The slavery debates in
Kansas exploded into open combat. Brown's outrage became a fiery
conviction that God had chosen him to be one of the leaders in
the righteous struggle against slavery. He also came to believe
that, if God had justified violence in defending righteousness in the
Old Testament, it could be used in other places and on a
wider scale to topple the peculiar institution.
Brown spent several weeks in Rochester, New York, at the home of
Frederick Douglass, planning what amounted to a guerrilla
campaign against the South. Despite Brown's urging, Douglass
refused to join in what he believed to be a futile and desperate
gesture. However, he wished Brown the best of luck. The plan was
to establish a center of operation in the Virginia hills. Brown
did not expect to defeat the South by force of arms. Instead, he
believed that he could establish a mountain refuge which would
attract ever-increasing numbers of slaves. His hope was that the
drain on the slave system, coupled with the masters' fear of
attack, would so strain the peculiar institution that, bit by
bit, the South would be forced to negotiate some kind of
settlement.
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