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Why is John Brown significant?

What was john brown’s life like, how did john brown become famous, how did john brown die, what was john brown’s legacy.

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Militant American abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry , Virginia (now in West Virginia), in 1859 that he hoped would spark a slave rebellion . It made him a martyr to the antislavery cause and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War (1861–65).

John Brown relocated his large family frequently, moving restlessly through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York and working as a tanner, sheep drover, wool merchant, farmer, and land speculator. In 1849 he settled his family in a Black community in North Elba, New York, on land donated by abolitionist Gerrit Smith .

Long before the Harpers Ferry Raid , John Brown earned a measure of fame as the leader of antislavery guerrillas in Bleeding Kansas , the small civil war fought between proslavery and antislavery advocates for control of the new territory of Kansas. Brown was feared after he led the retaliatory raid that resulted in the Pottawatomie Massacre .

After the Harpers Ferry Raid , John Brown was tried for murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state. He was convicted and hanged on December 2, 1859, in Charles Town, Virginia (now in West Virginia). John Wilkes Booth , later Abraham Lincoln ’s assassin, was present at the execution as a militiaman.

When he learned that John Brown had been executed, Henry David Thoreau said, “Of all the men who are said to be my contemporaries, it seems to me that John Brown is the only one who has not died.” Marching into battle during the American Civil War , Union soldiers sang the song “ John Brown’s Body .”

John Brown (born May 9, 1800, Torrington , Connecticut , U.S.—died December 2, 1859, Charles Town , Virginia [now in West Virginia]) was a militant American abolitionist whose raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry , Virginia (now in West Virginia ), in 1859 made him a martyr to the antislavery cause and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War (1861–65).

Moving about restlessly through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York , Brown was barely able to support his large family in any of several vocations at which he tried his hand: tanner, sheep drover, wool merchant, farmer, and land speculator. Though he was white, in 1849 Brown settled with his family in a Black community founded at North Elba, New York, on land donated by the New York antislavery philanthropist Gerrit Smith . Long a foe of slavery , Brown became obsessed with the idea of taking overt action to help win justice for enslaved Black people. In 1855 he followed five of his sons to the Kansas Territory to assist antislavery forces struggling for control there, a conflict that became known as Bleeding Kansas . With a wagon laden with guns and ammunition, Brown settled in Osawatomie and soon became the leader of antislavery guerrillas in the area.

Brooding over the sack of the town of Lawrence by a mob of slavery sympathizers (May 21, 1856), Brown concluded that he had a divine mission to take vengeance . Three days later he led a nighttime retaliatory raid on a proslavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek, in which five men were dragged out of their cabins and hacked to death. After this raid, which became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre , the name of “Old Osawatomie Brown” conjured up a fearful image among local slavery apologists.

In the spring of 1858, Brown convened a meeting of Black and white supporters in Chatham , Ontario, Canada, at which he announced his intention of establishing in the Maryland and Virginia mountains a stronghold for escaping slaves. He proposed, and the convention adopted, a provisional constitution for the people of the United States . He was elected commander in chief of this paper government while gaining the moral and financial support of Gerrit Smith and several prominent Boston abolitionists. In addition to Smith, this group, later referred to as the “Secret Six,” comprised physician and educator Samuel Gridley Howe , teacher and later journalist Franklin Benjamin Sanborn , industrialist George L. Stearns, and ministers Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Theodore Parker . Some of them had provided financial support for Brown’s efforts in Kansas, and they would back his next and most famous undertaking, too.

In the summer of 1859, with an armed band of 16 white and 5 Black abolitionists, Brown set up a headquarters in a rented farmhouse in Maryland, across the Potomac from Harpers Ferry , the site of a federal armoury. On the night of October 16, he quickly took the armoury and rounded up some 60 leading men of the area as hostages. Brown took this desperate action in the hope that escaped slaves would join his rebellion, forming an “army of emancipation” with which to liberate their fellow slaves. Throughout the next day and night he and his men held out against the local militia, but on the following morning he surrendered to a contingency of troops under the command of Col. Robert E. Lee , including a small force of U.S. Marines that had broken into the armoury and overpowered Brown and his comrades. Brown himself was wounded, and 10 of his followers (including two sons) were killed. He was tried for murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state and was convicted and hanged ( John Wilkes Booth , later Abraham Lincoln ’s assassin , was present at the execution as a militiaman.) .

Although Brown failed to spark a general slave revolt, the high moral tone of his defense helped to immortalize him and to hasten the war that would bring emancipation. Noting that the gaze of Europe was fixed on America, French novelist Victor Hugo wrote that Brown’s hanging would “open a latent fissure that will finally split the Union asunder.” As they marched into battle during the Civil War, Union soldiers sang a song called “John Brown’s Body” that would later provide the tune for the “ Battle Hymn of the Republic ”:

John Brown died that the slaves might be free, But his soul goes marching on.

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: June 27, 2023 | Original: October 27, 2009

John Brown was a leading figure in the abolitionist movement in the pre-Civil War United States. Unlike many anti-slavery activists, he was not a pacifist and believed in aggressive action against slaveholders and any government officials who enabled them. An entrepreneur who ran tannery and cattle trading businesses prior to the economic crisis of 1839, Brown became involved in the abolitionist movement following the brutal murder of Presbyterian minister and anti-slavery activist Elijah P. Lovejoy in 1837. He said at the time, “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery !”

Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington , Connecticut, the son of Owen and Ruth Mills Brown. His father, who was in the tannery business, relocated the family to Ohio , where the abolitionist spent most of his childhood.

The Brown family’s new home of Hudson, Ohio , happened to be a key stop on the Underground Railroad , and Owen Brown became active in the effort to bring former enslaved people to freedom. The family home soon became a safe house for fugitive enslaved people.

The younger Brown left his family at 16 for Massachusetts and then Connecticut , where he attended school and was ordained a Congregational minister. By 1819, though, he had returned to Hudson and opened a tannery of his own, on the opposite side of town from his father. He also married and started a family during that time.

Did you know? John Brown declared bankruptcy at age 42 and had more than 20 lawsuits filed against him.

Family and Financial Problems

Initially, Brown’s business ventures were very successful, but by the 1830s his finances took a turn for the worse. It didn’t help that he lost his wife and two of his children to illness at the time.

He relocated the family business and his four surviving children to present-day Kent, Ohio . However, Brown’s financial losses continued to mount, although he did remarry in 1833.

With a new business partner, Brown set up shop in Springfield, Massachusetts , hoping to reverse his fortunes. In addition to finding some business success, Brown quickly became immersed in the city’s influential abolitionist community.

He also became more familiar with the so-called mercantile class of wealthy entrepreneurs and their often ruthless business practices. It is in Springfield that many historians believe Brown became a radical abolitionist.

By 1850, he had relocated his family again, this time to the Timbuctoo farming community in the Adirondack region of New York State. Abolitionist leader Gerrit Smith was providing land in the area to Black farmers—at that time, owning land or a house enabled Black men to vote.

Brown bought a farm there himself, near Lake Placid, New York , where he not only worked the land but could advise and assist members of the Black communities in the region.

Bleeding Kansas

Brown’s first militant actions as part of the abolitionist movement didn’t occur until 1855. By then, two of his sons had started families of their own, in the western territory that eventually became the state of Kansas .

His sons were involved in the abolitionist movement in the territory, and they summoned their father, fearing attack from pro-slavery settlers. Confident he and his family could bring Kansas into the Union as a “free" state for Black people, Brown went west to join his sons.

After pro-slavery activists attacked at Lawrence, Kansas , in 1856, Brown and other abolitionists mounted a counterattack. They targeted a group of pro-slavery settlers called the Pottawatomie Rifles.

What became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre occurred on May 25, 1856, and resulted in the deaths of five pro-slavery settlers.

These and other events surrounding Kansas' difficult transition to statehood, made even more complicated by the issue of slavery, became known as Bleeding Kansas . But John Brown’s legend as a militant abolitionist was just beginning.

Over the next several years, Brown’s efforts in Kansas continued, and two of his sons were captured — and a third was killed — by pro-slavery settlers.

The abolitionist was undaunted, however, and Brown still advocated for the movement, traveling all over the country to raise money and obtain weapons for the cause. In the meantime, Kansas held elections and voted to be a free state in 1858.

Harpers Ferry

By early 1859, Brown was leading raids to free enslaved people in areas where forced labor was still in practice, primarily in the present-day Midwest. At this time, he also met Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass , activists and abolitionists both, and they became important people in Brown’s life, reinforcing much of his ideology.

With Tubman, whom he called “General Tubman,” Brown began planning an attack on slaveholders, as well as a United States military armory, at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia ), using armed freed enslaved people. He hoped the attack would help lay the groundwork for a revolt, but historians have called the raid a dress rehearsal for the Civil War .

Brown recruited 22 men in all, including his sons Owen and Watson, and several freed enslaved people. The group received military training in advance of the raid from experts within the abolitionist movement.

John Brown's Raid

The operation began on October 16, 1859, with the planned capture of Colonel Lewis Washington, a distant relative of George Washington , at the former’s estate. The Washington family continued to own enslaved people.

A group of men, led by Owen Brown, was able to kidnap Washington, while the rest of the men, with John Brown at the lead, began a raid on Harpers Ferry to seize both weapons and pro-slavery leaders in the town. Key to the raid’s success was accomplishing the objective — namely the seizure of the armory — before officials in Washington, D.C., could be informed and send in reinforcements.

To that end, John Brown’s men stopped a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad train headed for the nation’s capital. However, Brown relented and let the train continue—the conductor ultimately notified authorities in Washington about what was happening at Harpers Ferry.

