John Brown Research

John Brown

For our historical figure town hall presentations, I chose to research and present as John Brown. John Brown was a Puritan evangelist who was (not to put it negatively) an extremist abolitionist. Out of all the abolitionists I've learned about/researched, John Brown has always been my favorite to his interesting and unique story.

John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut on May 9th, 1800 to Owen Brown and Ruth Mills. The Brown family moved multiple times during John's childhood, eventually settling in Hudson, Ohio. This region would eventually become one of the most anti-slavery regions in the country, with Hudson acting as a safe town for Underground Railroad fugitives. Hudson's founder, David Hudson was a fervent abolitionist along with Owen Brown and advocated for slave resistance. 

It is likely that Hudson, Ohio, and his father were John Brown's core influences in his fervent and forceful anti-slavery stance. These influences were solidified in an event that Brown witnessed when he was 12 years old. While delivering an errand to a man, he lodged with them for a night since it was a relatively long trip there. He was treated kindly, but he witnessed the man beat a young slave boy with an iron shovel. It was likely witnessing this is what drove Brown to lead a life of action against slavery, not just words.

For most of his adult life, Brown lived a relatively normal and successful life. He became a successful tanner and taught himself surveying. He moved to Pennsylvania with his family, establishing a large farm that also served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It is estimated that helped over 2,500 slaves make it to Canada. However, the Panic of 1837 ruined Brown's finances, and it took until around 1850 for him to recover, having lost almost all of his property.

In 1854, a state-level civil war began in the Kansas Territory, referred to as Bleeding Kansas. Five of Brown's sons moved to Kansas as the war began, and Brown followed suit in 1855, bringing with him a wagon full of guns and ammunition. He settled in Osawatomie, and shortly after he became the leader of the anti-slavery forces in Kansas.

Artist's depiction of Bleeding Kansas

Multiple pro-slavery raids would occur in 1856, including the Sacking of Lawrence, which would drive Brown to carry out the first action that gave him national attention. On the night of May 24th, 1856, Brown led anti-slavery forces to kill 5 slave hunters and pro-slavery militants in Pottawatomie Creek: this would be called the Pottawatomie Massacre. In the following three months, Brown saw the most action in Kansas due to retaliatory attacks by pro-slavery forces. Brown's forces captured 22 men while defending an anti-slavery settlement, and they also killed 20 pro-slavery Missourians while retreating due to being overwhelmed by numbers. Shortly after, the fighting stopped due to intervention from the state's governor.

Brown's final act would be his raid on Harper's Ferry. Brown spent 3 years recruiting and raising funds for the raid, working with and meeting influential abolitionists along the way. He worked with Harriet Tubman to recruit men for the raid and tried to enlist Frederick Douglass for the raid. Douglass declined as he thought the raid would be a suicide attack, and he worked to dissuade black men from enlisting.

Though Brown originally planned to have a force of around 4,500 men, he would only end up having 21 recruits for the raid. Brown would end up leading only 18 men on the raid into Harper's Ferry. They met no resistance when capturing the armory, only encountering a single guard and no resistance from the surrounding town. However, things quickly went south as Robert E. Lee and other soon-to-be-famous generals arrived with 88 U.S. Marines.

Unsurprisingly, Brown and his men were overwhelmed and defeated. 5 of Brown's men escaped, 11 of Brown's men were killed before they were captured, and Brown and 6 others were captured tried, and sentenced to death. Initially, Brown was widely viewed as a madman for the raid, but after voluminous amounts of correspondence with the press and responding to letters written to him, he came to be viewed as a hero to Northerners with anti-slavery sentiments.

Painting of John Brown before
his execution

Brown knew that his actions and soon-to-be would have profound consequences on the country. He wrote, "[I am] fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose" (The Atlantic). He had been able to heavily publicize his views thanks to the press requesting interviews with him, and he knew his death would polarize the nation. His final words which he wrote to his jailor (and that I used to end my speech) proved to be prophetic. "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done."

Sources/Further Reading
A Blurb about John Brown's Farm in Pennsylvania
An Interview with Charles S. S. Griffing about John Brown
An Interview with Ruth Thompson, Daughter of John Brown
A Timeline of John Brown's Life
A Visit to John Brown by a Lady (Interview)
Britannica Biography of John Brown
Memoirs of John Brown
Midnight rising: John Brown and the raid that sparked the Civil War
Territorial Kansas: John Brown
The Atlantic Monthly (1922) "John Brown"