All language subtitles for Kevin.Costners.The.West.S01E06.Bleeding.Kansas.1080p.NOW.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[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 unorganised 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 degrees 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.

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
was 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 unorganised territory

occupied by dozens of native tribes.

If Douglas
wants to build his railroad,

he'll have to find a way
to organise 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,

"OK, 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.

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 wanna 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
a thousand 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 fervour over this.

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 organise
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 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 1300 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 sympathiser

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,

shoot-outs, beatings,
and assassinations

had 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 mobilising 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 wanna 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 sympathisers
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 centre
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 polarises 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 polarisation,

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're 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 had become
national news.

At this point
in the middle of 1856,

John Brown has been involved
in several 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.

Rumours fly that John Brown
and his raiders are nearby

and people believe it
because of the exploits

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 terrorise 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
utilising 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 crystalised

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.

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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.