A Footnote in History
John Brown was a militant abolitionist famous for leading the Pottawatomie Massacre in Bleeding Kansas on August 20, 1856. His band of two-dozen men managed to stop four hundred Missourians led by Major General John W. Reid by killing twenty and wounding another forty. Though the Missourians forced Brown’s party to scatter on the next assault, Brown’s role in the massacre was trumpeted by northern abolitionists, earning him the nickname Osawatomie Brown. A play by the same name was written in his honor and became a minor hit on the east coast. Brown’s unlikely victory may have inflated his sense of military prowess, something which would ultimately lead to his downfall.
By late 1856, Brown’s attention turned south. He travelled throughout the northeast to raise money and support though he never told the plot to his patrons in its entirety. Brown also hired Colonel Hugh Forbes, an English mercenary who fought Guiseppe Garibaldi in Italy in 1848. Forbes agreed to sign on as drillmaster for Brown’s troops. The two men met in Tabor, Iowa, in the summer of 1857. There, Forbes realized that Brown’s zeal was not matched by his strength; the abolitionist only had three men in his service, all his sons. Forbes humored the man and helped in craft a plan, by which he learned the details of the plot. However, by November Brown’s forces had not increased and he proved unable to play Forbes’s salary, causing the mercenary to terminate his contract. Forbes agreed to set up a training camp for Brown’s men in Ohio if a substantial number could be raised and paid but, upon reaching Ohio in November 1857, decided to absolve himself of the plot. He considered alerting Brown’s benefactors of the insane plan but instead went directly to the authorities.
After Forbes’s departure, Brown’s company swelled to a total of twelve men. In January 1858, Brown led the company to Ohio to check on Forbes’s progress in setting up the camp. Soon after stepping off the train, Brown and his men were arrested by local police. A search of the company’s baggage turned up nothing other than Brown’s notes, which revealed tidbits of his plan. This was enough for Brown and his sons to be held in custody for a trial, though the other nine men were allowed to return to Iowa. Thomas Wentsworth Higginson, one of Brown’s chief benefactors, arranged bail for Brown and his three sons. He also hired local attorneys, among them Albert G. Riddle, to act in their defense. The trial was held in March 1858; Brown was sentenced to six months in prison while his sons were acquitted.
John Brown grew a beard in prison
While Brown languished in an Ohio prison, Minnesota was admitted to the Union as the 32nd state on May 11, 1858. This was great news for the Republican Party, who expected to have a near-lock on the state’s four electoral votes, bringing them one step closer to victory in the 1860 presidential election. It also upset the balance of freed states and slave states in the Union. This was further exacerbated by the admission of Oregon on February 14, 1859. However, the 33rd state’s “white only” clause in its constitution prevented uproar in the south, which had little power to stop the state’s entry after the Republican victory in the previous November’s midterm elections.
From August through October, seven debates were held between Stephen A Douglas, the incumbent democratic senator of Illinois, and the republican candidate Abraham Lincoln. Though Douglas would win reelection, these widely publicized debates made Lincoln a viable presidential candidate. Douglas’s win was an exception to the rule; November 1858 was a big win for the fledgling republican party which gained its first ever majority in the House of Representatives.
Abraham Lincoln speaking during one of the debates
In September 1858, Brown was released from prison. He returned to Iowa to find his company had disbanded. Instead of giving up, Brown joined radical abolitionist James Montgomery and his “Self-Protective Company” and accompanied him on a raid into Missouri in October 1858. The raid was a partial success; the company liberated seven slaves and several horses from the southerners but lost three of their men, one of which was Brown, in the ensuing firefight.
Important events also occurred during this period outside of the political realm. In June 1958, the Comstock Lode was discovered in the western Utah Territory. This was the first silver lode discovered and would fuel the growth of the territory’s population and economy. The first American oil well was drilled in August 1958 near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Largely unnoticed by the people of the time, this event would have far reaching consequences. Another such event was Hyman Lipman’s patent of the pencil with an eraser at the tip.
The largest slave auction in history was held in Savanna, Georgia in March 1859. Pierce M. Butler sold 436 men, women, and children in what was later referred to as “The Weeping Time.” Also in 1859, the first American Zoo is founded in Pennsylvania by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. Pike’s Peak Gold Rush began in July of 1859. Possibly the most important event of the decade, in late November Charles Darwin published The Origin of the Species which presented the theory of evolution by natural selection.
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