John Brown

BROWN, JOHN

John Brown was a charismatic, stubborn abolitionist who failed at numerous business and commercial enterprises, yet succeeded in convincing men to join him in a cause for which they were willing to die. His abolitionist beliefs translated into violent actions in Kansas and Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Convicted of murder and TREASON for his raid on military facilities at Harpers Ferry, Brown was hanged for his crimes. Nevertheless, he galvanized the abolitionist cause, becoming a martyr in the fight against SLAVERY.

Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, on May 9, 1800, to Owen and Ruth Brown. His father, a strict Calvinist, despised slavery. When Brown was five years old, the family moved to
Hudson, Ohio, a locale that was steeped in antislavery
sentiment. Brown’s fervor for the antislavery
movement never waned and grew more
vehement as he got older.
In 1820, Brown married Dianthe Lusk and
six years later, they moved to Pennsylvania
where he started a tannery. Lusk died in 1832,
leaving Brown with five children. In 1833, he
married 16-year-old Mary Ann Day who bore
him seven more children. Brown and his growing
family moved around the country while he
tried his hand at a number of occupations,
including tanner, farmer, cattle broker, and wool
merchant.
In 1835, Brown’s attempts to support his
family and to repay money he had borrowed led
to a disastrous “get rich quick” scheme. He convinced
family members and friends to loan him
money that he used to buy property where a
canal was to be built. His timing proved unfortunate.
In the wake of the Panic of 1837, plans
for the proposed canal were changed and the
properties bought up by Brown and his associates
were rendered nearly worthless. Brown
made numerous other attempts to reach financial
solvency, but ultimately was forced to
declare BANKRUPTCY in 1842.
Throughout his life Brown remained committed
to the anti-slavery cause. Brown met the
great abolitionist leader FREDERICK DOUGLASS
in 1847 and impressed Douglass with his sympathy
for African Americans—both slaves and
freemen. In 1849, Brown moved his family to the
black community of North Elba, New York.
Brown proposed to show the residents of North
Elba how to farm and to act as a mentor to them.
Brown was a participant in the Underground
Railroad, an informal network of exslaves
and sympathetic whites that helped slaves
escape their masters and travel north to freedom.
In 1851, he proposed the establishment of
the League of Gileadites, an organization that
would be used to protect escaped slaves.
In 1854, Congress passed the KANSASNEBRASKA
ACT, which called for the residents of
the new territories to decide the issue of slavery
by popular vote. The area became known as
“bloody Kansas” as competing groups fought
violent skirmishes aimed at securing the territories
for their side. Many pro-slavery residents of
Missouri moved across the border in hopes of
securing a victory at the election.
Five of Brown’s sons had moved to Kansas
and they entreated their father to join them. In
1855, Brown moved to Kansas and began to plan
for the armed conflict he felt was inevitable. In
1856, in response to escalating incidents including
the sacking of the anti-slavery town of
Lawrence, Kansas, and the near-fatal beating of
U.S. Senator CHARLES SUMNER who was
attacked on the Senate floor by a pro-slavery
congressman, Brown led a small band of men to
Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas, where they killed
five pro-slavery settlers. This violent action by
Brown was hailed by a number of anti-slavery
groups and universally reviled by pro-slavery
forces.
In December 1858, Brown and a small group
of followers staged a raid on two pro-slavery
homesteads in Missouri where they succeeded in
confiscating property and freeing 11 slaves.
Brown and his group then traveled more than a
thousand miles to deliver the former slaves to a
boat that would carry them to freedom in
Canada.
Although many abolitionists were opposed
to violence, others had begun to adopt Brown’s
view that armed conflict was necessary in order
to achieve the ABOLITION of slavery. Between
1857 and 1859, Brown crisscrossed New England,
giving rousing speeches to anti-slavery
groups and raising money for the abolitionist
cause. Among those who gave money were the
Secret Six, a group of wealthy benefactors from
Boston who helped Brown by funding the army
he sought to lead in order to further conduct his
war against slavery.
On October 16, 1859, the 59-year-old Brown
led his Provisional Army, consisting of five black
men and 21 whites (three of them his sons) in a
nighttime raid on the town of Harpers Ferry,
Virginia. Brown and his men cut telephone
wires, took several hostages and gained control
of the federal armory and arsenal. Brown’s plan
was to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal,
thus enabling them to fight for their freedom.
However, he and his group found
themselves pinned down by a group of local citizens
and nearby militia groups who killed a
number of his men including two of his sons.
On the morning of October 18, a contingent
of U.S. marines led by Colonel Robert E. Lee
joined the battle. Brown refused a chance to surrender
and 36 hours after the raid had started,
Brown and his remaining companions were captured.
Brown was taken to Charles Town, Virginia,
(now West Virginia) to be tried. In a trial
that lasted for nearly a month, Brown was
charged with murder, conspiracy, and treason
against the state.He was found guilty of all three
charges. Before hearing his sentence, Brown gave
a brief but passionate statement to the court:
. . . I believe to have interfered as I have done
. . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not
wrong, but right. Now, if it be deemed necessary
that I should forfeit my life to the furtherance
of the ends of justice, and mingle
my blood further with the blood of my children,
and with the blood of millions in this
slave country whose rights are disregarded by
wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit:
so let it be done.
Brown was hanged in Charles Town on
December 2, 1859. On the day of his execution,
guns were fired and bells tolled in many northern
cities. Brown was hailed as a martyr of the
abolitionist movement, which concluded that a
peaceful solution could not be found. In April
1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter,
an action that marked the beginning of the Civil
War. In 1865, Congress passed the THIRTEENTH
AMENDMENT, which abolished slavery throughout
the United States.
FURTHER READINGS
DeVillers, David. 2000. The John Brown Slavery Revolt Trial:
A Headline Court Case. Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow
Publishers.
“John Brown’s Holy War.” PBS: The American Experience.
Available online at
(accessed June 18, 2003).
Lubet, Steven. 2001. “John Brown’s Trial.” Alabama Law
Review 52 (winter): 425–466.
Oates, Stephen B. 1984. To Purge This Land With Blood.
Amherst: Univ. of Massachusetts Press.

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