I'm not sure where to post this, so I hope it's in the right place.

Anyways, I have a coming test on Monday, but that's not why I'm here. It's just that we were discussing Chapters 16-19 In The American Pageant Twelfth Edition and we had a debate on whether John Brown was a Murderer or a Martyr. It was a bit biased because I live in the south and Brown was a Radical Abdolitionist. Most of the people in my class immediately said that he was a muderer that should had been in the asylum.

I just want to know what you guys think. Do you think he's a martyr or a murderer? I personally think that although he may had had... mental issues, and there are points where I have to wonder what he was thinking, but overall, I think he was a martyr. It's quite obvious that he was a murderer because he killed all those people, but doesn't martyr mean "a person who died for his/her beliefs"? If so, then he is a martyr because he died for his ideas. He may had been extreme about it, but his death and his actions caused many people to think about why he did it and why was it worth killing so many people.

I think he said something around the lines of him being "...worth much more to the abolitionist cause dangling from a rope than in any other way". I can't help but to think that he was a very clever man. And I agree with him. Why else would he be in our history books? I doubt that if the South won (thank god they didn't) and the Confederation somehow miraculously survived, he would be in our history books. If he was, he would be portrayed as an evil person and exaggerated his actions to suit their needs.

Anyways, I was just interested in what you guys thought about this.