Terror Attacks

by Ann Williams

  The original cellar in which Guy Fawkes placed his gunpowder barrels was damaged by fire in 1834, and it was totally destroyed when they rebuilt the Palace of Westminster in the 19th century. The lantern that Guy Fawkes carried to light his way to the cellar can be seen in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

  The Boston Tea Party

  I shall therefore conclude with a proposal that your watchmen be instructed, as they go on their rounds, to call out every night, half-past twelve, ‘Beware of the East India Company’.

  From a pamphlet signed by ‘Rusticus’, 1773

  The Boston Tea Party was a demonstration by American colonists against Great Britain’s decision to put a heavy tax on tea. Britain’s part in both the French and Indian War had been a very costly exercise, so when the war came to an end in 1763, King George III and his government needed to find ways of recouping their losses. They looked at taxing the American colonies and a series of actions, including the Stamp Act of 1765, the Townsend Acts of 1767 and the Boston Massacre of 1770, angered the colonists and strained the relationship of the two countries. The final straw was Britain’s attempt to tax tea, which spurred the colonists into action. The incident, known as the Boston Tea Party, took place on December 16, 1773, and is said to have been a contributory factor to the American Revolution.

  The colonies refused to comply with the levies enforced by the Townsend Act, saying they had no obligation to pay taxes to a government in which they had no representatives. One of the main protesters was a man named John Hancock. Parliament decided to retract the taxes, with the exception of the duty they had imposed on tea.

  In the year 1773, Britain’s East India Company was sitting on enormous stocks of tea that they were unable to sell in England, and it was on the verge of going bankrupt. In an effort to save the company, the government passed the Tea Act, which gave them the right to export its merchandise directly to the colonies without having to pay any of the taxes imposed on the Americans. This meant that they could undersell the American merchants and monopolize the colonial tea trade.

  Naively, the British government thought this would appease the situation because Americans would now be able to get their tea at a cheaper rate. However, what they overlooked was the fact that the colonists were not prepared to pay the duty on imported tea, because then they would be agreeing to unrepresentational taxation. Even though tea was a staple diet to the colonists, they were not fooled by the British government’s ploy, and when the East India Company sent shipments of tea to Philadelphia and New York, the colonists would not allow their ships to land.

  The only place the ships were allowed to dock was Boston, because there the East India Company had the assistance of the British-appointed governor, who arranged for the tea to be landed with the aid of British armed ships. The inhabitants of Boston were furious after failing to turn back three ships – the Dartmouth, the Eleanor and the Beaver – in the harbour, and it all came to a head on the evening of December 16, 1773.

  The Tea Act required that the requisite tax be collected within 20 days of a ship’s arrival in port, which made December 16 the deadline. It was at this time that a man named Samuel Adams came to the fore. He began to question the fairness of the laws imposed by the governor, who was appointed by the British government. Adams and his father spent several years trying to prevent British officials from taking their home and land. Adams believed the colonists had a right to elect their own government officials, and he began to convince others about their rights for fairness, justice and representation. He wrote newspaper articles and essays and promoted his ideas at taverns and meetings. As a result he formed the Country Party, which included farmers who supported his ideas.

  Adams kept public passion high by holding meetings in the Old South Meeting House, and as many as 5,000 people filled the surrounding streets. At one of these gatherings, a resolution was adopted that asked the consignees to return the tea to England. However some of the tea agents were relatives of the governor and refused to comply. On December 16, the owner of the Dartmouth, who sympathized with their plight, agreed to sail his ship back to England. This opportunity to ease tensions was abruptly ended, however, when British officials denied permission for the ship to clear the port and began preparations to seize the vessel for nonpayment of tax.

  This was when the men took the matter into their own hands. Three groups of 50 Boston residents – calling themselves the Sons of Liberty – burst out of the Old South Meeting House and headed towards Griffin’s Wharf. Masquerading as Mohawks they passed through a large crowd of spectators that had gathered on the docks and boarded the three ships waiting at the wharf. The ships were loaded with hundreds of crates of tea, and the raiders opened all the hatches and took out the tea chests and threw them overboard, first cutting and splitting the chests open with their tomahawks. By 9 o’clock that evening they had opened 342 crates of tea and thrown the contents into the water of the Boston Harbour. Even though the harbour was surrounded by British armed ships, no attempt was made to stop the raids. After rampage, the leader of the groups made the men remove their shoes, wash and sweep the decks, and also made the first mate agree to say that the Sons of Liberty had only destroyed the tea and nothing else. The whole event was remarkably peaceful and the next day, the raiders even sent a man to one of the ships to repair a padlock that had been broken the evening before.

  The following morning it was discovered that large quantities of the tea were still floating on the surface of the water, and to prevent the possibility of any of it being saved, a number of small boats were rowed out into the harbour and the inhabitants beat the surface of the water with their oars so that the tea was thoroughly drenched in sea water.

  Soon the news of the Boston Tea Party spread and other seaports followed their example and held similar acts of resistance.