It was during the efforts to stop the train that the first casualty of the raid on Harpers Ferry occurred. A baggage handler at the town’s train station was shot in the back and killed when he refused the orders of Brown’s men. The victim was a free Black man—one of the very people the abolitionist movement sought to help.

John Brown's Fort

Brown’s men were able to capture several local slaveowners but, by the end of the day on October 16, local townspeople began to fight back. Early the next morning, they raised a local militia, which captured a bridge crossing the Potomac River, effectively cutting off an important escape route for Brown and his compatriots.

Although Brown and his men were able to take the Harpers Ferry armory during the morning of October 17, the local militia soon had the facility surrounded, and the two sides traded gunfire.

There were casualties on both sides, with four Harpers Ferry citizens killed, including the town’s mayor. A militia made up of men from the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad arrived in town and assisted local residents in countering Brown’s attack.

Brown was forced to move his remaining men and their captives to the armory’s engine house, a smaller building that later became known as John Brown’s Fort. They effectively barricaded themselves inside.

The militia attack was able to free several of Brown’s captives, although eight of the railroad men died in the fighting. With no escape route and under heavy fire, Brown sent his son Watson out to surrender. However, the younger Brown was shot by the militia and mortally wounded.

Robert E. Lee and the Marines

Late in the afternoon of October 17, 1859, President James Buchanan ordered a company of Marines under the command of Brevet Colonel (and future Confederate General) Robert E. Lee to march into Harpers Ferry.

The next morning, Lee attempted to get Brown to surrender, but the latter refused. Ordering the Marines under his command to attack, the military men stormed John Brown's Fort, taking all of the abolitionist fighters and their captives alive.

In the end, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry ended in failure.

John Brown's Body

Lee and his men arrested Brown and transported him to the courthouse in nearby Charles Town, where he was imprisoned until he could be tried. In November, a jury found Brown guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859, at the age of 59. Among the witnesses to his execution were Lee and the actor and pro-slavery activist John Wilkes Booth . (Booth would later assassinate President Abraham Lincoln over the latter’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation .)

After he was executed, his wife, Mary Ann (Day) took John Brown's body to the family farm in upstate New York for burial. The farm and gravesite are owned by New York State and operated as the John Brown Farm State Historic Site , a National Historic Landmark.

Slavery would ultimately come to an end in the United States in 1865, six years after Brown’s death, following the Union’s defeat of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Although Brown’s actions didn’t bring an end to slavery, they did spur those opposed to it to more aggressive action, perhaps fueling the bloody conflict that finally ended slavery in America.

American Battlefield Trust. “John Brown’s Harpers Ferry Raid.” Battlefields.org . Bordewich, F.M. (2009). “John Brown’s Day of Reckoning.” Smithsonianmag.com . “John Brown.” PBS.org .

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Prologue Magazine

A Look Back at John Brown

Spring 2011, Vol. 43, No. 1

By Paul Finkelman

For Southerners, Brown was the embodiment of all their fear—a white man willing to die to end slavery. For many Northerners, he was a prophet of righteousness. (111-BA-1101)

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 number of places; a bomb planted in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 summer Olympics had killed one person and wounded more than a hundred people; in 1995 a pair of right-wing extremists had planted a bomb at the Alfred A. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others.

During that bicentennial year, a number of historians and others talked about whether John Brown was America's first terrorist. Was he a model for the cowards who planted bombs at clinics, in public parks, or in buildings? Significantly, at least one modern terrorist, Paul Hill, compared himself to John Brown after he was arrested for murdering two people who worked at a women's clinic in Florida.

A year after Brown's bicentennial, the United States was faced with multiple terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The meaning of terrorism had changed. It was no longer the result of random attacks by an individual or two. Now it was tied to a worldwide conspiracy, coordinated overseas and meticulously planned. The American response was a "war on terror." In an age of rising incidents of terrorism, numerous scholars, and more important, much of the general public, have again asked if John Brown was America's "first terrorist."

Some Definitions of Terrorism

There are no complete or certain definitions of terrorism. Terrorists seek to "terrify" people and strike fear in the minds of those at whom their terror is directed. This, however, is not a complete definition. After all, few would consider soldiers in warfare terrorists, yet surely they try to make their enemy "fearful" of them. Starting with World War II, large-scale bombing has been a fact of modern warfare, but bombing of military targets is surely not an act of terrorism, even though the civilian population may be harmed or terrorized.

This aspect of warfare is hardly new. Siege warfare of the ancient and medieval world surely terrorized those inside castles or towns. Similarly, the long sieges of the Civil War, as well as decisions by both sides to strike at civilian targets that aided the war effort, surely terrorized populations. The trench warfare and artillery duels of World War I terrorized millions of civilians, but this was not essentially terrorism.

So, what beyond scaring or frightening people constitutes terrorism? How do we define the "terrorist?"

For terrorists, the "terror" itself, the act of violence, is the goal rather than simply the means to an end. Terrorists may hope for political change, but what they often want is to simply strike back at and harm those they oppose. The act of terror becomes the goal, with no expectation that anything else will follow.

This makes terrorism different from other kinds of illegal activity or violence. A kidnapper wants a ransom; a hostage taker usually has "demands" that should be met; a robber simply wants money or goods and might be willing to kill for them. But the terrorist often has no demands and no goals other than to terrorize. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols made no demands; they wanted nothing other than to kill and destroy. Those who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon only wanted to kill, destroy, and terrorize. They made no demands, asked for nothing, and by their own design would not have even been alive to negotiate for whatever they might have wanted.

Learn more about:

• The exhibit Discovering the Civil War .
• Selected online records relating to the Civil War .

Another hallmark of terrorists is indiscriminate killing; it helps spread terror. Terrorists generally do not care who they kill—adults, children, old people, women, men—although sometimes assassinations are an exception to this.

Terrorists are not concerned about collateral damage. Planting a bomb or shooting indiscriminately is a key indicator of terrorism. It does not even matter if some of those who die are sympathetic to the terrorists or of their own ethnic group. A number of American Muslims died in the attack on the World Trade Center because that is where they worked, but these collateral deaths were of no consequence to those who planned the attack. For terrorists, indiscriminate killing helps spread terror. Similarly, for terrorist killers there is no reason to spare lives or minimize death—every life is a legitimate target.

Terrorists usually attack nonmilitary targets and those who are unable to defend themselves. Often their victims are what might be called noncombatants in whatever ongoing struggle there is. One common aspect of terrorists is that they avoid direct contact and confrontation with those who are armed, especially the military. Tied to this, most terrorists plan their actions to have the greatest impact and to kill the most people.

Terrorists also act in secret and try to avoid anyone knowing who they are. They often wear masks and in other ways try to hide their identity. The classic American terrorist is the sheeted Klansman, with his face covered, killing, beating, mutilating, burning, and raping, to terrorize those who supported racial equality and black suffrage. Because they are violent and seek to kill, maim, or destroy property, terrorists naturally must be secretive. After their acts, however, they are likely to openly (but anonymously) brag about their crimes.

Terrorism also has a political context. This is particularly important to see when we try to make the distinction between terrorism and revolution. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson set out a series of principles that justified violent overthrow of the government. One was a "long train of abuses."

Even more important for Jefferson and his colleagues was the lack of access to the political process to change things peacefully. From the American perspective, in 1776, there was not a political solution to the crisis because Americans had no voice in the British government. In addition, the American Revolution was a response to attacks initiated by the British.

Thus, where there are no political avenues for change, violence—such as the American troops firing at the British—becomes revolution. But where the political processes are open, violence becomes terrorism. This was even true for the 9-11 terrorists. Nothing prevented them from politically organizing, demonstrating, and educating the American public about the changes they wanted. Their choice was to short-circuit the political options in favor of violence and terrorism.

With these general understandings, let us turn to John Brown, first to understand what he did, and second to see if it fits in the context of terrorism.

What Brown Did

Brown is connected to terrorism for two events in his life: the Pottawatomie raid in the Kansas Territory in 1856 and his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859. Both involved violence and killing. Both have led some people to claim Brown was a terrorist.

On the night of May 24, 1856, Brown led a raiding party of four of his sons, his son-in-law, and two other men to Pottawatomie Creek. For the most part, this raid was unplanned and almost spontaneous. Brown acted in retaliation for a raid on the free state settlement at Lawrence, the killings of free state settlers in Kansas, and persistent threats by the proslavery settlers along Pottawatomie Creek. Brown and his men entered three cabins, interrogated a number of men, and eventually killed five of them, all with swords and knives. Some were killed quickly, while others, who resisted, were cut in many places. Brown and his men then departed.

Significantly, although Brown and his men killed five proslavery settlers, they did not kill all the Southern settlers they encountered. They spared the life of the wife and teenage son of one of the men they killed, even though these people could have identified the raiders. At another cabin, they interrogated two men and let them go, convinced they had not threatened free state settlers or been involved in violent actions against the free state settlers. At a third house they also spared the wife of one man, even while they killed him.

Three and a half years later, on the evening of October 16, 1859, John Brown and 18 "soldiers" seized the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown's plans were fantastic—some would say insane. He would use the arms in the arsenal—as well as old-fashioned pikes he had had specially manufactured—to begin a guerrilla war against slavery. The core of his army would be the mostly white band of raiders who seized the arsenal. But soon, he hoped—he believed—he just knew—that hundreds or even thousands of slaves would join him in the fight against the "peculiar institution." He predicted that once word of his raid got out, slaves from throughout the region would appear at his side, as bees "swarm to the hive."

