A kidnapper wants a ransom a hostage taker usually has "demands" that should be met a robber simply wants money or goods and might be willing to kill for them. This makes terrorism different from other kinds of illegal activity or violence. The act of terror becomes the goal, with no expectation that anything else will follow. Terrorists may hope for political change, but what they often want is to simply strike back at and harm those they oppose. So, what beyond scaring or frightening people constitutes terrorism? How do we define the "terrorist?"įor terrorists, the "terror" itself, the act of violence, is the goal rather than simply the means to an end. The trench warfare and artillery duels of World War I terrorized millions of civilians, but this was not essentially terrorism. Similarly, the long sieges of the Civil War, as well as decisions by both sides to strike at civilian targets that aided the war effort, surely terrorized populations. Siege warfare of the ancient and medieval world surely terrorized those inside castles or towns.
Starting with World War II, large-scale bombing has been a fact of modern warfare, but bombing of military targets is surely not an act of terrorism, even though the civilian population may be harmed or terrorized. After all, few would consider soldiers in warfare terrorists, yet surely they try to make their enemy "fearful" of them. This, however, is not a complete definition. Terrorists seek to "terrify" people and strike fear in the minds of those at whom their terror is directed. There are no complete or certain definitions of terrorism. The American response was a "war on terror." In an age of rising incidents of terrorism, numerous scholars, and more important, much of the general public, have again asked if John Brown was America's "first terrorist." Now it was tied to a worldwide conspiracy, coordinated overseas and meticulously planned. It was no longer the result of random attacks by an individual or two. Was he a model for the cowards who planted bombs at clinics, in public parks, or in buildings? Significantly, at least one modern terrorist, Paul Hill, compared himself to John Brown after he was arrested for murdering two people who worked at a women's clinic in Florida.Ī year after Brown's bicentennial, the United States was faced with multiple terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others.ĭuring that bicentennial year, a number of historians and others talked about whether John Brown was America's first terrorist. Bombings, ambushes, and assassinations had been directed at women's clinics and physicians in a number of places a bomb planted in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 summer Olympics had killed one person and wounded more than a hundred people in 1995 a pair of right-wing extremists had planted a bomb at the Alfred A. At that time, domestic terrorism was a growing problem.
In 2000, the United States marked the bicentennial of Brown's birth. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness, bringing down a terrible swift sword against the immorality of slavery and the haughtiness of the Southern master class. For Southerners, he was the embodiment of all their fears-a white man willing to die to end slavery-and the most potent symbol yet of aggressive Northern antislavery sentiment. When Brown was hanged in 1859 for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, many saw him as the harbinger of the future.
(111-BA-1101)Īs we celebrate the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, it is worthwhile to remember, and contemplate, the most important figure in the struggle against slavery immediately before the war: John Brown. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness. For Southerners, Brown was the embodiment of all their fear-a white man willing to die to end slavery.
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