  When the people of Boston refused to pay for the tea they had destroyed, the British government responded by closing the port of Boston. On top of this, in 1774, they introduced the Restraining Acts, or Coercive Acts as they were popularly known in England, which sparked off new resistance up and down the coast of America. It was these new acts, instigated by Lord North with the backing of George III, which led to the American Revolution. Some members of parliament voiced their opinions that these stern measures would lead to something far worse, but their advice went unheeded.

  The Boston Tea Party, however, was not a futile reaction to Britain’s unfair taxes because it received a lot of backing and served to rally support for revolutionaries in the 13 colonies. These colonies were eventually successful in their fight for independence.

  Samuel Adams continued to represent the people of Boston, and ultimately became president of the Massachusetts Senate. He voted for the Constitution in 1788, and he strongly supported the need for a bill of rights. He spent the rest of his life as a voice for reform. Adams died in Boston in 1803. His strong belief in independence and his ability to persuade support for the cause of freedom earned him the name ‘the Father of the American Revolution’.

  John Brown’s Fight Against Slavery

  John Brown’s zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for him.

  Frederick Douglass

  John Brown is remembered as being a man of action; a man who declared eternal war on slavery; a man who would not be deterred from his mission of abolishing slavery; a man who would let nothing stand in his way.

  John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, into a deeply religious family. His father was a vehement abolitionist and when John was only five the family moved from Torrington, Connecticut, to northern Ohio, an area that would become famous for its anti-slavery views. The views of his father had a lasting effect on the young Brown, who believed that his main education came from his own life experiences. He had very little formal education, and when he did go to school he hated all the restraints that went along with
it. Often brawling with fellow classmates, Brown spent a lot of his youth in solitude, and when he was only 12 years old his family entrusted him with the safe transportation of their cattle hundreds of miles away. He was a lone soul and resolutely carried out his task until they arrived safely at their destination.

  One incident in Brown’s adolescence had a very profound effect on him. As usual Brown had been travelling around the country, and in the year 1812 he stopped at a house to ask the master if he would be kind enough to give him a meal and a bed for the night. While he was in the house Brown met a small black slave boy who was a similar age to himself. He watched in horror as the scantily clad youth was verbally abused by the man who had been kind enough to take Brown in. Brown was confused: why should the man show him kindness, and yet beat this young black boy who was so obviously an orphan?

  In 1820 Brown married Dianthe Lusk and for most of their married life they lived on the western slopes of the Alleghenies, where Brown worked as a tanner. Together they had seven children, but she died during the birth of their eighth. In 1833 he married his second wife, Mary Ann Day, with whom he had 13 more children, although only six lived to be adults.

  During his adult life Brown had always been involved in the abolitionist movement, although his feelings did not run very deep in the early years. He started to become more and more involved, but he was frustrated with how little action the movement actually took towards freeing slaves. In 1839 a black preacher spurred him into action by telling him of all the verbal abuse and injustice that he had put up with over the years. It was after that conversation with the preacher that John Brown decided to dedicate his life to fighting slavery, and to do this he enlisted the help of his entire family.

  It was at this point in his life that Brown knew what his mission was to be, and with each tale of torment he heard, his determination grew stronger. Wanting to learn more about the abolition movement, in 1845 Brown started studying the history of the insurrection. After just one year of studying it is thought that the attack that took place at Harper’s Ferry later in his life was already starting to formulate in his head.

  Despite his contributions to the antislavery cause, Brown did not emerge as a significant figure until 1855, when he followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory. This new territory offered brand new land and a call for:

  All lovers of freedom who desired homes in a new region to go there as settlers, and by their votes save Kansas from the curse of slavery.

  DU BOIS 127

  When Brown was on his way to Kansas he stopped to take part in an antislavery convention in New York State. It was here that he solicited weapons and funds, and where he managed to obtain guns, ammunition and swords from sympathetic free-state supporters. Once in Kansas, Brown became a leading figure in the fight against slavery, and the immediate result was conflict and bloodshed. From the very moment he entered the territory, John Brown was itching for a fight and on May 21–22, 1856, a group of proslavery agitators attacked the town of Lawrence, burning buildings and killing two men.

  The following year Brown went to a proslavery town and brutally killed five of its settlers in retribution for another attack. For the remainder of that year Brown and his sons continued to fight for their cause. It is estimated that between November 1855 and December 1856 around 200 men were killed and about two million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed in the territory.

  For fear of being caught Brown went into hiding. Meanwhile two of his sons, who weren’t even involved in the fighting, were arrested. They were eventually set free but were apparently severely mistreated during their confinement. This only added fuel to the fire, and made Brown more committed to being at the centre of the abolitionist movement.

