Thursday, May 24, 2012

Killing At Pottawatomie

On the night of May 24th and early morning hours of May 25th 1856, John Brown led what is known as the Pottawatomie Massacre.

Following the attack on Lawrence, Kansas, which was led by a pro- slavery sheriff and included the destruction of abolitionist owned homes, hotel, and newspapers, John Brown was outraged.  He saw the action of these antislavery people as cowardly.  On the morning of May 22nd 1856 a Free State company under the command of John Brown Jr heard of the sacking of Lawrence and not knowing if the people needed assistance set out.  They camped near Ottawa Creek until late on May 23rd 1856.

John Brown Sr handpicked a party to join him on a private expedition.  He took four of his sons; Frederick, Oliver, Owen, and Watson, along with Henry Thomason, Theodore Weiner and James Towsley.  They camped throughout the 23rd and into the evening of the May 24th in a ravine just off the traveled road near Dutch Henry’s Crossing on Pottawatomie Creek in Franklin County, Kansas.  After dark on May 24th 1856 they left their hiding place and went to the house of James P Doyle.  They ordered Doyle and his two adult sons William and Drury out of the house.  Brown’s party took the three men out into the darkness where the Brown brothers killed them with broadsword, finishing by shooting the men in the head to make sure they were dead.  From here Brown’s men went to the house of Allen Wilkinson who ran the local Post Office.  Wilkinson was ordered out of his house and stabbed to death.  Around midnight Brown’s group crossed the Pottawatomie and forced their way into the home of James Harris at the point of a sword.  Harris had three guests staying with him, Jerome Glanville, William Sherman, and John S Wightman.  Glanville and Harris were interrogated and released, while Sherman was taken to the creek and hacked to death.

Brown found out at Harris’s home that his target Henry Sherman was away from home, they ended their killed and returned to the ravine where they had camped the night before.

If you are interested in reading more about the Pottawatomie Massacre this is a good web site.

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Not bad factually, just rather meaningless unless you know what John Brown was responding to.

    And Im not sure you do. I don't have time today to read your other stuff, but a quick look at your titles suggest you have a void of factual knowledge. I could be wrong.

    Im writing a blog now about the conditions John Brown faced, and what led him to that day. Namely the role of David Rice Atchison, his role in Kansas Bill, then quickly going to Kansas to kill and terrorize, under the authority of, and pay of, the Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis.

    When you understand all that, you can't really write the blog you did, IMHO. No one said it better than Charles Sumner, though you'd need to be conversant in facts of Kansas, and not be fooled by the BS narrative that Southern leaders gave a rats ass about state's rights or popular sovereignty. Yeah yeah I know they said that, but actions speak louder that words, especially when those actions are violent assaults, murderous assaults, that contradict the words.

    I do have a blog you can read now, you might find interesting, on Jeff Davis cowardice upon capture. Yeah yeah, I know the drill, it was Northern newspapers slandering a brave man, or it was confusion.

    Bull, I show you the letter his wife wrote about his capture, and his nephews journal, both in their own way, not only validate the soldiers reports, but obliterate Davis self serving claim he was heroic and saved his wife and children. Actually, it was the other way around,

    I have decided 150 years of bullshit and distortions is enough. It's time we used facts, original documents, like Southern speeches, documents, sermons, books, and letters, to show what they bragged about at the time, and did, which is contrary to the claims of Southern apologists.

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  3. http://jeffdavisdresss.blogspot.com/

    is the blog. Leave a response if you have thoughts one way or another. I think people should respond to blogs, if they write too.

    TYVM

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  4. Who are the men in the photos above?

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