John Brown (1800-1859) was a militant abolitionist best known for the part he played in the violence of Bleeding Kansas (1854-1859) and his raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia) in October 1859. Brown developed an intense hatred for slavery as a child, and this, coupled with his evangelical Christian upbringing, convinced him that God had called him to end slavery in the United States.
Although there were many factors leading to the American Civil War (1861-1865), Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry was a significant catalyst in the secession of the Southern states, and many abolitionists of the time and historians afterward have claimed John Brown started the Civil War that ended slavery, just as he claimed he was called to do.
Controversy over whether Brown was a hero fighting for human rights or an outlaw and terrorist began while he was waging war against pro-slavery factions in Kansas and escalated after Harpers Ferry and his subsequent execution by hanging on 2 December 1859. This debate continues today but, generally speaking, scholarly and popular opinion has sided with Brown as hero, and he has been celebrated through statuary and place names throughout the USA as well as through books, documentaries, and films, including The Good Lord Bird (2020), starring Ethan Hawke as Brown, and based on the 2013 novel by James McBride.
Early Life & Anti-Slavery Conviction
John Brown was born on 9 May 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut, the fourth child of Owen Brown and his wife Ruth (neé Mills), both staunch abolitionists and participants in the Underground Railroad. In 1805, Owen moved the family to Hudson, Ohio, opened a tannery, and also opened his home as a safe house ('station') on the Underground Railroad, providing fugitive slaves (freedom seekers) with food and supplies before sending them north to the free states or Canada.
In 1808, Ruth Brown died after giving birth to a daughter, and this loss greatly impacted her 8-year-old son. Brown's father was away on business much of the time, and so the loss of his mother left him to find his own path, which would be directed by an incident he witnessed when he was twelve. Scholar Stephen B. Oates explains:
As it happened, John had just completed one of his cattle drives and took lodging with a landlord who owned a slave about John's age. Observing that the Negro was "badly clothed" and "poorly fed," John felt sorry for him. But contrition turned to horror when the master, right in front of John, beat the Negro boy with an iron fire shovel. John returned to Hudson with an unrelenting anguish for the "wretched, hopeless condition" of that "Fatherless and Motherless" slave boy. He insisted later – and there seems no reason to dispute him – that the beating he witnessed made him "a most determined" foe of slavery from then on.
(12)
Brown was initially a poor student and preferred work in his father's tannery to studies at the school run by the abolitionist Elizur Wright. He balked at authority, maintaining he knew best how to live his life, and, as Oates writes, "he was arrogant and contentious, told lies, and acquired other 'bad habits' he would never talk about" (12). At the age of 16, however, Brown changed his ways, made a formal profession of faith, became a member of the Congregational Church of Hudson, Ohio, and enrolled at Moses Hallock's school in Plainfield, Massachusetts, in preparation for seminary and a career as a minister.
He devoted himself to serious study but left Hallock's school for unknown reasons after only a few months, enrolling at the Morris Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut. Difficulties with his eyes (some sort of inflammation) and lack of money caused him to drop out, and he returned to Hudson, Ohio, in 1817.
Business, Marriage & Family
He worked at his father's tannery at first, but, still unable to abide by others' rules, left to start his own. Oates comments, "he was an austere, tense young man…utterly humorless, and so fixed in his ways that he would not bend for anybody" (14). He now devoted himself to his business and built a successful tannery. When he was not at work, he taught himself surveying from a book. There is no evidence he engaged in any kind of leisure activities, as Oates observes:
He had no hobbies, no romance, no means of letting off steam in the evenings…and grew to dislike vain and frivolous talk as much as he disdained card playing, dancing, and other useless forms of entertainment. Action, work, tenacity – these made up his motto – and he went about his tasks at the tannery with an electrifying intensity.
(14)
His business now a success, he hired a widow, Mrs. Amos Lusk, as his housekeeper, and she came with her daughter, Dianthe, who became Brown's wife in 1820. They lived in a sparsely furnished log cabin, and Brown regularly read to his new wife and mother-in-law from the Bible and Plutarch's Parallel Lives in the evening, when his eyes, still problematic, would allow. He memorized passages, which he would frequently quote, disdained alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, and preferred simple meals without flourishes. The couple's first child, John Jr., was born on 25 July 1821, and they would have six others.
Since his return to Ohio in 1817, Brown had been active in the Underground Railroad, but, as his father had been doing the same, Brown came to feel he could better serve the cause elsewhere and moved his family to Randolph Township, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, in 1826. This move was also prompted by Dianthe's decline in health, which Brown felt would improve elsewhere, although it seems he was a primary cause for her distress through his unyielding authoritarianism, which often upset her.
He built a new tannery – complete with secret rooms to hide fugitive slaves – and made frequent trips to New York, transporting freedom seekers hidden beneath hides and tools further north. Brown established a school and post office in Randolph Township and became its first postmaster, giving him greater reason for his trips to New York as he was now responsible for delivering the mail. His home became a well-known safe house on the Underground Railroad, and he recruited others who then operated their own and served as conductors.