During his raid, Brown and his men had captured a number of slave owners in the area, including Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of President George Washington. Brown did not kill any of these captured men, and he went out of his way to protect them and make sure they were not harmed.

While in Harpers Ferry, the raiders killed a railroad baggage handler, who ironically was a free black, when he refused their orders to halt. In a firefight they killed a few townsmen, including the mayor. At one point Brown stopped a passenger train, held it for a while, and then released it. The train continued on to Washington, DC, where the crew dutifully reported to officials that Brown had seized Harpers Ferry. The next day, October 18, U.S. marines, under the command of Army Brevet Col. Robert E. Lee, captured Brown in the engine house on the armory grounds. By this time, most of the raiders were either dead or wounded.

Brown's trial in Charlestown, Virginia, began in October 1859. He was charged with and convicted of treason, murder, and conspiring with slaves to revolt. Severely wounded during his capture, Brown had to be carried into court and lay on a stretcher. (Harpers Ferry National Park)

Ten days later, Brown's trial began in Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia). He was charged with treason, murder, and conspiring with slaves to rebel. He was convicted on November 2 and sentenced to death. Before his sentencing, Brown told the court that his actions against slavery were consistent with God's commandments.

"I believe," he said in a speech that electrified many Northerners who later read it, "that to have interfered as I have done in behalf of His despised poor, is no wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say 'let it be done.'"

In the month between his sentencing on November 2 and his execution on December 2, Brown wrote brilliant letters that helped to create, in the minds of many Northerners, his image as a Christ-like martyr who gave his life so that the slaves might be free. Indeed, Frederick Douglass would later say that he lived for the slave, but John Brown was willing to "die for the slave." Brown welcomed his end, declaring: "I am worth inconceivably more to hang than for any other purpose."

For abolitionists and antislavery activists, black and white, Brown emerged as a hero, a martyr, and ultimately, a harbinger of the end of slavery. Most Northern whites, especially those not committed to abolition, were aghast at the violence of his action. Yet there was also widespread support for him in the region. Northerners variously came to see Brown as an antislavery saint, a brave but foolish extremist, a lunatic, and a threat to the Union.

The future Republican governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, summed up the feelings of many Northerners when he refused to endorse Brown's tactics or the wisdom of the raid, but declared that "John Brown himself is right." But most Republican politicians worried that they would be tarred by his extremism and lose the next election. Democrats and what remained of the Whigs (who would become Constitutional Unionists), by contrast, feared that Brown's raid would polarize the nation, put the Republicans in power, and chase the South out of the Union.

For white Southerners, Brown was the worst possible nightmare: a fearless, committed abolitionist, armed, accompanied by blacks, and willing to die to end slavery. Indeed, in the minds of Southerners, Brown was the greatest threat to slavery the South had ever witnessed. Most Southerners had at least a vague fear of slave rebellions. But Southerners had convinced themselves that most slaves were content with their status and that, in any event, blacks were incapable of anything worse than sporadic violence. Brown, however, raised the ominous possibility of armed black slaves, led by whites, who together would destroy Southern white society.

Who was this lunatic, this mad man, this abolitionist hero, this saint, this martyr to freedom? Was he America's first terrorist?

Who Was John Brown?

In many ways Brown was a typical 19th-century American. He was born in Torrington, Connecticut, into a family of deeply religious Congregationalists who were Puritan in their heritage and overtly antislavery in their views. When he was five, the family moved to what was then the "West." They migrated to Hudson, Ohio, which was in the Western Reserve between Akron and Cleveland. The region was full of New Englanders, especially from Connecticut.

Brown grew up in an atmosphere in which everyone despised slavery. Both Brown and his father were early supporters of the new abolitionism that emerged in the 1830s. Brown's father, a prominent businessman with a large tannery, was involved in trying to make Western Reserve College into an antislavery stronghold. When that failed, the elder Brown supported the creation of Oberlin College as a racially integrated coeducational institution of higher learning with an antislavery bent.

Despite his father's association with colleges, Brown had little formal education. Early in his life he considered becoming a clergyman, and he returned to Connecticut to attend a preparatory school as a prelude to going to a seminary. But that possibility ended when he flunked out of the school. By age 20 he was married and a foreman in his father's tannery. His bride, Dianthe Lusk, gave birth to seven children before she died in 1832. Five of those children lived until adulthood. In 1833 he married Mary Ann Day, an uneducated 16-year-old, half his age. She would have 13 children, but only six would survive to adulthood.

In 1825 Brown moved to western Pennsylvania, where he was a successful tanner and a postmaster (under President John Quincy Adams). Despite his own poor education and struggles with schooling, he helped start a local school. A proper burgher of the community, he became a church leader and joined the Masons. In 1834 his business went bad, and he moved back to Ohio, starting a tannery in Kent. There he speculated in land and won a contract to build a canal from Kent (then called Franklin Mills) to Akron. He formed the Franklin Land Company with 700 acres for building houses.

As we recall Brown's future activities, it is fascinating to also contemplate the image of John Brown as a suburban developer. But the panic of 1837 changed everything. By the end of the year, Brown was bankrupt. For the next five years he dodged creditors before finally declaring bankruptcy in 1842 and losing almost everything he owned.

Up to this point in his life, Brown had done nothing to indicate he was particularly political or unusually antislavery. He was, in fact, a fairly conventional Jacksonian, trying to increase his status and wealth and always looking for the next opportunity: tanner, canal builder, suburban developer, and in the wake of the panic, bankrupt.

By 1844, Brown was back in the business world, raising sheep with a wealthy business partner in Akron. But his inept business skills did him in again, especially an attempt to sell 200,000 pounds of wool in England, which was an exporter of wool. Oddly, while his creditors sued him, no one accused him of dishonesty or lacking integrity. Even people whose finances were almost ruined by his behavior liked him.

John Brown in the 1850s. He had tried to succeed as a tanner, sheep rancher, suburban developer, and canal builder but was undone by failing economic conditions and his inept business skills. (127-N-521396)

View in National Archives Catalog

In 1854—at age 54—Brown was a failed businessman, an impoverished farmer with a few head of cattle in Ohio and some land in Upstate New York—at North Elba—that he had not yet paid for. That year five of his sons and his son-in-law moved to Kansas. In part they went to improve their economic status and find new, virgin soil for farming. But they also went to spread freedom in the West.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 had organized the new Kansas Territory without banning slavery. Under that law, the settlers themselves would decide the issue of slavery by popular sovereignty. Thus, when the Browns moved to Kansas, they were making a political statement to help ensure that Kansas would be a free state.

During this period, Brown had gradually emerged as an unyielding opponent of slavery. He participated in the underground railroad and in 1851 helped found the League of Gileadites, an organization of whites, free blacks, and runaway slaves dedicated to protecting fugitive slaves from slave catchers.

In the 1840s Brown was in contact with such antislavery leaders as Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass. Yet as late as 1855 Brown remained a marginal figure in the antislavery movement and in all other ways historically insignificant. In 1855 Brown joined his sons and son-in-law in Kansas, settling along the Osawatomie River. In December 1855 he helped defend Lawrence, the center of antislavery settlers, from an armed attack by proslavery forces.

On May 21, 1856, though, when Brown was elsewhere, proslavery men sacked and burned the free-soil town, destroying the printing press there, burning buildings, and terrorizing the residents. Three days later, Brown and his band of free-state guerrillas killed five Southern settlers along the Pottawatomie River, decapitating some of them with swords. Later that summer, a proslavery minister, working as a scout for the U.S. Army, murdered Brown's unarmed son Frederick, shooting him in the heart at close range. His body, when discovered, was riddled with bullets.

Throughout the rest of 1856, Brown and his remaining sons fought in Kansas and Missouri. Some of these encounters were pitched battles between Brown's small army and proslavery forces, which were sometimes abetted by the U.S. Army.

By the end of 1856, Brown was one of the most renowned (and either hated or adored) figures in "bleeding Kansas," and in the East he became known as "Osawatomie Brown" or "Old Osawatomie." For some New England abolitionists he was approaching the status of a cult figure. Taciturn, blunt, gruff—and armed—Brown had become a symbol of the emerging holy crusade against slavery. Those in the East knew he fought against slavery, but few were aware of the exact nature of his role in the gory events at Pottawatomie.

Within two weeks after the incident, the play Osawatomie Brown appeared on Broadway. The play accused Brown's enemies of the massacre at Pottawatomie and suggested that the real killers had blamed Brown in order to discredit him. Moreover, ever since the massacre, James Redpath, an English journalist who later wrote Brown's biography, had been assuring readers that Brown was not responsible for the murders. Thus, when Brown went on a fund-raising trip to Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1857, no one saw him as a killer. At the time, he denied any role in the Pottawatomie murders, and his abolitionist supporters in the East gladly accepted his disavowal at face value. Brown's eastern contacts thought their donations to him would go to support the war against slavery in Kansas. Actually, Brown was already planning a raid on Harpers Ferry.

As early as 1854, Brown had been thinking, and talking, about an organized war against slavery in Virginia. His focus, from the beginning, seems to have been on Harpers Ferry, the site of a federal arsenal and armory. By 1857 his plans were beginning to take shape. In March 1857 he hired a Connecticut forgemaster to make a thousand pikes, allegedly for use in Kansas but actually to be given to slaves who he believed would flock to his guerrilla army once he invaded the South.

