The years directly before the civil war were marked by escalating tensions and sharply declining relations between the North and South as differences between the two territories were made clear. John Brown's raid in October of 1859 came at that volatile time and provoked an extreme reaction from the South immediately afterward; as the furious public option of the South was that the entire North had personally supported and condoned Brown and his violent actions in the ultimate quest of abolition. From that point, as feelings in the North and South were pushed to the edge by other events, t…
