Speaking in terms of the popular response

      • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        3 days ago

        It was, but it kicked off the Civil War just a few years later. In terms of making people get off their asses and do the right thing* it’s solidly in first place so far.

        *Only after much kicking, screaming, denial, and eventual failure to deliver fully on the true end of slavery in the US.

        • AOCapitulator [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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          3 days ago

          Yeah I think saying he kicked off the civil war is a huge reach

          It happened because of economics not because the north grew a conscience or feared imminent uprising

          also slavery still isn’t truly ended, let alone legally ended

          • DefinitelyNotAPhone [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            3 days ago

            It 100% would’ve happened anyway, but Harper’s Ferry was the fire under the southern aristocracy’s ass to go through with it because suddenly there was a very real example of a northerner actively instigating mass slave rebellions to destroy their way of life. Had it not happened, the civil war might not have occurred for another decade or two instead of within five years.

    • HamManBad [he/him]@hexbear.netOP
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      3 days ago

      Oh I didn’t even consider that. I guess I was thinking more of an assassination of a powerful American with a generally positive approval from the public. That’s like the one thing Americans usually won’t stomach. John Brown “only” took over a military compound