In 1858 Brown wrote a constitution for the revolutionary state he hoped to create. (Records of the Adjutant General s Office, 1780's-1917)

In January and February 1858 he spent a month at the home of Frederick Douglass, planning his raid and writing a provisional constitution for the revolutionary state Brown hoped to create. Brown begged Douglass to join him. Douglass was sympathetic to Brown's goals but believed the plan was suicidal: "You're walking into a perfect steel-trap and you will never get out alive," he told Brown. Nevertheless, Douglass introduced Brown to Shields Green, a fugitive slave from South Carolina who joined Brown—and whom Virginia authorities hanged after the raid.

In the early spring of 1858, Brown began raising large amounts of money for his raid, writing potential backers that he was planning some "[underground] Rail Road business on a somewhat extended scale." However, in person he made it clear that he intended to do more than merely help large numbers of slaves to escape. On February 22, 1858, Brown revealed his general plans—and his provisional constitution—to Gerrit Smith and Franklin Sanborn. Brown also contacted black leaders to help recruit free blacks. In March 1858 Brown met in Boston with the Reverend Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker, George Stearns, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Franklin Sanborn. These five, along with Smith, made up the "Secret Six," Brown's primary financial backers. In June 1858, traveling as "Shubel Morgan," Brown headed west, raising more money and recruiting more raiders in Cleveland. While Brown continued on to Kansas, John E. Cook, one of his raiders, moved to Harpers Ferry, where he found work and learned what he could about the community, the armory, and the lay of the land. He also fathered a child and married a local woman.

In December 1858 Brown once again made headlines for his exploits in the West. He invaded Missouri, where he killed a slave owner, liberated 11 slaves, and brilliantly evaded law enforcement officers as he led the freed blacks to Canada. There Brown met a black printer, Osborne Perry Anderson, who would later take part in the Harpers Ferry raid. Although a wanted man with a price of $250 on his head, Brown returned to the United States, traveling and speaking in Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Brown also contacted the "Secret Six" who were financing him.

In June 1859 Brown visited his home in North Elba, New York, for the last time, where he said good-bye to his wife and daughters. Brown probably knew that he was unlikely to see his family again, something he stoically accepted as a cost of his crusade against slavery. He was less accepting of his son Salmon, however, who decided he would not join his father on an apparently suicidal mission into Virginia.

Brown and his sons Oliver and Owen arrived in Harpers Ferry on July 3, 1859, and Brown rented a farm in Maryland, about seven miles from Harpers Ferry. He expected large numbers of men to enlist in his "army," but by September only 18 had arrived, including another of Brown's sons, Watson. By mid-October, a few more arrived.

On Sunday, October 16, Brown and his men began their raid. They made a strange assortment: veterans of the struggles in Kansas, fugitive slaves, free blacks, transcendental idealists, Oberlin College men, and youthful abolitionists on their first foray into the world. The youngest was 18. The oldest, Dangerfield Newby, was a 44-year-old fugitive slave from Virginia who hoped to rescue his wife from bondage. But most of the raiders were in their 20s, half the age of their leader, the 59-year-old Brown. Brown left three of his recruits to guard their supplies and arms at the farmhouse in Maryland. The remaining 18 raiders, 13 whites and five blacks, marched with John Brown to Harpers Ferry.

Brown's small army arrived in Harpers Ferry at night and quickly secured the federal armory and arsenal and later Hall's Rifle Works, which manufactured weapons for the national government. With the telegraph wires cut, Brown might have easily seized the weapons in the town, liberated slaves in the neighborhood, and then taken to the hills. Or he might have destroyed the armory and literally blown up the town.

Inexplicably, though, he remained in the armory, waiting for slaves to flock to his standard. They never came. Instead, townsmen and farmers surrounded the armory. These civilians were probably not strong enough to dislodge Brown, but they kept him pinned down. Although Brown tried to negotiate with the civilians, his emissaries, including his son Watson, were shot while under a white flag. By the morning of October 18, eight of Brown's men were dead or captured, and that same day militia from Virginia and Maryland arrived. President James Buchanan had dispatched U.S. marines and soldiers to Harpers Ferry, with Brevet Colonel Lee in command. Directly under Lee was another Virginian, Lt. J.E.B. Stuart.

That morning, marines stormed the engine house of the armory, capturing Brown and a few of his raiders and killing the rest. By the end of the raid, of the 22 who had been involved in the plot, 10 of Brown's men, including his sons Watson and Oliver, were dead or mortally wounded; five, including Brown, had been captured. Seven escaped, but two were later captured in Pennsylvania and returned to Virginia for trial and execution. The other five, including Brown's son Owen, made their way to safe havens in Canada and remote parts of the North. All but Owen Brown later served in the Union Army.

Brown's grave at his family farm in North Elba, New York, became a pilgrimage site. (Library of Congress)

Brown's capture on October 18 set the stage for his trial and execution. Severely wounded, Brown had to be carried into court on October 25 for a preliminary hearing and on October 27 for his trial. The judge would not even delay the proceedings a day to allow Brown's lawyer to arrive. The trial was speedy. On November 2 Brown was convicted and sentenced to death. He was executed on December 2, and on December 8 he was buried at the family farm in North Elba, near Lake Placid. Many Northerners interpreted the hasty actions of the Virginia authorities in trying and executing Brown as another example of Southern injustice. The apparent lack of due process in his trial thus contributed to the Northern perception that Brown was a martyr. The most absurd aspect of the trial was the charge against Brown. He was indicted and convicted of "treason" against the state of Virginia. But as Brown pointed out, he had never lived in Virginia, never owed loyalty to the state, and therefore could not have committed treason against the state. Most Southerners, however, saw Virginia's actions as a properly swift response to the unspeakable acts of a dangerous man whose goal was to destroy their entire society.

By the time of his execution, the entire nation was fixated on this bearded man who spoke and looked like a biblical prophet and whose deeds thrilled—whether with fear or admiration or both—an entire generation.

Indicative of this fixation is a shared aspect in the otherwise divergent responses of Wendell Phillips and Edmund Ruffin—the great abolitionist orator and the fire-eating Virginia secessionist. In the year following the raid, each of them prominently carried and displayed a "John Brown pike" that Brown had ordered from the Connecticut foundry. For Phillips the pike symbolized the glory, and for Ruffin the horror, of a servile insurrection led by a resurrected Puritan willing to die to overthrow slavery.

Terrorist, Guerrilla Fighter, Revolutionary?

Brown's actions in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry were clearly violent. He killed people or at least supervised their death. But was he a terrorist? At neither place do his actions comport with what we know about modern terrorists.

The Harpers Ferry raid was his most famous act. Brown held Harpers Ferry from late Sunday night, October 16, until he was captured on the 18th. He was in possession of almost unlimited amounts of gunpowder and weapons. He had captured prominent citizens, most famously Colonel Washington. He stopped a train full of passengers and freight.

What would modern terrorists have done in such circumstances? They might have let the train go, only after they had robbed all the passengers to fund further acts of terror, and then blown up the bridge as the train crossed from Virginia to Maryland. They might have planted explosives on the train and let it proceed, as terrorists did in Spain a few years ago. What did Brown do? He boarded the train, let people know who he was, and was seen by people who might later have identified him. Then he let the train continue on to Washington. These were not the actions of a terrorist.

While in Harpers Ferry, Brown might have blown up the federal armory (or indeed most of the town) after taking as much powder and weapons as his men could carry. He might have broken into homes of prominent people and slaughtered them. Brown did none of these things. He waited, foolishly for sure, for the slaves in the area to flock to him. He was caught in a firefight with local citizens, and he was captured by the U.S. forces. He proved to be a disastrous military leader and a failed "captain" of his brave and idealistic troops. But he never acted like a terrorist. He ordered no killings; he did not wantonly destroy property; and he cared for his hostages. This is simply not how terrorists act.

The events at Kansas are similar. Brown targeted a number of individuals who had been leading—violently leading—proslavery forces in the area.

At the home of James Doyle, the raiders did not kill his 16-year-old son or his wife, Mahala, even though both could have identified Brown and his men. Brown's men killed Allen Wilkinson, but not his wife, Louisa, who recognized one of Brown's sons from his voice. Mrs. Wilkinson was ill at the time, and after killing her husband, Brown asked her if there would be neighbors who could help care for her.

Surely, as Robert McGlone notes, it might seem "bizarre" that Brown was concerned about her health after he had just killed her husband. But her husband was guilty of attacking free state men and threatening the Browns, and so he was (in John Brown's mind) justly executed. But his wife was innocent and not punished. This was not the behavior of a terrorist.

Kansas—Bleeding Kansas as it is known—was in the midst of a civil war. Between 1855 and 1860 about 200 men would be killed in Kansas. Not all were politically motivated, and historians disagree on what constitutes a "political" killing. But even the most conservative scholar of this violence finds 56 killings that were tied to slavery and politics. I think this number is low, and that most of the 200 deaths were actually politically motivated and tied to slavery and Bleeding Kansas. But the actual number of political killings is less important than the understanding that in Kansas there was a violent civil war being fought over slavery; men on both sides were killed. Brown's actions are most famous because there were five killings, and he strategically used swords, rather than guns, which would have alerted neighbors. This is the nature of guerrilla warfare. It is brutal and bloody, but it is not terrorism.

There is also a political context. In Kansas there was no democratic government. Elections were notoriously fraudulent and violent. The majority of the settlers were from the free states, but the national government recognized a minority government that was proslavery. That legislature made it a crime to publicly oppose slavery. There was, at least under the formal law, no free speech in Kansas for abolitionists. This was also true in Virginia, when John Brown raided Harpers Ferry. He could not have gone to Virginia to denounce slavery or even urge Virginians to give up slavery. Thus, in this sense Brown was not fighting against democratic institutions in a free society; rather he was fighting against an unfree society that denied him basic civil liberties and, in Kansas, even the right to have a fair election.

