Who was John Brown?

John Brown was a militant abolitionist who led a violent attempt to ignite a slave rebellion by raiding the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) on October 16 to 18, 1859, an act that helped polarize the country and accelerate the slide toward Civil War. He was born on May 9, 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut to a deeply religious Calvinist family. His father Owen Brown was a fierce opponent of slavery, and Brown grew up with the conviction that slavery was the most monstrous of all sins. Through his early life he worked as a tanner, sheep rancher, and surveyor in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, but failed financially many times. He fathered 20 children with two wives and lost several to disease in his lifetime.

Brown's antislavery activism took violent form during Bleeding Kansas after May 1856. After the Sack of Lawrence on May 21, 1856 by proslavery forces, Brown led a small group including four of his sons in killing five proslavery settlers near Pottawatomie Creek on May 24 to 25, 1856 in retaliation. He defeated proslavery forces at the Battle of Black Jack on June 2, 1856 and survived the Battle of Osawatomie on August 30, 1856 where his son Frederick was killed. His Kansas activities made him notorious as a proslavery enemy and an inspiration to some abolitionists.

Brown then planned his famous raid. He recruited 21 men, including five Black men, and trained them at a Maryland farm in summer 1859. He intended to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, distribute weapons to enslaved people in nearby plantations, and ignite a self-sustaining slave rebellion that would spread through the South.

On the night of October 16, 1859 his force took the arsenal, the armory, and several hostages including Lewis Washington (a great-grandnephew of George Washington). The expected slave uprising never materialized. By the morning of October 17 local militia surrounded the engine house where Brown's men had taken position. Marines under Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart stormed the engine house on October 18, 1859, killing several of Brown's men and capturing Brown wounded. Ten of Brown's men died including two of his sons. Five escaped. Six were captured and tried.

Brown was tried for treason against Virginia, murder, and inciting slave rebellion. He was convicted on November 2, 1859 and hanged at Charles Town on December 2, 1859. His final note read I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.

Brown's death turned him into a martyr in the North and a terrorist demon in the South. His raid and execution intensified sectional anger and helped Lincoln win the 1860 election, contributing to secession and war.