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The Slavery Of The United States Of America Essay

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In reaction to the longstanding injustices of slavery in the United States of America, revolutionaries known as abolitionists provided and shared their philosophies and courses of action in order to lead others in joining them to dispose of the enslavement of their fellow man and woman. There were, of course, diverse viewpoints and ideas in how freeing the enslaved would go about and why it was important. Leading abolitionists, including John Brown, Angelina Grimke, William Lloyd Garrison, and Frederick Douglass, had diverse opinions and ideas, but, in the end, fought for a common goal: the outlaw of slavery. John Brown was an abolitionist who attempted to raid the government arsenal at Harpers Ferry and lead an armed slave revolt which consisted of twenty one men (a majority of whom were white); it resulted in roughly sixteen deaths. John Brown was convicted of treason and put on trial in 1859. In his final defense, he said that he never intended “murder or treason, or the destruction of property, or to excite or incite the slaves to rebellion, or to make insurrection.” He goes on to say that his being on trial at all wasn’t fair because if he had done something in defense or interference of someone’s friend of family, everything would have been okay and just. His actions were to assist slaves in achieving freedom from their suffering, and he stated he would gladly sacrifice himself for the cause. He goes on to say that he wasn’t even aware of the numbers on his side

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