"Ideas made the opposite impact in the Confederacy. Ideological contradictions afflicted the slave system even before the war began. John Brown knew the masters secretly feared their slaves might revolt, even as they assured abolitionists that slaves really liked slavery. One reason his Harpers Ferry raid prompted such an outcry in the South was that slave owners feared their slaves might join him. Yet their condemnations of Brown and the 'Black Republicans' who financed him did not persuade Northern moderates but only pushed them toward the abolitionist camp. After all, if Brown was truly dangerous, as slave owners claimed, then slavery was truly unjust. Happy slaves would never revolt."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
James W. Loewen, as quoted in Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong (2008), p. 193.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Brown (abolitionist)
John Brown (9 May 1800 – 2 December 1859) was an American abolitionist who advocated and practiced insurrection as a means to the abolition of slavery. First reaching national prominence for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, he was eventually captured and executed for a failed incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry preceding the American Civil War.
43 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Brown (abolitionist) →
Related Quotes
"I believe that to have interfered as I have done—as I have always freely admitted I have done—in behalf of His despis…"
"I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on this continent — General Tubman as we call her."
"Persons convicted of the forcible violation of any female prisoner shall be put to death."
"I am gaining in health slowly, and am quite cheerful in view of my approaching end, — being fully persuaded that I am…"
"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood. I ha…"
"Whereas slavery, throughout its entire existence in the United States, is none other than the most barbarous, unprovo…"
"These men are all talk; What is needed is action — action!"
"The marriage relation shall be at all times respected, and families kept together, as far as possible; and broken fam…"
"All persons known to be of good character and of sound mind and suitable age, who are connected with this organizatio…"
"Nothing so charms the American people as personal bravery."