General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Jesse James and Debt Collectors [View all]coalition_unwilling
(14,180 posts)I'm unsure whether there is much point in further discussion.
So, rather than ask you to change your opinion, I would merely ask you whether you can use your sympathetic imagination to conceive of a mind-set that, in its time, saw slavery as such an 'evil,' such a moral abomination, that its abolition could justify even murder. Please understand that I'm not asking whether you believe that the abolition of slavery justifies murder but rather whether you can maybe understand why great figures like Douglass and Thoreau could sympathize with, and even idolize, Brown and why Brown himself could hew to his beliefs, even though Brown was nominally 'Christian.'
I guess what I'm trying to say about myself as much as anything is that, had I lived in 'bleeding Kansas' or just across the border in Missouri, I'm not sure where I would have landed on the issue of abolition (or of expanding slavery into the territories). So I personally cannot judge Brown outright with blanket condemnation. Thoreau's and Douglass' opinions suggest to me that the issue is fraught with much moral complexity and ambiguity.