Fox & Friends: The Civil War was started by John Brown and radical abolitionists

Ainsley Earhardt: “Many think of [the Battle of Fort Sumter] as the beginning of the Civil War, but actually, it starts much earlier than that with the raid at Harper's Ferry”

From the March 22 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:

Video file

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): The series Legends & Lies is back on the Fox News Channel for a third season. The subject this weekend, one of the stories from the Civil War. 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST):  It's the battle of Fort Sumter, which is in South Carolina. Many think of that as the beginning of the Civil War, but actually, it starts much earlier with that with the raid at Harper's Ferry. 

[...]

BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): This is an important time, especially as we debate what's going on with these statues and go back to the Civil War. What does it mean to you, this point in American history?

DAVID EISENBACH: Well, we're a nation that's divided, but there was a time when we were even more divided than we are now, and that is the lead up to the Civil War.

DOOCY: OK, so if it wasn't Fort Sumter, you feel it was in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia?

EISENBACH: Without question. The war doesn't start with Fort Sumter, it doesn't start with Bull Run. The bloodshed really starts with Bleeding Kansas, John Brown, which leads us into the raid on Harper's Ferry.

KILMEADE: And John Brown is?

EARHARDT: Tell us about John Brown.

EISENBACH: John Brown was a radical abolitionist who believed that slavery was wrong. He actually believed in racial equality. All things we can agree on. But where he kind of takes it a step farther is he decides to engage in violence against civilians. Acts that we would consider terrorist acts and even guerrilla activity, in the cause of justice. 

Related:

National Park Service: Slavery: Cause and Catalyst of the Civil War

Previously:

Fox News reported on proposed monument to black South Carolina Confederates. There actually were none.

Tucker Carlson: Striving for diversity “is what gets you to civil war”

Fox News: “Current issues” with Trump “nowhere near as serious as past events” like the Civil War

Tucker Carlson compares removing statues of Confederates to extremism of the Taliban, Khmer Rouge, and China