Remembering, Honoring, John Brown

So, what in the end can we make of John Brown? If he was not a terrorist—what was he? He might be seen as revolutionary, trying to start a revolution to end slavery and fulfill the goals of the Declaration of Independence. As proslavery border ruffians tried to prevent democracy in Kansas, and were willing to murder and assault supporters of freedom, John Brown surely had a right to defend his settlement and his side. Brown did not carefully plan the Pottawatomie raid the way Terry Nicholas and Timothy McVeigh planned the Oklahoma City bombing. He reacted to specific threats and the sacking of Lawrence by a proslavery mob. This was not terrorism, but a fact of warfare in Bleeding Kansas. Nevertheless, modern Americans are uncomfortable endorsing his vengeful violence in Kansas, however necessary it may have been.

Similarly, no one, not even the slaveholders, could deny that slaves might legitimately fight for their own liberty. If slaves could fight for their liberty, then surely a white man like Brown was not morally wrong for joining in the fight against bondage. Thus Harpers Ferry is in the end a blow for freedom, against slavery. Who can deny the legitimacy of such a venture, however foolish, poorly designed, and incompetently implemented? But in a society of democratic traditions, Americans recoil at the idea of violent revolution and raids on government armories, even when, as was the case in Virginia in 1859, democracy was something of a sham, and there was neither free speech nor free political institutions.

In the end, we properly view Brown with mixed emotions: admiring him for his dedication to the cause of human freedom, marveling at his willingness to die for the liberty of others, yet uncertain about his methods, and certainly troubled by his incompetent tactics at Harpers Ferry.

Perhaps we end up accepting the argument of the abolitionist lawyer and later governor of Massachusetts, John A. Andrew, who declared "whether the enterprise of John Brown and his associates in Virginia was wise or foolish, right or wrong; I only know that, whether the enterprise itself was the one or the other, John Brown himself is right."

Paul Finkelman received his B.A. from Syracuse University and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. He is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School. He is the author or editor of more than 25 books and over 150 scholarly articles. His legal history scholarship has been cited by numerous courts, including the United States Supreme Court.

Note on Sources

The very best discussion of Brown in Kansas is found in Robert E. McGlone, John Brown's War Against Slavery (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).

The quotation from Brown's speech in court is from Life and Letters of John Brown, Liberator of Kansas, and Martyr of Virginia, ed. Franklin B. Sanborn (1885), p. 585. Quotations of Frederick Douglass and Brown are from Stephen B. Oates, To Purge This Land With Blood: A Biography of John Brown, 2nd ed. (Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1984), p. 335. For more on Brown's self-created martyrdom, see Paul Finkelman, His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1995), pp. 41–66.

For the conservative estimate of the number of political killings in Kansas, see Dale E. Watts, "How Bloody was Bleeding Kansas? Political Killings in the Kansas Territory, 1854–1861," Kansas History, 18 (1995): 116–129.

John Andrew's declaration that "John Brown himself is right" is quoted in Owald Garrison Villard, John Brown, 1800–1859: A Biography Fifty Years Later (New York Alfred A. Knopf, 1943), p. 557.  

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 conductor on the Underground Railroad and by 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 band of men to Pottawatomie Creek on May 24, 1856.   The men dragged five unarmed men and boys, believed to be slavery proponents, from their homes and brutally murdered them.  Afterwards, Brown raided Missouri – freeing eleven slaves and killing the slave owner. 

Following the events in Kansas, Brown spent two and a half years traveling throughout New England, raising money to bring his anti-slavery war to the South.  In 1859, John Brown, under the alias Isaac Smith, rented the Kennedy Farmhouse, four miles north of Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).  At the farm Brown trained his 21 man army and planned their capture of the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Part of the plan included providing slaves in the area with weapons of pikes and rifles.  Brown believed that these armed slaves would then join his army and free even more slaves as they fanned southward along the Appalachian Mountains.  If the plan worked it would strike terror in the hearts of slave owners. 

On October 16, 1859, John Brown and his men raided the Federal Arsenal.  Unfortunately for Brown, nothing went as planned.  Slaves living in the area did not join the raid, local militia and the United States Marines, under Robert E. Lee, put down the raid, and most of John Brown’s men were either killed or captured, including two of his sons.  Ironically, the first man killed during the raid was Hayward Shepherd, a free black man working with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. 

Despite being seriously wounded, Brown was tried quickly and found guilty of murder, inciting slave insurrection, and treason against the state of Virginia.  

Upon hearing his sentence, Brown said,

“…if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for 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 told the court that he had hoped to carry out his plans “without the snapping of a gun on either side.”  But Brown’s vision of ending slavery was marred by the deaths of innocent civilians – both in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry.  The nation was divided over his actions.  Many abolitionists called him a hero.  Slaveholders called him a base villain.  People on both sides of the fence denounced Brown’s use of violence.

John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859.  Before he died, Brown issued these final, seemingly prophetic words in a note he handed to his jailer:

“Charlestown, Va, 2nd, December, 1859 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.”

Within one year, the first Southern state would secede from the Union.

James Buchanan

John C. Calhoun

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John Brown Papers, 1826-1948

Microfilm rolls ms 1245 - ms 1247, introduction, scope and content, contents list, related records or collections, additional information for researchers.

The papers of John Brown, noted abolitionist, of Ohio; Osawatomie, Kansas; North Elba, New York; and Charlestown, Virginia (now Charles Town, West Virginia), were given to the Kansas State Historical Society by many donors; contributors of major components of the collection include Sarah Brown on behalf of the Brown family, 1881; John T. Cox, 1883; R. J. Hinton, 1905; and Elizabeth Huxtable, 1977. Copies of documents in subgroup 2 relating to John Brown held by other repositories have been acquired from those depositories or previous owners of the papers.

Many biographies have been written of John Brown. Some of these (with Kansas State Historical Society Library call numbers) are:

• Filler, Louis. The Crusade Against Slavery, 1836-1860 . 1960
• Hinton, Richard J. John Brown and His Men . 1894 (K B B81hi)
• Malin, James C. John Brown and the Legend of Fifty-six . 1942 (K B B81ma)
• Redpath, James. The Public Life of Capt. John Brown . 1860 (K B B81re)
• Sanborn, F. B. The Life and Letters of John Brown . 1885 (K B B81sl)
• Villard, O. G. John Brown . 1910 (K B B81v)
• Warren, Robert Penn. John Brown: The Making of a Martyr . 1929 (K B B81wa)

This collection contains a number of letters to and from John Brown; many letters by and directed to other family members; and a large quantity of letters about Brown and his comrades by biographers, the Kansas State Historical Society, and other interested persons.

There is a small quantity of business records at the beginning of the collection. Most of these documents pertain to Brown’s various unsuccessful commercial ventures in Ohio and New York, particularly in land and wool.

The undated personal letters preceding the dated documents include a typewritten copy of Brown’s account of the Battle of Black Jack, a newspaper article of Luke F. Parsons’ story of John Brown, documents relating to objects related to Brown, J. K. Hudson’s “The John Brown League,” a bibliography of Brown’s writings, a stock certificate, and other documents.

John Brown’s personal correspondence for the decades of the 1830s and 1840s contains letters to and from the Brown family and a phrenological description of John Brown.

Most of the letters for the years 1850 through 1859 were written by John Brown. There is a certificate from an emigrant-aid company; letters to and from the Brown family; federal Court documents; a copy of John Brown’s account of the Battle of Black Jack and a casualty list from the battle; a circular “To the Friends of Freedom”; a contract; letters to John Brown; a photocopy of a Bible message by John Brown; “Old Brown’s Farewell”; documents relating to the Underground Railroad; John Brown’s “Parallels”; a reminiscence “Rescue of the Missouri Slaves, December 1858, by John Brown” with a 1901 biographical sketch of its author, James Townsend, by his son, J. R.; various letters and documents written prior to the Harper’s Ferry raid; John Brown’s last letters (originals and facsimiles) to his family; and letters of sympathy to Mrs. Brown after his execution.

Documents for the decade of the 1860s include items such as song lyrics in tribute to John Brown, personal letters, essays critical of Brown, a letter from the French John Brown Committee and copies of the presentation letter from Victor Hugo and company accompanying the John Brown medal (now in the Kansas State Historical Society’s museum collection).

Correspondence from the 1870s includes lengthy letters from H. L. Jones, a resolution for a John Brown statue in the United States Capitol, and literature relating to John Brown memorials.

Papers for the period 1880 through 1889 contain a statement of Edmund H. Chambers; correspondence of F. G. Adams, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, about John Brown; the “John Brown Resolutions”; a lengthy letter from John Brown, Jr., to a newspaper; a letter from Sarah Brown, John Brown’s daughter, concerning her mother; correspondence of F. B. Sanborn; letters from John Brown, Jr., to Adams discussing the transfer of the French medal; letters to Sanborn; and correspondence between H. N. Rust and Sanborn.

Documents from the 1890s include correspondence from Sanborn to H. J. Holmes; more letters of Rust; a “John Brown’s Fort” card; a lengthy letter from John Brown, Jr.; a letter from Charles Green; and letters to Adams and Sanborn.

Items from the beginning years of the twentieth century include a copy of George Washington Brown’s editorial on Brown; letters from O. E. Morse, August Bondi, E. J. Partridge, M. V. Jackson, and O. G. Villard; and letters to G. W. Martin and Sanborn.

