John Brown (1800-1859)

Harper's Ferry John Brown was born in 1800 in Torrington Connecticut. When he was five, he and his family moved to Ohio. He acquired his hatred of slavery early in his life, and his father was actively hostile to the institution. In Pennsylvania, in 1834, Brown began a project that was meant to educate blacks. For twenty years to come, he was dedicated to abolition. His activeness in his sons led to the murder of a number of abolitionists. He was totally against slavery, and wanted to do what it took to get rid of it.

In 1857, he began a plan to rid of slavery by armed force. He secretly created a small group of followers. On October 16, 1859, he set out. He and eighteen men, including sons took over the United States Armory at Virginia. After he made this victory, he did not attempt to make any more offensive measures, but he began to work on his defense. However, he was soon surrounded by the local militia which was backed by the marines. Eventually, ten of his men, two of which were his sons were killed. He himself was wounded, and forced to surrender.

"You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now. But this question is still to be settled--this Negro question. I mean; the end of that is not yet," is the testimony that John Brown gave at his trial. Many historians consider him "narrowly ignorant" and "God's angry man". He was not "narrowly ignorant," having traveled widely in the United States, England, and Europe and talked with many American intellectuals of the day, black and white. (Document A). He raised the issue of slavery to another level. John Brown took it upon himself to end the war on slavery. Fredrick Douglas commented in their first meeting, "thought a white gentlemen [Brown] is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery."

John Brown was born into a deeply religious family in Torrington, Connecticut, 1800. He was heavily influenced by his father's vehement views on slavery. During adulthood he moved around many times and bore 20 children. He worked as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator but he never became very successful. John Brown did minor things as a young adult to promote abolitionism such as help finance David Walker's appeal and the "Call to Rebellion" speech. He gave land to fugitive slaves and he and his wife agreed to raise a black boy as an equal. In addition, he participated in the Underground Railroad and helped establish the League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves. It wasn't until 1855 that John Brown became of important significance. In 1855 John Brown moved to the Kansas territory with his five sons. He became a leader of antislavery guerillas and fought a proslavery attack against the antislavery town of Lawrence. There, he became ...