They're asking whether it's justified for a citizen to try to start an armed rebellion to attempt to stop something that is a great injustice. John Brown was a deeply religious person who believed that holding people as slaves was wrong. With his sons, he fought against slavery in Kansas, and then tried to rouse a black insurrection at Harpers Ferry. YOU decide: does systematic economic and social injustice justify violence? If you say no, then you'd logically think his punishment was justified. If you say yes, it sounds as though you're justifying domestic terrorism. John Brown was no Martin Luther King making non violent demonstration, that's for sure.
