All language subtitles for The West S01E06.eng

By the middle of
the 19th century,

the United States has
claimed the entire continent

from the Atlantic coast all
the way to the Pacific Ocean,

but every step west
deepens a conflict

that has divided the nation
from its earliest days.

Northern states see
the West as a place

where settlers can make a living
by working their own land.

While Southern
states want to extend

their plantation economies and
expand slavery into the West.

When Kansas Territory is
opened up to settlers in 1854,

abolitionist John Brown
launches a crusade

to keep slavery out.

His violent actions
will shock the nation

and interrupt the settlement
of the American West.

People live on myths,

and the myths that really stick
in the American experience

are the myths of the West.

The mountains were taller,
the deserts were harsher,

the snows were deeper.

American West conjures wonder,
possibility, opportunity.

The figure of
the mountain man.

Notorious outlaws.

The cowboy.

The discovery of
gold in California.

This train of wagons

trailing across the prairie.

Everybody has a reason
for wanting this land.

But most of that land
was already occupied.

We have been residents
for more than 10,000 years.

This is a clash of
two different ways

of seeing life itself,
fighting for the future

of your homeland
on the one side.

And fighting for the destiny

of the new republic
on the other side.

The history of
the West is a creation story.

It's the creation of what we
think of as modern America.

The West is a place
where anything is possible.

It is the essence of
the American dream.

The core of this is, what
are we to be as a nation?

The reckoning is coming.

The West is this
canvas on which American dreams

become larger than life.

By the late
1840s, the westward movement

of the United States
has become unstoppable.

In a single term
at the White House,

President James K.
Polk sees the largest

territorial expansion
in American history.

A treaty with Britain
gives him what's now Oregon

and a victory in the
Mexican-American war

reshapes the nation by adding
present day California,

Utah, Arizona, New Mexico,
and most of Colorado.

But with this unprecedented
growth comes instability,

raising questions about
the future of the nation.

In the 19th century,
the issue of slavery

is literally linked
to everything,

including westward expansion.

As new territory is acquired,

the big question
on the table is,

will those become free states

or will they become
slave states?

Since long before
the Revolutionary War,

slavery has been an undeniable
part of America's identity.

And the South's economy
is deeply rooted

in slavery and cotton.

It's hard for us
in the 21st century

to understand the
importance of cotton.

Cotton really is king.

Cotton was producing
60% of American exports.

It was central to
the American economy.

Slavery is essential to
the growing of cotton,

but slavery is just
corroding American life.

By the 1840s,
the debate over slavery

threatens to tear
the nation apart.

It results in the fracture
of political parties.

It splits families,
it creates zealots.

It is the battle for
the soul of America

by two competing ideologies,
two competing visions

of what America can be.

By 1850,
there are roughly

three million enslaved
people in the American South.

Southerners see a future with
slaves working on plantations

in the West and
mines in California.

But in the North, slavery is
considered a national sin.

The institution has been
banned in 15 northern states,

and many Northerners
want to prevent slavery

from spreading into
the new territories.

There's an emerging idea
in America called free soil,

and this is an idea that
says everything in the West,

every unorganized piece of
territory in the United States

ought to be free soil.

It should be free of slavery.

Free Soilers,
they oppose slavery

not because they are
sympathetic to blacks.

They are opposed to the
institutional slavery

dominating the areas
where they live.

But there's
another anti-slavery group

in the North.

They oppose slavery
on moral grounds

and want to outlaw it outright.

The abolitionists.

Abolitionism
before the Civil War

is still kind of
a fringe position.

So the abolitionists are
fighting an uphill battle,

a David and Goliath
battle of the first order.

And on the
front lines of that battle

is a man named John Brown.

John Brown believed that every
black man, woman, and child

needs to be a free person
with equal rights and status

and voting power
and everything else

as anybody else in America,

and we are not free
until this is abolished.

He seems to have this
charismatic streak in him

that certain people
were willing to follow.

And if he says, "Why
are you not joining me

in the fight against slavery?"

You'd really be asking yourself,

"Gee, you know, why?

I mean, I should."

John Brown made them believe

that this was something
that they needed to do.

You can only understand
John Brown's views on slavery

and on race if you understand
the kind of religion

that he grew up in,

strict Calvinists, but their
Calvinism was one that said

the most important part of
your Christianity is the degree

to which you treat
everybody around you,

regardless of race, condition,
status, as your equal.

John Brown marries and
has several children,

but his first wife dies.