  GATHERING OF FORCES

  By November 1856, Brown was running out of funds and had to return to the East Coast. He travelled around New England for the next couple of years gathering as much money together as he could. He befriended a prominent Boston merchant by the name of Amos Adams Lawrence, who contributed a considerable amount into his fund. Brown was also introduced to several influential abolitionists who agreed to offer him financial support for his activities, and they were the ones who would eventually provide the funds for Harper’s Ferry. These supporters became known as the Secret Six and the Committee of the Six. Over the years Brown often asked for their assistance, but it is unclear as to how much these supporters actually knew. Brown spent the entire summer of 1856 gathering funds, weapons and recruits, and in August he and his supporters fought with settlers at Osawatomie, where his son Frederick was killed.

  I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no peace in this land until slavery is done fore.

  In early 1857 Brown headed east with plans to invade the south. He gathered more supporters and started vigorous training. He held meetings with eastern abolitionists, and in early 1858 Brown sent his son John Jr to find out more about the country around Harper’s Ferry, which was the site of a Federal arsenal.

  RAID ON HARPER’S FERRY

  On June 3, 1859, John rown arrived at Harper’s Ferry and, using the name of Isaac Smith, he rented a farmhouse in nearby Maryland. He waited patiently for his recruits to join him, but there were fewer than he had expected. In August he met with a man named Frederick Douglass, one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, and told him of his plans to raid Harper’s Ferry. Douglass had many reservations about Brown’s plan and declined any offer to join his mission.

  Brown’s final band of men only numbered 21 (16 white and five black), ranging in age from 21 to 49. On the night of October 16, 1859, Brown and 18 of his men set out for Harper’s Ferry, leaving three men behind to guard the farmhouse. The plan was to raid the armoury, a large complex of buildings, which they estimated to contain around 100,000 muskets and rifles. Brown planned to seize the weapons and distribute them among the local slaves before they headed south, hoping this would encourage a general revolution.

  At first the raid went well, and the band of men met no resistance as they headed into town. They cut telegraph wires so that no alarm could be raised and entered the armoury easily, as it was only being guarded by one watchman. Next they rounded up hostages from surrounding farms, one of whom, Colonel Lewis Washington, was the great-grand-nephew of George Washington. They spread the news to the local slaves that they would soon be free and told them to be ready to leave. However, things started to go awry when a Baltimore and Ohio train pulled into the town. Seeing the band of men, the train’s baggage master attempted to warn his passengers, but Brown’s met shouted at him to stop and then opened fire.

  Their first victim was the baggage master himself, Hayward Shepherd, who ironically was a free black man not affected by any of the restrictions of slavery. For some unexplained reason, following the killing of Shepherd, Brown allowed the train to continue its journey, and consequently the news of the raid on the armoury reached Washington by the next morning.

  Back at the armoury, Brown’s men took prisoner an armoury clerk, John Daingerfield, who had arrived for work. He was taken to the guardhouse where he joined the other hostages.

  News had spread like wildfire of the men holding the armoury and local residents including farmers and shopkeepers, and militia came out in force and held the men in the armoury by firing from high points behind the town. Some of the locals were shot, and of course it was impossible for them to get hold of any further arms or ammunition as the arsenal was being closely guarded by Brown’s men. By noon a company of militiamen blockaded the bridge, which was Brown’s only escape route. Brown decided to move his men and prisoners into the engine house, which was a small brick building next to the armoury. They barricaded the doors and windows and knocked holes in the brick walls so that they could fire at the encroaching army. Completely surrounded and outnumbered Brown begrudgingly sent his son Watson and another of his men out carrying a white flag of surrender. But the crowd were angry and they shot them, which caused another
bout of shooting, in which Brown’s son Oliver was wounded. By nightfall Brown’s group of men were trapped in the engine house, and all but five were wounded. That night 90 marines arrived from Washington to assist in the fight against Brown.

  By the morning of October 18 the engine house, which later became known as John Brown’s Fort, was surrounded by the marines. They were informed that if they surrendered their lives would be spared, but Brown refused and said that he would prefer to die than give up. The marines stormed the building, using sledge hammers and a makeshift battering ram to break down the door. During the ensuing chaos one of the marines, a Lieutenant Green, cornered Brown and thrust him so hard with his sword that his body actually left the ground and broke the soldier’s sword. His life was spared, however, because the sword luckily struck his belt. Brown fell forward from the force of the attack, and Green subsequently struck him several times wounding his head.

  In total, Brown’s men killed four people and wounded a further nine. Ten of Brown’s men were killed, including his two sons Watson and Oliver, seven were captured along with Brown, and five managed to escape, including his son Owen.

  Brown and his men were held in the office at the armoury and questioned for three hours before being taken to a jail at Charles Town to await trial.

  TRIAL AND SENTENCE

  It was October 27 when a doctor pronounced that Brown was fit enough to stand trial. He was charged with murdering four whites and a black, conspiring with slaves to rebel and with treason against Virginia. Following a week-long trial, and 45 minutes of deliberation, the jury at Charles Town found John Brown guilty on all three counts. He was sentenced to be hanged in public on December 2, 1859, along with four of his men.