The collection includes receipts issued by the National Kansas Committee for goods and funds disbursed to needy Kansans during the drought year of 1857.

Records relating to John Brown Memorial Park at Osawatomie, Kansas, contain copies of speeches made at its opening and a report by the Board of Trustees.

There is also a brief history of the Battle of Black Jack by Joel Goodin.

The collection also includes copies and descriptions of documents to, from, and about John Brown and his family in the Boyd B. Stutler Collection in the West Virginia Department of Archives and History ; letters and documents at the Atlanta University Center Archives from F. B. Sanborn to Brown and from the latter to Seth Thompson; and John Brown letters owned by the University of Iowa and several other institutions.

Oversized items filed separately include a letter and map of property by John Brown, Jr.; a statement by E. S. Coleman; and “Articles of Agreement for Shubel Morgan’s [John Brown’s alias] Company.”

Parts of this collection have been microfilmed on rolls MS 137, MS 225, and MS 799.03. The latter roll also contains pages of The Lawrence Daily Journal from 1879 featuring a debate about John Brown, much of which was written by G. W. Brown. MS 799.03 contains a number of typewritten transcripts of John Brown letters, some of which are a part of this collection. These rolls are available from the Kansas State Historical Society through interlibrary loan .

Other John Brown documents microfilmed by other repositories are on rolls MS 61 (Memoranda book, 1839 - 1859, at the Boston Public Library ), and MS 204 and MS 212 - 219 (John Brown, Jr., papers collected by Boyd B. Stutler and filmed by the Ohio Historical Society , Columbus). This microfilm is available for use in the Reference Room of the Kansas State Historical Society (KSHS) but is not available for interlibrary loan from the KSHS.

Other collections containing significant quantities of John Brown material include those of Richard Josiah Hinton, Charles & Sara T. D. Robinson (microfilm MS 640 - MS 652), Samuel Lyle & Florella Brown Adair (microfilm MS 1230 - MS 1237), and George L. & Mary Stearns (microfilm MS 171). The microfilm may be borrowed from the Kansas State Historical Society through interlibrary loan .

Other repositories holding significant John Brown collections (with National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections entry numbers in parentheses) include Allegheny College Library , Meadville, Pa. (MS 66-1013); Atlanta University Center Archives (formerly at Atlanta University) (MS 65-1); Chicago Historical Society Research Center (MS 62-1410); Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division (MS 62-4553); and Ohio Historical Society Archives / Library , Columbus (MS 62-4899).

A list of published John Brown documents in the Kansas State Historical Society Library is in the Appendix .

This collection has been arranged to the item level, listed to the file-unit (folder) level, and cataloged to the subgroup level; the entire collection, with the exception of copies of originals held by other institutions, has been microfilmed on microfilm rolls MS 1245 - MS 1247, available through interlibrary loan .

Subgroup and Series Descriptions

Subgroup 1: Originals Held by the Kansas State Historical Society. 1835 - 1924. 1 ft. (760 items)

(Folders 1.01 - 4.03)

This subgroup contains original documents given to the Kansas State Historical Society. Included are a few copies of documents in which the owners have given permission for additional copies to be made for research use.

Series A: John Brown. Business Records. 1835 - 1860. 16 items (1 folder)

(Folder 1.01)

Receipts and other documents from Brown’s careers as a surveyor and a merchant of woolen goods. Most of this material relates to his activities in Ohio and New York. Several documents pertain to legal judgments against Brown; several others relate to land owned by the Brown family.

Arranged chronologically.

Series B: John Brown. Personal Papers. 1839 - 1924. 1 ft. (608 items)

(Folders 1.02 - 3.27)

Correspondence of John Brown with family, friends, and supporters. Following his execution in 1859, much of the correspondence is that of his wife, Mary Ann (Day) Brown, and his son, John Brown, Jr. Late-nineenth and early-20th century correspondence may also be that of supporters, biographers, and the Kansas State Historical Society as the latter attempted to secure information on Brown’s activities from his friends and acquaintances.

Arranged chronologically with letters from unknown authors and undated items at the beginning of the series.

Serice C: John Brown. Autographs. [undated] 2 items (1 folder)

(Folder 3.28)

Two autographs of Brown cut from letters or other documents not in the collection.

Series D: National Kansas Committee. [Receipts.] 1857 - 1858. 0.1 ft. (110 items)

(Folders 3.29 - 3.34)

Receipts for goods and funds furnished drought-stricken Kansas settlers at Moneka, Osawatomie, Ottumwa, and Pottawatomie, Kansas, by the National Kansas Committee, a free-state relief and defense organization of which John Brown served as an agent. These receipts were actually notes to be repaid within one year, and some of the documents contain endorsements or other annotations signifying that the value of the loaned goods was repaid.

Arranged by location of agency, thereunder by series and/or receipt number.

Series E: Kansas State Historical Society. Correspondence with Principal Correspondents of John Brown. 1882 Jan. - June. 18 items (1 folder)

(Folder 4.01)

Correspondence between F. G. Adams, secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, and various participants in John Brown’s activities in Kansas and early Kansas history. Most of the correspondence is with postmasters and other officials as Adams attempted to contact some of Brown’s contemporaries at their last known locations.

Series F. John Brown Memorial Park. Records. 1909 - 1912. 10 items (1 folder)

(Folder 4.02)

Minutes of meetings and presentations and clippings of addresses given at the dedication of John Brown Memorial Park in Osawatomie, Kansas, and at other commemorations at the park. Some of these items appear to have been originally bound into a scrapbook.

Arranged chronologically with numbered items from the scrapbook arranged together numerically.

Series G: Joel K. Goodin. The Battle of Black Jack. [undated.] 2 items (1 folder)

(Folder 4.03)

Brief, narrative description of the Battle of Black Jack near Baldwin, Kansas, in 1856.

Subgroup 2: Copies of Originals in Other Institutions. 1826-1948. 0.2 ft. (81 items)

(Folders 4.03 - 4.10)

These documents were copied from collections in other institutions and furnished to the Kansas State Historical Society for research use. Researchers wishing copies of any of these documents should contact the institution holding the originals.

Series A: Boyd B. Stutler, collector. John Brown Letters and Documents in the Boyd B. Stutler Collection, Brown Family Letters (1849 - 1882). 1849 - 1948. 10 items

(Folder 4.04)

Calendar of John Brown letters and documents in the Boyd B. Stutler collection, now at the West Virginia Department of Archives & History (Charleston) and transcripts (typewritten) of 9 letters of Mary A. Brown and Ruth (Brown) Thompson, 1849 - 1882. The letters discuss family matters, the effect of John Brown’s execution upon the family, and the abolitionist cause.

The individual letters do not appear on the Kansas State Historical Society microfilm.

Series B: John Brown. Letters to Seth Thompson. 1826 - 1847. 0.1 ft. (50 items)

(Folders 4.05 - 4.06)

Photocopies of 47 letters in the custody of the Atlanta University Center Archives , and a summary of their contents. The letters primarily concern joint business ventures of Brown and Thompson, particularly land speculation in Franklin, Ohio. One letter (1831 August 13) was written within a week of Brown’s first wife’s death and discusses his state of mind at that time.

Series C: John Brown. [Letter to Mary Ann (Day) Brown.] 1854 Nov. 6. 1 item

(Folder 4.07)

Photocopy of a letter owned by the University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City) from John Brown at Vernon, New York, to his wife in Akron, Ohio. Brown instructs his wife when to have their sons sort potatoes and what the current price of oxen is. He also gives various directions for handling necessary duties at home.

The letter does not appear on the Kansas State Historical Society microfilm.

Series D: Benjamin Franklin Sanborn. Letters to John Brown. 1857-1858. 18 items

(Folder 4.08)

Photocopies of eighteen letters in the custody of the Atlanta University Center Archives , and a calendar summarizing their contents. The letters contain information in affairs in Kansas, the Kansas territorial government, efforts in Massachusetts to aid the anti-slavery cause, and action taken or being considered in Kansas.

Series E: John Brown. Letter to His Wife, Sons, and Daughters. 1859 Nov. 30. 1 item

(Folder 4.09)

Photocopy of one of John Brown’s final letters to his family from Charlestown Prison, Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia). He asks for his wife to visit him if she receives the letter before his execution and is equal to the task, sends her money, describes his state of mind, and emphasizes the justice of the abolitionist cause. He admonishes his children to remain loyal to the Bible and the Christian faith and to abhor slavery. The original is owned by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia).

Series F: Luke F. Parsons. Letter to John Redpath. 1922 Aug. 13. 1 item

(Folder 4.10)

Photocopy of a letter in the Chautauqua Collection of the University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City). In it, Parsons discusses recent coverage of John Brown in the New York Herald and the Topeka Capital, James Redpath, and what he remembers of a skirmish with pro-slavery men near Baldwin, Kansas.

Microfilm / Box List

NOTE: To view the desired microfilm roll(s), request the KSHS Film # (in bold type ). This microfilm is available through interlibrary loan . Researchers in the Kansas State Historical Society’s Research Room may pull the desired roll(s) themselves.

ABBREVIATIONS: Bx. = box, Fo. = folder, It. = items, KSHS = Kansas State Historical Society, R = roll, S = series, SG = subgroup, SS = subseries, SSS = sub-subseries

Appendix: Published Documents by John Brown in the Kansas State Historical Society Library

Brown, John. Address of John Brown to the Virginia Court at Charles Town, Va. . . . Nov. 2, 1859.

-. Autobiography; family record & other papers. 1899.

-. Copy of letter to Zenas Kent, dated April 29, 1835 from Randolph, Pa.