He then remarries and
he and his second wife

have an additional 13 children,

but seven of them die
either at childbirth

or in early childhood.

Brown is so familiar
with illness and loss.

I think that Brown's personal
experience of suffering

makes him deeply
sensitive to the pain

and suffering to
all of the enslaved,

especially of children.

As the
country pushes west,

the slavery question
ignites fierce passions

on both sides of the issue.

So far, the federal
government has managed

to keep an equal number of
free states and slave states.

But each time a new territory
is up for statehood,

it triggers a national debate,

leading to a series
of compromises.

So one of the
first big ones is

the Missouri Compromise of 1820.

They established that Maine
will come in as a free state,

Missouri will come
in as a slave state,

and they'll draw a line
on the 36 30 parallel

on the southern
border of Missouri.

Everything below this
line is a slave state.

Everything above
it is a free state.

This balance
holds for 30 years

until gold-rich California
seeks to enter the Union.

The admission of California

to the Union would
mean a free state,

and that would tip the
balance in Congress.

And that was something
the southern states

could not possibly accept.

Congress passes the
Compromise of 1850.

And Henry Clay comes along,

"the man in a crisis"
as Lincoln often said,

and he's able to author
a series of bills

which gives things
to both sides.

California comes
in as a free state,

but Utah and New Mexico will
come in as slave territories.

The deal adds
California as a free state,

but slave states demand
something even more.

In the deal is the
Fugitive Slave Act,

which the Southerners love.

If you have a runaway slave,
they would have to be returned.

The Fugitive Slave
Act is the thing

that most incited
people like John Brown.

The other is the
Dred Scott decision

where the Supreme Court
makes a shattering decision

that blacks are
not even citizens.

These things coming together
deepen Brown's feeling

that violence is
the only answer.

Still, the
compromises have managed

to keep political peace
between the North and South.

But in 1854, the
issue of slavery

is thrust back into
the national spotlight.

In 1854, Senator Stephen
A. Douglas of Illinois,

who's one of the big movers
and shakers in Congress,

has visions, as do many people,

of a transcontinental railroad.

The region
along the proposed route

is unorganized
territory occupied by

dozens of native tribes.

If Douglas wants to
build his railroad,

he'll have to find a way
to organize the land.

So in 1854, he introduces
the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

It would repeal the
Missouri Compromise

and create two new territories,

putting them both on a
path towards statehood.

Douglas comes up with what
he thinks is a simple solution.

He will allow the people
in Kansas and Nebraska

to decide for themselves

whether they'll be free
states or slave states.

This proposal touches
off the usual firestorm,

which is, okay, new
states, but what kind?

For Northerners, you're
taking away something

they thought they had.

This promise that
that northern part

of the Louisiana
Purchase would be free.

Now it's potentially
open to slavery.

So they say, "We've
been betrayed.

We're having to re fight a
battle we fought 30 years ago."

Stephen Douglas believes
this will solve the problem

because there will
be civil debate

and the majority will win.

He has no idea that he's
basically touched off

a period of intense
frontier violence.

After a fierce
debate in the Senate,

the Kansas-Nebraska Act
passes in May of 1854

and the territories are opened
up for American settlement.

Most Americans assume that
Nebraska will be a free state

because it's located
so far north,

but the fate of Kansas
is not so clear.

There's gonna be
a vote very soon

to determine the
state legislature,

and the question is, will they
be a pro-slavery legislature

or will they be an
anti-slavery legislature?

Whoever gets there first
with the most people,

the pro-slavery folks or
the anti-slavery folks,

they will be the ones
to write the rules

when Kansas becomes a state.

So there's a race to Kansas,

not only among
legitimate settlers,

people who want to
go there and live,

but by people who want to go

and make a statement
for their position.

Before the
act is even passed,

powerful anti-slavery activists
in the North raise funds

to send over 1,000
free staters to Kansas

to settle the lands, including
five of John Brown's sons.

At the same time, hundreds
of pro-slavery settlers

rush in from Missouri.

Missouri is a slave state,

and the pro-slavery forces,
the so-called border ruffians

can just rush right
over the border.

Border ruffians was the term
that was used in the press

to describe the armed, violent,

often drunken Missourians
who rode into Kansas

and intimidated the
free state settlers.

Southerners
really believe that

if they lose this
battle, slavery will end.

Northerners understood this too,

that if they could
stop slavery in Kansas,

that they could probably
stop the spread of slavery.

So both sides are filled
with an enormous level

of righteousness and
moral fervor over this.

