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 been outlawed other in places where it already was allowed, that this simply was not enough. He saw the practice as barbaric, violent, cruel, inhumane, and contrary to the founding beliefs the United States was based upon. He had considered the options present to him, including those already being unsuccessfully implemented by Abolitionists of the era, and determined that it would be by force that slavery would come to an end.
             Brown and an army of less than two-dozen men raided the arsenal at Harper's Ferry with the hopes of achieving one of two goals. The first was to seize the 100,000 weapons stored at the Arsenal and begin an armed revolt of slaves through the South. If this plan failed, he hoped that his armed raid, complete with Black men at his side, would be the catalyst needed to spark a war between the two sides, once and for all, and thus bring about the end of slavery. Brown was captured thirty-six hours after the beginning of his raid and eventually hung for treason. Although his first plan of arming slaves for revolt didn't come to fruition, his second plan for sparking a national conflict did.
             It is this impact, posthumously, that also must be considered when determining Brown's proper place in history. Brown accomplished his goal of bringing both sides of slavery into an armed conflict.
             He realized that all he had to was set foot in the South with a gun and tell southerners, I'm here to free your slaves by gun point and I've got armed black men here too. And that this would tap into the greatest fears that southerners had. Fears of Nat Turner style insurrections, fears of what happened on ...