It's also interesting that southerners viewed the seizure of Harpers' Ferry insurrection while the seizure of Fort Sumpter was not.
Brown's story to me illustrates why Americans should not resort lightly to the Jeffersonian "right of insurrection" even when evil is afoot in the land. The democratic process worked and the election of Lincoln brought the slavery issue to a head.
John Brown gets good press because he was anti-slavery and seemed to foreshadow the victory of abolitionism a few years later. While Brown did not target the Harpers Ferry civilians, I would still classify him as a terrorist for his attacks on Missouri civilians from the Kansas side of the border.