But the West is
the great prize.

There's the North, there's the
South, they both want the West.

With critical
elections looming in Kansas,

border ruffians from
Missouri are determined

to beat the free state majority
by any means necessary.

Border ruffians intimidate
election officials,

stuff ballot boxes.

And lo and behold, the
results show their success.

It's an overwhelmingly
pro-slavery

territorial legislature.

They drop a constitution,
the Lecompton Constitution,

which entails death
penalties in many cases

for any kind of
anti-slavery activity.

Opponents of
slavery are outraged,

and so they actually organize
their own territorial election

and elect a rival government
in Lawrence, Kansas

filled with anti-slavery
territorial legislators.

Now, there are two
rival legislatures in Kansas

and neither one is backing down.

John Brown, Jr. writes
a letter to his father.

Basically it says,

"We're outgunned,
we're out-intimidated.

We're gonna be killed
basically, unless you come

and bring us weapons.

Come join us."

Kansas is ground zero of
the struggle over slavery,

the future of the
country as far as

people like John
Brown are concerned.

How Kansas goes is
how the nation goes.

You've gotta go to Kansas

if you're really
committed to the cause.

John Brown makes
the arduous two-month journey

over 1,300 miles from
the East Coast to Kansas.

Along the way, he stops in
Ohio to load up on weapons

and hides them in his wagon.

Finally, in October of 1855,

Brown arrives to fight
alongside his sons.

The battle over
Kansas was a battle

over much more than Kansas.

It was a battle
over the whole West.

What happens in Kansas is
kind of a mini civil war,

a dress rehearsal
for what will come

across the entire country.

It's a struggle for
control of the land.

By now, there's
a pro-slavery capital

in Lecompton, Kansas,
and just 13 miles away,

there's a rival anti-slavery
legislature based in Lawrence.

But the US president, Franklin
Pierce, is a northern democrat

and a southern sympathizer
whose administration

is staunchly pro-slavery.

The pro-slavery people win.

It's the border ruffians,
the Missourians,

who dominate the political
discussion in the first years

after the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

But those
against slavery know

they have the true majority
and refuse to give up.

If either side loses
this, in a sense,

they lose the future of America,

and so they're
gonna fight it out.

Free state and
pro-slavery partisans

established claims to land
and began to work land

sometimes right next
door to one another.

And they argued.

They get engaged in
clashes, raids on each other,

assassinations, and
all of that bloodshed

gets covered in the newspapers.

News of the
conflict spreads quickly

thanks to the
electric telegraph.

By 1852, there are 23,000
miles of telegraph lines

reaching from the East Coast
across the Mississippi.

For the first time,

information moved
faster than people.

The telegraph increased
the speed of communication

44 million times over
the Pony Express.

That changes everything.

News can be transmitted
instantaneously

all over the country as long as

telegraph wires are strung up.

So Kansas became a brawl that
was being watched carefully

throughout the rest
of the United States.

By the spring of
1856, shootouts, beatings,

and assassinations have
become commonplace in Kansas,

but the violence is
mostly one-sided.

The vast majority of that
political violence in Kansas

is being carried out by
pro-slavery activists.

In an effort to protect
the anti-slavery population

in Kansas, Brown and his sons
put together a small militia.

Meanwhile, the border
ruffians prepare an invasion.

Lawrence, it
becomes the beacon

for those who are anti-slavery

and it also becomes anathema
for those who are pro-slavery.

And so the border
ruffians feel like

they have to destroy it.

On May 21st, 1856,
border ruffians from Missouri

cross over into Kansas
and attack the town.

And of course, it causes
outrage not only in Kansas

among anti-slavery forces
but anti-slavery folks

all across the country.

The sacking of
Lawrence becomes a flashpoint

in the heated debate
around slavery

and how western states
should enter the Union.

For men like John Brown,
it seems like Kansas

is falling to
pro-slavery forces.

Brown says something
has to be done now.

They have to understand
that they cannot continue

to do this with impunity.

John Brown decides
that now or never,

you've got to strike
back, and to use the term

from our own time, it
has to be shock and awe.

In the summer of
1856, news of the violent attack

on the anti-slavery headquarters

of Lawrence, Kansas
spreads across America.

Abolitionists fear they're
losing the battle for the future

of the country while pro-slavery
activists grow even bolder.

Weeks later, an act of
savagery in the halls

of the US Senate brings the
nation to a boiling point.

