Allies For Freedom Essay, Research Paper

Introduction

The reason I choose “Allies For Freedom” is because I am very interested in slaves and how they gained their freedom. I also wanted to learn about the famous “ john brown” and everything this man did to change history. This book looked interesting to me because it covers not only just john brown but also other allies for the slaves. I wanted to see the different views of the people during slavery. This book also interested me because I knew he was raised in Ohio and I thought to relate to his views from being born and raised in Ohio also.

This is a very important subject in history. Slavery changed American history and how we view things today. This book helps us see and understand that not all people were for slavery and there were people willing to give or risk their lives to do something they believe in. the main person this book is about is john brown. To me he is a hero that opened up opportunities for many blacks and slaves. John brown was a main leader for abolitionist. He led Harpers Ferry with 21 men. They cut telegraph wires, and then made their attack. First the captured the federal armory and arsenal. Then the Hall’s Rifle Works, and supplier of weapons to the government. Then they got 60 citizens of the town and held them as hostages. Hoping that their slaves help them in the fight, but none did. Brown also led a murder of five proslavery men. He led many abolitionists like himself in the fight against slavery.

Benjamin Quarles, the author of “ allies for freedom”, was a noted author, editor, and historian, and the first African American to be published in what became the journal of American history. He has written many books on slavery and abolitionists. He tried, through his books and writings, to show the Declaration of Independence and the rights it gave to the blacks and slaves. Benjamin Quarles is a very experienced author. He has written many book and novels on the topic.

I think that the purpose that the author was trying to give the reader was to inform and educate them about slavery and abolitionists. The author tells about john brown and how he stood up for slaves and the equality of all men. Benjamin Quarles points out all the problems about slavery and America during this time. This book informs us on how slaves were treated during that time. But it also tells us about the many men, including john brown, who helped the blacks win their freedom.

Main body

In the beginning of this book it starts off by telling about john browns day and how it became. On august 17, 1906, hundreds of admires assembled at the john brown “fort” to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of john browns birth and the fiftieth jubilee of his blood skirmish at Osawatomie, Kansas, over the issue of the slavery in the territories. The one hundred or so participants in this john brown’s day were members of a one-year-old black civil rights organization known as the Niagara movement, its first meeting was held at Niagara falls that summer.

All the people gathered outside the engine house, the pilgrims listened to prayer, followed by a speech from Richard t. greener. People had to stand through this whole speech while it was raining. After the half hour speech, the group marched around the fort single file. They sang “the battle hymn of the republic,” supplementing it with additional verses from the John Brown song.

Anthon hall had given speeches before on john brown. On Decoration Day in 1881, Frederick Douglas had an oration on the hero of Harpers Ferry.

On john browns day, Du bois gave a history of slavery and Brown’s relationship to it. He opened Withan analytical study of slavery in modern times and the cause of its growth in the United States. Du Bois was on ground familiar to him, having written a pioneer study on the suppression of the African slave trade. He said brown lived in a world in which things were eternally right or eternally wrong, with slavery obviously in the latter class. Du bois then proceeded to describe the essential elements of browns thinking and planning in his crusade against slavery.

A speaker closed with the assertion that browns real contribution to his times was his effort to contain evil. Du bois ended by saying of the high commitment, just as brown sacrificed himself, he said, so must he and his listeners “sacrificed our work, our money, and our positions, in order to beat back the evil of the world.” The applause lasted for a long time.

In 1881 or 1882 the most prominent blacks of his day, george Washington Williams, then working on a lengthy history of negra Americans, looked for information on john brown from mrs. George l. sterns, widow of a brown benefactor. In her long letter to reply, mrs sterns related for the first time the manner in which john brown had come to write a brief account of his boyhood. She told a story that brown, while a visitor at the sterns home just outside Boston in January 1857, had been asked by thirteen-year-old hennery to tell him what sort of a boy he had been.

When brown was thirteen, he and a clave became friends. The black boy was about his own age and, added brown, was fully his equal, if not more. The slave own treated brown in the kindest and most treatment and was heartless and cruel to the slave boy. This led brown to much sober reflection on the wretched, hopeless condition of the parentless slave children, raising a question in his mind as to whether they had a father even in god.

He first verifiable reference by brown to blacks came late in 1832 in a long letter to his brother, Frederick. Writing from Randolph Township in northwestern Pennsylvania, where ha server as postmaster, the thirty-four-year-old brown said that he had been tiring to devise ways to help those in bondage.

Browns letter also spoke of a long-held interest he had in opening a school for blacks, expressing the opinion that in Randolph there would be no strong opinion that in Randolph there would be no strong opposition to such a move.

When brown moved into northern Ohio, he came into a strong abolitionist region of his boyhood years. The Western Reserve was congenitally hospitable to runaways; its ports received them and then spiriting them across lake Erie to Ontario and to freedom. Detesting slave-catchers, the villagers of Hudson were in the habit of signaling their arrival by loudly tolling the fire bell.

During the twelve months after he left the Kansas territory, brown, in chronic need, spent most of his time raising money. Traveling even more than was his wont, he sought financial backers like George l. Stearns who, sharing his convictions, might be induced to share their means. To this end he spoke at meetings, generally in New England, with short talks “an idea of things in Kansas”

At the Douglass home brown spent most of his time drafting a constitution and writing letters. Browns brainchild, a “provisional constitution and ordinances for the people of the united states,” was a document comprised of a preamble and forty-eight articles. Brown kept its contents to himself, preferring not to unveil it prior to a ratification convention he was planning to hold in three months.

When brown traveled east in the early spring of 1859 the main thing on his mind was money for Harpers Ferry. Manpower, in his analysis, would be less of a problem, particularly the enlisting of black recruits.

Conclusion

The author did well in informing the reader what all was happening at the time this story is taking place. It talks about john browns life and how he helped change the lives of all blacks and how he helped them gain equality. I think this authors main point was to teach the reader about how there were many people out there trying to help the slaves at this tragic time. The main person in this book is john brown and how he gave his life for what he believed in.

I think that everything the author talked about helped me understand more about how john browns led his life and how he helped many people in need. I learned about how many people were behind brown and all that he is doing. He is a very respected man today. This book taught me a lot about john brown and how the blacks had to live their lives.

This book could benefit anyone who is willing to read it. If you want to read a good book about this topic, slaves and john brown I would suggest reading this book. I thought it was interesting to see how brown stood up for what he believed in and gave his own life to benefit others.