-. Court of appeals of Virginia. Richmond. Commonwealth v. Brown. 1859

-. Final Speech-November 2, 1859.

-. The John Brown Letters. Found in the Virginia State Library in 1901.

-. John Brown writes to Blacks , edited by Benjamin Quarles.

-. John Brown’s Parallels.

-. Letter. (“John Brown’s last letter,”-dated Dec. 2, 1859.)

-. A letter from John Brown. (dated Nov. 9, 1859, Charlestown, Va.)

-. A letter from John Brown never before in print. Dated Springfield, Mass., April 16, 1857.

-. Letter from Old John Brown. Jan., 1859.

-. Letter of John Brown (written at White Hall, N.Y., May, 1851).

-. Letter. . . to George Kellogg (dated Hudson, Summit Co., Ohio, 1840).

-. Letter to his cousin Rev. Luther Humphrey. . . (dated Nov. 19, 1859).

-. Letter to Rev. Luther Humphrey-dated November 13, 1859.

-. Letter of John Brown on the wool trade. (dated Springfield, Mass. March 12, 1849).

-. Parallels .

-. Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States . (Drawn up at the Provisional Constitutional Convention, May 8, 1858.) (in documents of U.S. 36th Congress, 2d Session, Senate).

-. Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of the United States . . . (Reprint of the 1858 edition.)

-. Testimonies of Capt. John Brown, at Harper’s Ferry. . .

Sanborn, Franklin Benjamin. The Life and Letters of John Brown . New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969.

-. Memoirs of John Brown, with Memorial Verses by W. E. Channing. Concord, 1878.

Suggested Citation

[ name of document ], [ date of document ], [ folder title, if applicable ], [ series ], John Brown ms. collection, Kansas State Historical Society microfilm MS [ roll number ].

Box and folder numbers are not necessary but often can help archivists locate materials more quickly.

Some examples of specific citations:

John Brown to his wife and children, 1 Feb. 1856, Personal papers, folder 1.16, John Brown ms. collection, Kansas State Historical Society microfilm MS 1245

National Kansas Committee, Receipt no. 2, 10 Nov. 1857, Moneka, Kans., folder 3.29, John Brown ms. collection, Kansas State Historical Society microfilm MS 1247.

John Brown to Mary Ann (Day) Brown, 6 Nov. 1854, folder 4.07, John Brown ms. collection, Library and Archives Division Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Copy of original in Iowa State University Libraries. [citation to photocopy in the collection but not on the microfilm]

Restrictions

There are no restrictions on access to these papers. In accordance with copyright law (Title 17, U. S. Code) and Kansas State Historical Society policy, those wishing copies of documents in subgroup 2 must contact the institutions holding the originals.

The subject of literary rights was not addressed at the time of donation, consequently copyright is presumed to belong to the heirs of John Brown or other authors of documents. Documents old enough to no longer be covered by copyright are in the public domain.

Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 1.464 Number of items: 847

Processed by

[Lela Barnes?], [193-?]

Reprocessed by

Lee Benaka, intern / Bob Knecht, 1988

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Author Interviews

A violent abolitionist's 'midnight rising', john brown: the 'midnight rising' of a violent abolitionist.

American abolitionist John Brown led the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Va. That takeover and the man behind it are the subjects of historian Tony Horwitz's new book, Midnight Rising. Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

American abolitionist John Brown led the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, Va. That takeover and the man behind it are the subjects of historian Tony Horwitz's new book, Midnight Rising.

On an October night in 1859, 21 men staged a takeover of a national armory in tiny Harpers Ferry, Va. Though unsuccessful, the raid drew the nation's attention to its electrifying leader, a man named John Brown — and helped set the nation on the path to war.

Brown went on to become perhaps one of the most polarizing figures in American history. The devout Calvinist and abolitionist is remembered as a traitor and terrorist by some, and a hero by others.

Historian Tony Horwitz joins NPR's Neal Conan to discuss his book Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid That Sparked the Civil War .

Interview Highlights

On Brown's preoccupation with sin and punishment

"He believed strongly in corporal punishment. This was not unusual for the early 19th century. But I would say he dispensed the rod with a special fervor, going on the basis of his children's accounts of being whipped for sins — not even sins, you know, childhood fibbing, the sorts of things that we would barely blink at. But he's really possessed with this sense of being a witness to sin and doing something about it. ...

"He's really quite self-lacerating about his own faults. He's a very ambitious, self-confident man who often falls short of his own vision for himself. He wants to be a successful businessman. Instead, he goes bankrupt. He has a troubled family life, many deaths in his family.

Midnight Rising

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"He's filled with his sense of, really, life as a moral test, and he's not always living up to it himself. But he's also alert to the ways in which others and the nation as a whole are not living up to their ideals."

On Brown's rejection of pacifism

"John Brown believes slavery is a state of war and must be met in kind. Most abolitionists are pacifists. They believe in opposing slavery with words and education. John Brown derides that as milk-and-water abolitionism.

"And in Kansas, he leads a raid — after much provocation by the other side — on a pro-slavery settlement, drags five men from their beds in the night, and slaughters them with broadswords. As one of his sons later put it, the enemy needed shock treatment, death for death. ...

"John Brown in a sense is too hot for us to handle. What do you do with this man? Here's a man who commits violence in the cause of racial justice. I think most of us today would recognize that he was on the right side of history in opposing slavery, yet he did it through violent means. We tend to want our figures from our history to be sort of black hats and white hats, heroes and villains."

On how Brown should be remembered: hero or terrorist?

"If we define terrorism as an illegal act of political violence that's intended to have a psychological impact, I think Brown fits the bill. He seeks to strike terror into the hearts of white Southerners, first in Kansas and later at Harper's Ferry. ...

"Fear is his greatest weapon, but I think it's a mistake to think of him as a terrorist in the way that we think of terrorism today, which has come to connote Islamic extremists or domestic bombers like Timothy McVeigh, who kill thousands of innocents, often towards rather murky ends.

"Brown does not target innocents. He does not kill indiscriminately. In fact, he treats his hostages at Harper's Ferry very well. And he has a clear target: the institution of slavery. So absolutely he uses fear. He sheds blood in the cause, in his cause. But I don't think we should sort of lump him with terrorists as that word has come to be understood today."

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The harpers ferry 'rising' that hastened civil war.

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The Tale of John Brown’s Letter Book

John Brown’s Letter Book, 1859, MS 155, MdHS (reference photo)

The Maryland Historical Society has in its collection a small, tattered letter book written in the hand of famed abolitionist John Brown. In October 1859, Brown led a raid of a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in the hopes of igniting a nationwide slave revolt. The failed raid and Brown’s subsequent execution by hanging were among the causes that pushed the nation towards civil war in 1861.

The letter book contains a draft of “Sambo Mistakes,” an essay Brown wrote around 1847 for The Ram’s Horn , an abolitionist newspaper out of New York published by free blacks. Brown writes in the voice of a free African-American man calling out what he saw as a defeatist mindset that kept African-Americans from achieving equality. There are no extant copies of the newspaper remaining, so it remains unknown if the piece was ever published. The only remaining text is from John Brown’s own letter book, which contains three chapters of the essay in faded handwriting. (a full transcription of “Sambo Mistakes” can be found in John Brown, 1800-1859: A biography fifty years after , by Oswald Garrison Villard.)

The story behind how the letter book made its way into the collection of the Maryland Historical Society is an interesting tale in itself. In 1883, John H.B. Latrobe, the president of the Maryland Historical Society, received a letter and package from New Yorker Clifton W. Tayleure, relating how he came into the possession of Brown’s letter book. The full text of the letter is transcribed below:

The Carrollton, Baltimore, November 3, 1883

To the President of the Maryland Historical Society,

The Maryland Historical Society recently acquired this tintype of John Brown taken before he grew his trademark beard. John Brown, Abbot & Co., ca. 1860, Cased Photograph Collection, CSPH 580, Maryland Historical Society.

Herewith I send a manifold letter writes once belonging to John Brown and which I captured in his headquarters at the Kennedy farm near Harpers Ferry the evening of the day after Brown’s capture. At the time of his insurrectionary affair, I was connected with the Baltimore “Clipper” and also with the battalion of Baltimore City Guard. My presence at Harpers Ferry on the memorable October 18, 1859, was therefore in the double capacity of soldier and journalist. Unlike “Desdemona” there was no “divided duty” in my service. I marched with Colonel Robert E. Lee and his Company of U.S. Marines, into the yard of the arsenal immediately after our arrival from Baltimore, shortly after midnight on the 18 th ; was present upon the scene at intervals through the future night. For no one that I heard of had any thought of sleep – and with the exceptions of Dr. Dunbar of Baltimore – if I remember the name right and Dr. Harry Scott of the Baltimore City Guard was the only civilian in the yard enclosure during the assault upon the Engine House on the morning of the 18 th . I was present at all the subsequent occurrences in connection with the examination of John Brown, including of course his memorable conversation with foreman? Harry? I was accosted by a young officer in Civilian attire, with an inquiry as to where he could find a Baltimore Military Company from a Battalion in connection with the Company of U.S. Marines for the purpose of capturing “the rest of those scoundrels” who were harbored, he added “at John Brown’s house three or four miles away on the Maryland Side.” The officer who had accosted me was J.E.B. Stuart, afterwards famous as a Confederate Cavalry Commander and his request to me was prompted by someone who pointed me out to him, as “an officer in a Baltimore Company, and a newspaper man.” – I proposed the service of Col. Joseph P. Warren Commander of the B.C.G. but he declined it after he found that his men were tired out with the fatigues of the journey of the ferry and the excitement attending the attack. It was then proposed to the Company of “Independent Greys” of Baltimore and promptly accepted in their behalf of Gen. Egerton, as I remember it.

