John Brown was passionate about achieving abolition. His determination was so strong that he sometimes took actions that were irrational and almost sure to fail. The most important of those activities was on October 16, 1859, when he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virg...

John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October 1859, involved only a handful of abolitionists, freed no slaves, and was over in two days. Although many Northerners condemned the raid, by 1863, John Brown had become a hero and martyr in the North. John Brown was a...

John Wilkes Booth, a name that conjures up America's most infamous assassin and killer of perhaps one of America's greatest presidents, Abraham Lincoln. Born in 1838 on a farm near Bel Air, Maryland, John W. Booth grew up favoring the south and its way of life. Being a Southerner, Booth ...

A Conscience Full of Compassion "The Journal of John Woolman," and "Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes," by John Woolman, effectively portray his strong convictions and beliefs towards slavery and other controversial issues. His charisma helped open the gates for the ...

When determining John Brown's proper place in history many aspects have to be considered. First, are his personal actions, as well as the actions he inspired in others during his lifetime. Brown crafted a plan that he believed would end slavery in America. He felt that although slavery had b...

"The Portent" by Herman Melville Herman Melville's poem, "The Portent" is about the brutal death of the famous abolitionist, John Brown. A portent is an evil omen. Herman Melville and many others thought of John Brown as the portent of the Civil War. Melville was known as ...

John C. Calhoun was a man of very high stature and intelligence. His ideas and thoughts were expressed very sternly and backed up with concrete evidence. Of course not everyone agreed with Calhoun's thoughts and procedures. The man knew himself and his ideas would somehow make a differ...

Roger B. Taney Roger Taney lived from 1777-1864. He lived a great life and did many things during his lifetime. President Jackson named Taney chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1837. He served as chief justice from (1837- 1864) he remains the second longest in the courts history. Taney wa...

Harriet Tubman Harriet Ross Tubman was originally named Araminta Ross. She was born around the year 1820 and died in 1913. Harriet was born into a family of eleven children who were born to the slaves, Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, and lived on a plantation in Dorchester County, Maryland. Harr...

It could be said that both Sectionalism and nationalism increased during the Era of Good Feelings. However, the Era of Good Feelings was, to a certain degree, misnamed. By the 1820's an "Era of Inflamed Feelings" was beginning to undermine the Era of Good Feelings. Political giants w...

Who was the founder of the colony in North America? Why did slavery have to start? Two interesting literature writers John Smith and Olaudah Equiano wrote in early colonial times. The New Land, by John Smith, and from The Interesting Narrative in the Life of a Slave, by Olaudah Equiano, are two amaz...

One Way (Middle) Passage - was a journey of 500 miles across the Atlantic to America. As many as 200 black men, women, and children were packed below decks, squeezed onto platforms built in tiers spaced so close that sitting upright was impossible. Maroons - were a group of runaway slaves that for...

Did you know that the "Dred Scott Case" was one of the most important cases ever tried in the United States? It started when Scott's former master John Emerson had died and his wife Irene Sanford-Emerson hired out Scott and his family to work for other families. Since that h...

Elizabeth (Mumbet) Freeman Listen and Learn Elizabeth Freeman, an uneducated slave, is known to the world as Mumbet, a name apparently derived from Elizabeth. Lacking a surname, she adopted the name Freeman from the word freedom. In 1781, in Sheffield, Massachusetts, Elizabeth obtained an att...

The ¡°Era of Good Feelings¡± was the period in U.S. history when people were stimulated by two events of 1816, during the presidency of James Madison: the enactment of the first U.S. protective tariff and the establishment of the second National Bank. With the decline of the Federalists t...

Many historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid was to the Civil War what the Boston Massacre had been to the American Revolution. They were both incendiary events. Defenders of the union generally condemned Brown and called the raid "the work of a madman." Everywhere the threat of slave...

The autobiography of John P. Parker, a former slave and "conductor" of the Underground Railroad, could be best described as the life time battle of one man against slavery of the African American people. In his own definition of this great injustice, that sadly effected many lives, Parker ...

The Tests of the Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, one of Americas shining jewel. Created by the philoshophy of great minds, such as John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau. How did it all play out in Americas' history? The test of time had shown ...

The Jacksonian Era The Jacksonian Era encompassed a period of massive changes. These changes, whether they be social, economic, or political, were embraced by Americans with a new found vigor. This enthusiasm, motivated by a new "common man" president, Andrew Jackson, gave Americans ...

The Dred Scott decision was an important ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States that had a significant influence on the issue of slavery. The case was decided in 1857 and, in effect, declared that no black--free or slave--could claim United States citizenship. Slaves were viewed as propert...

After the civil war, there were many problems left to be solved. Thousands of land and many transportation means were destroyed, millions of soldiers diminished, the Southern economy was ruined, and freed blacks who have no idea what to do with their freedom were the results as well as the problems...

Dredd Scott v. Sandford (1857) Facts of the Case: In 1848, the United States had acquired new lands in the Mexican cession and the question was whether or not the south should be allowed to spread slavery to the new states. Dredd Scott was a slave to a U.S. army surgeon, Dr. John Emerson in St. L...

I chose Henry Clay as the person who I think should have been president instead of these four other men. These other men were incompetent, they lacked leadership, and they each didn't have much support. None of them had much drive or motivation to be a good president, and as for a couple of t...

Amistad was a ship that carried slaves to the US. According to the owners of the ship, they came from Cuba. They had actually come from Africa where it was illegal to get slaves from. There was a trial to decide where the slaves on that ship came from, and there were different people who thought ...

Dredd Scott America in 1857 was a nation on the brink. Relationship between the North and South had been strained for decades and was only getting worse. All tension had to do with the issues of slavery. In 1848 the U.S. had acquired new lands in the Mexican cession, and the debate was ...