Write a formal essay in which you respond fully, carefully, and accurately — following ALL of the guidelines explained above — to the writing prompts/questions below. Make sure that your essay is organized so that, in addition to an introductory paragraph and a concluding paragraph, there are separate paragraphs for your responses to each of the prompts below.

* Carefully explain the major events that demonstrated the US’s rapidly increasing division over the issue slavery from 1850 through 1856.
* Carefully explain John Brown’s raid.
* In what ways did those who admired him defend and support Brown and his use of violence at Harper’s Ferry?
* In what ways did those who opposed his actions condemn
– Brown himself?
– the abolitionist movement and its supporters as a whole?

* documents 12.5 through 12.9 in Document Project found at the end of chapter 12 of our textbook, Exploring American Histories.
* pages 389-404 AND page 408 in chapter 12 of our textbook.
These documents and pages examine the nation’s increasing division over the issue of slavery AND the differing views of the raid led by abolitionist John Brown on the US arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. This raid is generally considered to be one of the most important “steps” towards the Civil War.