shot dead ten men from Brown’s forces. Five members of his force including one of his sons escaped.
The US government accused Brown of murder and treason. In November 1859, the judiciary found the anti-slavery campaigner guilty for all his accusations. The court sentenced Brown to death. He was executed December 2 and buried in New York alongside his sons Oliver and Watson. Slave masters feared that the anti-slavery crusaders would follow the doctrines of Brown. For this reason, they reorganized the militias and became an army comprised of slave masters.
The rebellion led by John Brown is important for understanding the origins of the American Civil War because it significantly intensified the antipathies toward slavery as a social institution. Many people became convinced that it might have been necessary to use force in order to end to slavery.
They became firmly convinced that they needed to take an active role in the abolitionist movement. Thus, to some degree, he contributed to the end of slavery in the country. Furthermore, he became a symbol for the resistance against the existing social norms. Moreover, the example that he set revitalized the abolitionist movement in the country. This is the main role that this person played.
The Role of Thomas Cobb in Ending Slavery
Thomas Cobb was a renowned defender of slavery in the South. He utilized the US laws to fight slavery. In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the US presidency. During Lincoln’s presidency, about one-third of all the white families owned slaves.
After the election, Cobb denounced his membership in the union of slave masters. In November 1860, he made a speech in support of his withdrawal from the union’s activities. Cobb believed that the victory of the Republicans would help influence the anti-slavery campaign in the US. Cobb started a campaign that targeted the end of the union of slave masters.
Cobb withdrew from the union in 1861 during a meeting held in Georgia. After the secession of Georgia, Cobb was elected in the Provincial Congress of the States of America in Alabama. He experienced resistance from the political class leading to his resignation from the Congress. He also formed the Cobb’s Legion. He led his regiment to battles at Seven Days, Antietam and Second Manassas. He became frustrated by the slow progress of the ranks of command and assumed the leadership of a group led by his brother.
In 1862, Cobb died in a battle in Virginia. On the whole, Thomas Cobb was one of those people who shaped public opinion about slavery. This argument is particularly relevant if one speaks about Southern states. People, whose worldviews were shaped by the ideas of Thomas Cobb became convinced that slavery could be justified from an ethical viewpoint. In their opinion, there was no reason to abolish this social institution. They regarded it as an inseparable part of normal life.
Moreover, they began to believe the internal conflicts within American society could not be resolved with the help of negotiation. Such individuals became active supporters of secession. These are the main effects produced by the writings of Thomas Cobb. Overall, these effects were rather negative.
Did Brown and Cobb’s Fight to End Slavery Lead the Nation to the Civil War?
This research draws a link between John Brown’s activities and slave revolts in the Caribbean. When he was born, there was a Haitian revolution in which Haitian slaves rebelled against the French. This paper does not find any direct contribution of Brown’s abolitionists’ ideas to the Civil War. This research identifies the fact that Brown made a revolutionary effect on slavery in the US.
After the secession in Georgia, most Georgians hoped to avoid the war, but the battle was inevitable as insurgents fired at Fort Summer in South Carolina. This aspect led to many Georgians joining the Confederates forces. The war started in battlefields but later ended in Georgia. In 1862, Georgia was involved in a campaign of the Civil War. Slavery came to an end when slaves rebelled against their masters. In 1862, the US government conducted an exercise in which it registered all blacks as free citizens of the US.
Slavery became the main cause of divisions in the US, but it was not the only cause of the armed struggle (Edwards, 16). The war against slavery had happened before Lincoln was elected the president of the US, but after 1860, divisions arose among the pro-slavery parties leading to the amendment of the US Constitution that ended slavery. The end of the Civil War led to the liberation of slaves. Both Brown and Cobb contributed in the divisions that caused the Civil War.
To some degree, such individuals polarized American citizens. Certainly, one cannot overestimate the role of separate individuals. Nevertheless, the examples that they set shaped the choices of many people in the United States. This is why the role should not be overlooked. These historical figures had profoundly different views on the society, and they contributed to the outbreak of Civil War in the country.
Works Cited
Art, Robert, and Robert Jervis. International Politics: Enduring concepts and contemporary issues tenth edition. Boston: Longman, 2011.Print.
Edwards, Sebastian. Left Behind: Latin America and the False Promise of Populism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010.Print.
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Northern California: Times Books, 2008.Print.