History - Past and Perspective
John Brown’s Lethal Legacy

John Brown’s Lethal Legacy

John Brown, the abolitionist-turned-murderer who tried to incite a slave revolt, is held as a role model for liberals because his murders of innocents directly fueled the Civil War. ...
Steve Byas

As John Brown’s “Northern Army” approached the Kansas home of the Doyles, poor settlers from Tennessee, two barking bulldogs met them. It was about midnight, and the men did not want the dogs to awaken the Doyle family asleep in their modest cabin — so two of the “soldiers” slashed one of the dogs with their swords. The second dog fled.

The Doyles had moved to Kansas so as not to have to compete with slave labor, and otherwise took little interest in the growing national controversy of slavery. But in the eyes of Brown, they were guilty of being Southerners.

If the loud barking did not awaken the Doyles, the loud pounding on the cabin door did. James Doyle asked, “What is it?”

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