Towards evening the Battalion crossed the bridge and marched in the direction indicated – some two miles from the Ferry. It was halted in front of a little log school house which stood on the right of the road, and there found and took possession of several boxes of Sharps rifles, together with a large number of murderous looking pikes. That done, the battalion was ordered hastily forward. Evening was rapidly approaching, and Captain Stuart who marched some distance in advance of his command, and who through the future distance has kept up a bright, cheery conversation with me upon the mystery of the affair. Remarking that according to Burner[?] ”the mountains are full of “ein[?]” but that his own idea was we should be confronted at the farm, and resisted by about “fifty or more of the miscreants” under command of a scoundrel named Cook.

Arrived at the farm house where John Brown and his adherents had lived. The battalion was halted in the wood whilst Captain Stuart and myself approached the house. We found it deserted, save by a large black dog of the Newfoundland Breed, which was chained to the porch. But a fire was yet burning in a stove in a small kitchen at the end of the house and the disheveled appearance of some fifteen or twenty beds, ringed around the large inner room (all of which had been made upon the floor, camp fashion) and other signs gave indication of a hurried departure on the part of its previous occupants. It was too dark for pursuit, and Capt. Stuart contented himself with picketing the house and grounds for the time.

In one corner of the room, I had observed a bed covered with a red and white Texas blanket. Perhaps my attention was attracted to it by the fact that it was the only bed in the room which had been left undisturbed. Near it stood a small black “army” trunk together with a large old fashioned carpet bag. Upon the bed very methodically arranged were a Sharps Rifle, a Sharps revolver, and a pike.

John Brown’s Letter Book, cover, 1859, MS 155, MdHS (reference photo)

Obeying a sudden impulse, I hastily opened the trunk and found it partly filled with maps, Military books (in pamphlet form, I think Forbes advice for volunteers) papers, letters, etc. My legal education had taught me the value of documenting evidence, and hurriedly emptying the carpet bag of the articles of personal attire which it contained, I crammed it full of papers, letters, and a map or two and seizing the arms I had seen upon the bed, the rifle, pistol, and pike. I hastily left the house by the rear entrance, as Captain Stuart from the front porch was giving orders that nothing whatever should without his consent be taken from the place.

It was then perhaps about 7 o’clock of the evening, and quite dark. I had some apprehension of an attack, as I was alone, unarmed but personal audacity and professional pride urged me forward. A short distance from the Kennedy farm, I overtook a citizen of the neighborhood who was carrying off in a shoulder sling hurriedly improvised from a Captain’s blanket a partly filled barrel of flour, he had “looted” from John Brown’s pantry.

Arrived at the railroad station, then crowded with many soldiers, I cautiously opened the captured box and glancing over the papers found that a number of them possessed great value, as historic and legal evidence. At once I sought out Mr. George W. Mumford (I give the name from memory) Secretary of [sic] for Wise and who had accompanied his Excellency to Harper’s Ferry, and advising him of my capture, and my own idea of its importance added that I should be glad to hand them over to the state authorities of Virginia upon demand. A few weeks later demand was made, and I have in my possession Mr. Mumford’s official acknowledgment of the receipt of these documents, and offering thanks for my delivery of them.

Several of these papers proved of importance in the subsequent trial of John Brown, and were somewhat instrumental in proving the existence of a conspiracy against the rights and property of Virginia.

Two of ten[?] from these captured documents I published a day or two later in the Baltimore “Clipper” together with my narrative of facts and events in connection with the raid. Worn out with fatigue at the railway station at Harpers Ferry, I fell asleep shortly after my arrival there. When I awoke, I found that my military overcoat had been unbuttoned and from its breast pocket there had been abstracted, in addition to certain articles of value to me, but the Sharps pistol recently taken from John Brown’s bed. Fortunately, I had made a cushion of the carpet bag, so that it could not have been taken without hazard of awakening me, and the Sharps Rifle, being slung across my back by a stout strap, was also thus saved from loss.

The pike I sent to my friend, the late Richard Meadow[?] then editor of the Charleston Courier. The Sharps rifle I gave afterwards (in 1861) to my brother William W. Tayleure, a gallant officer in the 12 th Virginia regiment (of Petersburg, VA). The carpet bag I yet have and the manifold letter written which I herewith saved. Its chief value seems to be in the evidence it furnishes of the drift and color of John Brown’s thoughts and [??]. I know nothing of its history, but is evident that its record antedates the outbreak of the John Brown conspiracy by several years.

I was reminded to present this book to the Historical Society of New York, but I find more gratification in offering it to your honorable Society. If you think it worthy of acceptance I shall be very glad to have it find a resting place amongst the archives of the society you represent.

Pardon the prolixity & seeming egotism of this hurried narrative. I give it, solely for the purpose of authenticating the book and explaining how and when it came into my possession. I leave town tomorrow for Cincinnati. I shall however be honored by a reply to my permanent address No. 162 South Elliott Place, Brooklyn, NY

Respectfully,

Clifton W. Tayleure (1)

(Damon Talbot)

(1) Clifton W. Tayleure to John H.B. Latrobe, November 3, 1883, MS 2008, MdHS.

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John Brown: A Hero or a Terrorist, Essay Example

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October 16 th , 1859, the day when John Brown raided a U.S military arsenal located at the Harper’s Ferry in Virginia in anticipation of provoking a slave insurgence to free the African Americans. His plan was to use the weapons from the arsenal to launch a war against the South and end the slavery trade. In the course of this action, John Brown and his men killed 7 people. However, in the end, the raid was not successful and John Brown was hanged later on. John Brown was a known abolitionist. He fought hard to end the slavery and free the African-Americans from the hands of their masters. Even after the failed raid of the Harper’s Ferry, such actions from him and his men encouraged other abolitionist to continue the battle that ultimately led to a civil war (Barney, 112). Yet, people are asking whether or not his actions can be considered heroic or an act of terrorism.

The answer to this question is tricky by virtue of two opposing views. The North viewed John Brown as a hero while the South looked at him as a terrorist. It cannot be denied that his quest to abolish slavery was for a good cause. Not because it exhibited unequal rights among the people in the society but because it is an evil crime to interfere one’s right to freedom. Slavery did not just limit the right to freedom of the slaves but also encouraged lack of education, poverty and oppression. To fight for slavery in such a time was truly heroic. It meant freeing the people from oppression and giving them hope for a better future. However, a line should have been drawn when John Brown and his men started killing people who did not share the same idealism and views as with them. When he was planning the attack, it is important to note that no slaves joined him when he actually launched the attack. This can be rooted from the fact that the slaves knew that killing will not solve any problem. As a matter of fact, it only created fear and more chaos.

The end does not justify the means. For if it is, people will just keep killing each other due to differences in beliefs, race, religion and political affiliations. Although his contributions to the enlightenment of the people to defend for their own freedom cannot be disregarded, the means by which he conducted his ideologies constitute that of a terrorist act. There is no contesting that he inspired people to fight for their own freedom but it could have been done in a peaceful way. Even in the present day, does society encourages war? Does it encourage killing by virtue of religion? The answer is no.  It is understandable to fight for what someone believes in. But it should not be in the form of violence as it will just drag on until such time where innocent civilians who refused other beliefs and support their own will have to die to prove a point. It might sound idealistic but there is more than one way in solving conflicts than violence and killing. If only John Brown chose the other ways such as a peaceful revolt, then that would have made him a full blown hero and no one can ever argue that fact.

Barney, William. The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Student Companion. New York: Oxford University Press Inc., 2001.

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John Brown: Hero or Villain? DBQ

Use this Lesson alon

Lesson Components

Objectives:.

• Students will be able to evaluate the impact of John Brown’s approach to the abolition of slavery by examining primary sources to determine whether he was a hero or a villain.
• Students will be able to apply elements of the arguments over John Brown to modern-day controversies.

Expand Materials Materials

• Handout A: John Brown Background Essay and Timeline
• Handout B: Student Document Handout
• Handout C: DBQ Document Organizer

Expand More Information More Information

For additional study, see Paul Finkelman, “John Brown: America’s First Terrorist?”  Prologue Magazine , 43 no. 1 (2011):16–27.

Expand Warmup Warmup

Begin by walking students through Handout A: John Brown Background Essay and Timeline and accompanying discussion question. Distribute Handout B: Student Document Handout .

Expand Activities Activities

Guided by the  Key Question , students analyze the documents alone, with a partner, or in small groups, as best suits the teacher’s classroom.

Key Question: John Brown sought to destroy slavery. In the methods he chose to carry out this goal, was he a hero or a villain?

Students synthesize the documents by working in small groups to fill in  Handout C: DBQ Document Organizer  and then draft a thesis in response to the  Key Question . Depending on time available for this lesson, the teacher may also require students to develop an outline, and/or a rough draft of the essay individually or in small groups.

Expand Wrap Up Wrap Up

The teacher may assess student work using methods such as:

• Peer review of thesis/outline/essay
• Reflection on thesis/outline/essay
• Self-grading or teacher assessment with  DBQ rubric  from the College Board

Related Resources

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

In our resource history is presented through a series of narratives, primary sources, and point-counterpoint debates that invites students to participate in the ongoing conversation about the American experiment.

Home — Essay Samples — History — John Brown — John Brown: A Terrorist And A Patriot

John Brown: a Terrorist and a Patriot

• Categories: John Brown Patriotism

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Published: Sep 1, 2020

Words: 687 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

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