Looking at it from a pure perspective, a villain. He believed in something, but taking away the thing he believed in, he's no better than your average bloodthirsty maniac. He believed in abolitionism, which is why most of you have branded him a hero, but I'm sure the families of those he killed would have disagreed. If you want to judge personal actions, try looking at them in a different light. Had he gathered a crowd to lynch a slave who was a rapist, would he have been a hero? Had he shot Lincoln to let the South win the war, would he have been a hero? Taking away his motivations, those being something we all agree are relatively good, he's just as bad as Karadzic, Che Guevara or Gavrilo Princip. Essentially, all he did was murder people because of his political opinion. As a peaceful activist, I would have supported him. As a murderer, a man who left several families without their fathers and sons for something they believed in, he's a villain.