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Lincoln’s Election, Southern Secession: 1860 to April 1861

John Brown’s Martyrdom

Was John Brown, then, really as important as we say in bringing on the war?

He certainly was. No one would claim that the Civil War would not have happened without him; there were plenty of other people and events that could have launched the war. But if John Brown had not carried out the raid on Harpers Ferry, and if he had not gone to his death in so noble a fashion, it is quite likely that the war would have been delayed. And the North—to be sure—would have lacked one of its best marching songs.



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