Charles Sumner, senator
from Massachusetts,

has given a five-hour

speech condemning the South

for its promotion of
slavery in Kansas.

The next day, Sumner is at
his desk in the Senate chamber

working on some paperwork,

and Preston Brooks, congressman
from South Carolina,

walks up behind him, and
without any warning at all,

begins to savagely beat
him with a wooden cane.

Sumner is nearly killed.

He's covered with blood.

He's concussed, he's passed out.

But here's the part that
just chills your blood.

This made Preston Brooks
a hero in the South

and pieces of the cane were
cut up and made into rings.

These rings were worn as
necklaces by Southerners.

The beating of Sumner
becomes a catalyst

for mobilizing public
opinion in the North,

but Preston Brooks has
become a hero in the South.

The idea that the same
event could be seen

in two different ways, it
shows that the two sides

are no longer even
speaking the same language,

fanning the flames of the
fire even more in Kansas.

The core of this strikes at
the heart of American values.

Where do we want
to be as a nation?

The question at the
time of Bleeding Kansas

is being settled in bloodshed
between American citizens.

After the sacking
of Lawrence and the assault

in the Senate,
John Brown decides

there can be no
peaceful resolution

to the question of
slavery in Kansas.

He gets his sons together,
several other people,

and they decide to stage a raid
against pro-slavery settlers

in a nearby community,
Pottawatomie Creek.

But at the end of the
day, they're coming up

to make Kansas a slave state,

and Brown's not
having any of it.

On the night
of May 24th, 1856,

John Brown and
his men sneak into

the settlement of Pottawatomie.

They go in the
middle of the night

to the home of several
pro-slavery sympathizers

who are homesteading on
the Pottawatomie Creek.

The person they're
really looking for

is a guy named Dutch Henry.

He is a major player on
the pro-slavery side.

That's the real target
that they have in mind.

The first
cabin they approach

is owned by a man
named James Doyle,

a member of the local
pro-slavery political party.

When Doyle opens the door,

John Brown and several of
his followers burst in,

grab Doyle and
his two teenage sons.

They dragged them
out of the house.

On the command
of their father,

John Brown's sons hack these
men to death with broadswords.

Brown continues
to go house to house

looking for Dutch Henry,
killing a total of five people

in the settlement of
Pottawatomie that night.

He never finds his target,
but it doesn't matter.

John Brown's point
has been made.

This is an act that is
often represented as enraged.

It's not, it's strategic.

John Brown, he was
sending a political message

to other potentially
pro-slavery settlers.

You come to Kansas, this
could happen to you.

Brown seems to
disappear into the night,

but the Pottawatomie
massacre makes headlines

across the country, sending
a chill throughout the South.

People don't know for
sure who the perpetrator

of the Pottawatomie
massacres were,

but they have a pretty good idea

that it was John
Brown and company.

And so the territorial
governor puts out a $500 reward

on John Brown, dead or alive.

John Brown is a wanted man,
but he can be found nowhere.

He has disappeared into the
wilderness and eludes capture.

But two of Brown's
sons aren't as lucky.

Though they weren't directly
involved in the massacre,

Jason and John Jr. are
captured by border ruffians.

They visit a savage
beating upon these two men

and then force them
to walk all the way

to the pro-slavery stronghold
of Lecompton, Kansas.

While Brown's
sons are held hostage,

one of the men
involved in the capture

goes after John Brown himself.

Henry Clay Pate comes from

a Virginia slave-holding family.

He ends up making
his way to Missouri

where he starts a
pro-slavery newspaper

and ends up becoming a prominent
pro-slavery militia leader.

Pate gathers a group of
vigilantes to hunt John Brown.

Along the way, he
does some burning

of some free state settlements.

And Brown learns
on June 1st of 1856

that Pate and his 60 men are
camped near Blackjack Creek

that they're looking
for John Brown.

And by the way, that
Pate had been among

the pro-slavery militias
who had captured

John Jr. and Jason.

John Brown gathers
as many followers as he can,

amassing a group of 26 men.

He's outnumbered
more than two to one,

but he believes that
God is on his side

and plans to drive Pate
and his men out of Kansas.

He believes, his sons believe,

all the anti-slavery
folks believe

that it's not just
the fate of Kansas,

it's the macro level
fate of the nation

that's gonna be determined
by this new territory.

Brown and his force
sneak up on Pate

and launch a full-on
attack on the encampment.

The showdown is about to begin.

June 1856.

It's now been two years since

the Kansas-Nebraska
Act was passed.

