John brown biography abolitionist

  • How did john brown die
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    John Brown

    Born in Torrington, Connecticut, John Brown belonged to a devout family with extreme anti-slavery views.  He married twice and fathered twenty children. The expanding family moved with Brown throughout his travels, residing in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New York.

    Brown failed at several business ventures before declaring bankruptcy in 1842.  Still, he was able to support the abolitionist cause by becoming a ledare on the Underground Railroad and bygd establishing the League of Gileadites, an organization established to help runaway slaves escape to Canada.  In 1849, Brown moved to the free black farming community of North Elba, New York. 

    At the age of 55, Brown moved with his sons to Kansas Territory.  In response to the sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, John Brown led a small grupp of dock to Pottawatomie Creek on May 24, 1856.   The men dragged five unarmed men and boys, believed to be slavery proponents, from their homes and

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    The Abolitionist's John Brown

    When the abolitionist John Brown seized the largest Federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in October of 1859, he forced the citizens of the United States to reconsider the immorality of the institution of slavery and the injustices enforced by the government. The raid on Harpers Ferry and the resulting execution of Brown was a major turning point in the American abolitionist movement, causing many peaceful abolitionists to accept more militant measures to push for the end of slavery. The legitimization of slavery by the state and societal violence, such as the “Bleeding Kansas” conflict, plagued a nation rapidly approaching civil war, and during the 1850s, the U.S. faced extreme sectional tension as slave-holding and free states struggled to maintain a balance of power in a divided government. Brown’s actions were a reflection of the violence of his time and a reaction to what he viewed as the legalized criminality of slavery upheld by the s

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    A Look Back at John Brown

    Spring 2011, Vol. 43, No. 1

    By Paul Finkelman

    As we celebrate the beginning of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, it is worthwhile to remember, and contemplate, the most important figure in the struggle against slavery immediately before the war: John Brown.

    When Brown was hanged in 1859 for his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, many saw him as the harbinger of the future. For Southerners, he was the embodiment of all their fears—a white man willing to die to end slavery—and the most potent symbol yet of aggressive Northern antislavery sentiment. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness, bringing down a terrible swift sword against the immorality of slavery and the haughtiness of the Southern master class.

    In 2000, the United States marked the bicentennial of Brown's birth. At that time, domestic terrorism was a growing problem. Bombings, ambushes, and assassinations had been directed at women's clinics and physicians in a

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