ABSTRACT
A gaping mob watched in silence as the prisoners straggled from the jail and proceeded diagonally across the street to the courthouse, filing between rows of troops holding bayoneted rifles. Hordes of spectators filled every space in the courtroom —pressing around the bar area surrounding the prisoners and along the walls, before spilling out into the hallways and onto the porch. As the prisoners stood before the eight Justices of the Peace, the sheriff read the commitment charges, each carrying the death penalty — treason, murder, and inciting slaves to insurrection. Newspapers for and against Brown attempted to use the raid, the trial, the sentencing, and the execution to propagate their beliefs across a country rapidly heading for the unthinkable: war within. However, other newspapers like Greeley’s Tribune provided Brown with the martyr status the anti-slavery movement would need to give impetus to the cause.