Kansas, still not a state,
finds itself at the center

of an increasingly violent
fight for the future of America.

Bleeding Kansas makes
it clear that the nation

has to make a decision
about what it intends to be.

Is it gonna be a
slave-holding republic?

Is it gonna be a
nation of freemen?

As America is moving
west, there's almost a seam

that literally opens up in
the fabric of the continent

because it's the free
states and the slave states,

and that divide just
keeps pushing west

and pushing west until it
runs into bloody conflict.

On June 2nd, 1856,

John Brown leads his
men to Blackjack Creek.

He's about to go head-to-head

with pro-slavery leader
Henry Clay Pate and 60 men.

So John Brown has no
direct military experience,

but he's determined to fight
this by any means necessary.

As John Brown's force
approaches Pate at Blackjack,

he divides his
force as a strategy.

The combined effect
of having gunfire

coming from two
directions fools Pate

into thinking that he's
greatly outnumbered,

which in fact they're not.

And he puts up a
flag of surrender.

As a result, Brown
and his men take captive

26 Missourians whom they
hold for several days

and begin to try to negotiate
with for a captive exchange

for the freedom of Brown's sons.

Most of the fighting in
Kansas has been ambushes,

reprisal, counter reprisal,
you know, small group conflict.

What's important about the
Battle of Blackjack is that

this is essentially two
small armies squaring off

in fairly standard
military fashion.

When
news of the battle

spreads throughout the nation,

it polarizes the
country even more.

Some believe that it's a
precursor to a larger conflict,

an all-out war between
the North and the South.

One of the things that
is an issue in the West,

is there any such thing
really as an American Union

in more than name
or is the diversity

and sort of polarization,

something that's gonna
outweigh any sense of unity.

As debate over
the future of the West

grows even more heated,
Brown's campaign of terror

was starting to see
results in Washington.

President Pierce has
become widely unpopular

due to the violence in Kansas.

More importantly, 1856
is an election year.

Franklin Pierce says we
need to send federal troops in

and disarm everybody
and show that

we are the federal
government and we're neutral,

something they'd
never done before.

It's a turning
point for Kansas.

The US government is no
longer blindly supporting

the pro-slavery side.

Now they're neutral.

This battle
turns out to cement

the balance of
terror and really be

the tipping point
to the advantage

of the free state
citizens of Kansas.

Brown has
achieved a decisive

anti-slavery victory in Kansas.

His sons are eventually
released from custody.

But despite his success,
Brown won't stop.

We get to that point where
we have to come to reckon

with the fact that there
are some evils in the world

that are so very
great, that regardless

of our own personal feelings,
we have to go to war.

As debate over
slavery embroils the country,

the US population
continues to grow.

Throughout the 1850s, four
million new immigrants

flood into the nation, many
of whom will head west.

Such rapid expansion brings
with it new tensions,

especially in Kansas.

Kansas becomes the first
area in the United States

where pro-slavery people
and anti-slavery people

are occupying literally
the same ground.

John Brown's
determination to stop slavery

further inflames this conflict.

His exploits have
become national news.

At this point in
the middle of 1856,

John Brown has been involved

in several of these
sensational incidents,

and his name has become
a household name in Kansas

and in many ways
across the country.

I think he probably becomes
even more famous in the South

than he does in the North.

They believe that almost
every abolitionist

was a budding John Brown.

He becomes this sort
of larger-than-life

threatening figure,
tremendous fear

at the mere mention of his name.

The rumors fly that John Brown
and his raiders are nearby

and people believe it
because of the exploits

that they've been reading
about and hearing about.

And he captivated journalists.

Journalists followed him around

and they found themselves
swept up in this as well,

he's a most
remarkable individual.

During
the summer of 1856,

John Brown continues
to gather support

and stages raids on
pro-slavery settlements,

not necessarily to kill
people, but to terrorize them.

Whenever possible
during one of these raids,

John Brown would actually stop

and lecture the pro-slavery
folks that he was attacking

and give them a lecture
on the evils of slavery

and the need for them to convert

and to see the
waywardness of their ways

and to become
advocates of free soil.

The political
violence in Kansas

takes its final toll on
the Pierce administration.

Pierce's reputation
is so badly tarnished

by Bleeding Kansas that in
1856, he elects not to run,

but endorses James Buchanan

for the Democratic nomination
for the presidency.

But in order for Buchanan
to be successful,

he has to restore faith
in a Democratic party,

and that means restoring
order in Kansas.

