Despite the hold which slavery had at that time on the country, despite the popular prejudice against the Negro, despite the shock which the first alarm occasioned, almost from the first John Brown received a large measure of sympathy and appreciation.
Despite the prevailing prejudices of his time, Douglass notes that John Brown garnered significant sympathy and appreciation early on.
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The friendless and hungry boy, in his extremest need, found himself in the strong protecting arms of his mother.
The father might be a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his child ranked with the blackest slaves.
But we are not here to applaud manly courage, save as it has been displayed in a noble cause.