Pierce appoints
a new territorial governor

to Kansas, John Geary.

He plans to disband
militias on both sides

and drive out bands of armed
vigilantes from the territory.

Geary is a Republican.

Thousands join the
new Republican party,

conservatives and moderates
who want to repeal

the Kansas-Nebraska
Act and prevent slavery

from extending itself to
the western territories.

The Republican party, it's
not an abolitionist party,

but it's an anti-slavery party
that is absolutely committed

to preventing slavery moving

into one inch of free territory.

The Whig Party is
split into factions,

pro-slavery and anti-slavery.

The Democratic party is
forced to choose an identity

and it embraced slavery.

When the
border ruffians hear

there's a new Republican
governor coming to Kansas,

they spring into action.

Several hundred militia
men unite under the command

of former Mexican War
officer, John Reid,

and they have their
eye on Osawatomie.

Not only is the town
an abolitionist hub,

it's home to John
Brown's half sister,

and he sometimes uses her
cabin as his headquarters.

Brown and his
troops get information

that Osawatomie is a target

and so they're there
already when Reid arrives.

On the night
of August 29th, 1856,

John Brown and his
forces camp along

the outskirts of the Osawatomie.

But one of his sons stays
in town to mind the horses.

John Brown's son,
Frederick, is out on a road

and he encounters some
pro-slavery forces of Reid's.

They shoot him and kill him
and leave him dead in the road.

When John Brown learns of the
death of his son Frederick,

he decides the time
to attack has arrived.

He rallies his
forces at Osawatomie

and the battle begins.

In August of
1856, General John W. Reid

moves to attack the
anti-slavery town

of Osawatomie, Kansas
with over 300 men.

Nothing stands in the way of him

destroying the city,
except John Brown.

Brown is vastly outnumbered,

but he's beaten
these odds before

utilizing these
guerilla tactics,

and he believes there's no
reason he can't do it again.

One thing that John Brown does

that's really smart is he
takes about 38 of his men

and puts them in
the nearby tree line

so that they're hidden and
also protected from gunfire.

And as Reid's men approach them,

John Brown gives the
signal, they open fire.

Now!

Surprise Reid's men,
kill about 60 of them.

But Reid's
forces quickly recover

from the initial
surprise attack

and drive Brown's militia
back into the woods.

Then, while Brown and
his men are retreating,

Reid's men burn the town.

John Brown ends up
technically losing the battle,

but even in loss, the
battle builds his fame.

He's now really the face
of anti-slavery activism

and militarism in Kansas.

Because Brown was willing

to stand up against
such impossible odds,

he for the rest of his life
was known as Osawatomie Brown.

Just weeks
after the battle,

the new governor arrives
and immediately disbands

both the pro-slavery
and anti-slavery forces.

But despite his efforts, the
violence in Kansas continues,

pushing the federal
government to defer

the question of statehood
for Kansas and Nebraska.

For the moment, the spread
of slavery is on pause,

but Brown's fight now goes
beyond the American West.

John Brown, trading
on his Kansas fame,

comes back to the East

and begins to meet
with abolitionists

and decides that he's now
going to execute the plan

that he's been formulating
for more than a decade,

to bring the war into
the South itself.

In October of 1859,

Brown stages a raid
on the federal arsenal

at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

He hopes to trigger a
massive slave uprising,

but the plan quickly goes awry.

Brown is captured and
convicted of treason, murder,

and conspiring with
slaves to rebel.

When he's executed in December,

news travels through the country

and Brown's reputation
is crystalized

as both hero and villain.

I see John Brown as
a religious zealot.

I see him as someone
who has beliefs

that I deplore and
beliefs that I admire.

John Brown is a necessary
figure in American history.

He is as necessary as
Lincoln was necessary.

We didn't need them to live.

We needed them to
do what they did.

Just over a year after
John Brown's death,

the fierce debate over slavery

erupts into the
bloodiest conflict

in the nation's
history, Civil War.

In the heat of that battle,
Lincoln signs two acts

he hopes will ensure that
the West remains free.

The Homestead Act, which
offers 160-acre plots

to settlers for a nominal fee,

and the Railroad Act,
which assigns land

to the Transcontinental
Railroad.

As the Union victory
seals the fate of slavery,

these two acts will
reignite westward movement.

And in the coming years,
settlers both white and black

will flood across the continent.

And a nation tired of war

will again confront a
powerful native force,

one that will stop at nothing
to defend its homeland.