Brown was a popular, if enigmatic – and often intimidating – figure in Randolph (later Richmond) Township, exhorting his neighbors to attend church and refrain from vain activities. His tannery was a great success, and he was able to maintain 15 full-time employees. He helped the poor, defended the land rights of Native Americans, and tried to be a better father to his children than his father had been to him and his siblings.
He was as strict with his children as he was with himself, his wife, his employees, and others. Oates writes:
When Brown was not punishing his children, he was lecturing them to live by the Golden Rule and to abhor all forms of human wickedness – not only lies and disobedience but immorality, laziness, hunting and fishing (which promoted laziness), and slavery.
(23)
All of Brown's children would grow up to become abolitionists like their father, participating in his later anti-slavery initiatives in Kansas and the Raid on Harpers Ferry.
Deaths, Failures, & Commitment
By 1831, Brown's business began to fail, and that same year, his four-year-old son Frederick died. Brown fell ill with fever and could not keep up his regular schedule at the tannery, creating further problems and debts. On 10 August 1832, Dianthe died after giving birth to a son, who also died. Unable to afford his home, Brown and his five children moved in with a neighbor, James Foreman, agreeing to pay board, which he could not actually afford.
Brown reluctantly moved back to his own home, and, with business slightly improving, hired a housekeeper who brought along her sister, Mary Ann Day, who would become Brown's second wife when they were married on 14 July 1833. The couple would eventually have 13 children. Unable to revive his business and falling deeper into debt, Brown abandoned Pennsylvania and moved back to Ohio (Franklin Mills, near Hudson) in 1835, partnering with the wealthy tanner, Zenas Kent.
The financial success of the Erie Canal had sparked a "canal boom" and investors were eager to capitalize on this, including Kent. Brown talked friends and family into investing, promising them handsome returns once the new canals came to Ohio, borrowing heavily to invest himself, and engaged in land speculation, but the financial distress of the Panic of 1837 destroyed all his dreams as the USA fell into economic depression.
Brown's business ventures continued to fail, but he maintained his commitment to the Underground Railroad, giving what he could to freedom seekers who found their way to his house. In November 1837, the abolitionist writer, minister, and newspaper publisher, Elijah Parish Lovejoy, was murdered in Illinois by a pro-slavery mob from Missouri and was mourned and eulogized by abolitionist communities everywhere. After a service for Lovejoy in Franklin Mills, Brown recommitted himself to the cause of abolition, as Oates explains:
As the meeting drew to a close, Brown suddenly stood up, raised his right hand, and vowed that here, before God, in this church, in the presence of these witnesses, he would consecrate his life to the destruction of slavery.
(42)
Brown did not instantly give up all his business interests or speculation on the spot, but he did devote more time to anti-slavery initiatives, especially fighting to block pro-slavery colonizers who were trying to establish a foothold in Ohio. Brown had been a zealous abolitionist essentially all his life, but now devoted greater energies to the cause, eventually leading him to Kansas.
The Path Toward Kansas
Brown's financial hardships increased, despite his best efforts, and he was expelled from the Franklin Mills Church after denouncing its policy of segregation. Black members of the congregation were forced to sit in the back of the church, and, one evening, Brown told his family to rise from their pew, brought them to the back of the church, and led a Black family to the front, seating them in his place. This action lost him the support of White church members and increased his financial difficulties further.
In 1846, he moved his family to Springfield, Massachusetts, a stronghold of abolitionists, and met Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and Sojourner Truth (circa 1797-1883). Brown became a popular abolitionist speaker, consolidated Underground Railroad sites and initiatives, and funded the publication of abolitionist works and reprints, including the famous 1829 David Walker's Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World in 1848.
In 1850, he established the militant League of Gileadites to oppose the mandate of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, protect freedom seekers and free Blacks, and thwart the efforts of US governmental agencies and slave catchers. His efforts made Springfield one of the best-known and most effective stops on the Underground Railroad, but this did nothing for his personal finances.
In 1850, bankrupt, he left Springfield for New York, settling on land he bought from abolitionist Gerrit Smith (1797-1874) near Lake Placid in the town of North Elba. The family worked their farm for a few years but after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 – allowing popular sovereignty of those in the region to decide whether Kansas would be a free or slave state – five of Brown's sons (John Jr, Jason, Owen, Frederick, and Salmon) moved there, and Brown, his son Oliver, and his son-in-law Henry Thompson soon followed with a wagonful of arms and ammunition.
Bleeding Kansas
"Bleeding Kansas" (also "Bloody Kansas") was a term for the region coined by the New York Tribune in 1856, referring to the outbreak of violence between "free-stater" abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates over whether Kansas would be admitted to the Union as a free or slave state. By 1855, Kansas had a pro-slavery capital at Lecompton and free-state capital at Lawrence, two different constitutions, and two different legislatures.
John Brown and his sons established themselves near the free-state settlement of Osawatomie, naming their encampment "Brown's Station", and he quickly became recognized as the leader of the abolitionist/free-stater forces. On 21 May 1856, pro-slavery militia, made up mostly of border ruffians from Missouri, sacked the city of Lawrence, and the next day, in Washington, D.C., pro-slavery Democrat Preston Brooks attacked abolitionist Republican Charles Sumner in the US Senate chamber, beating him senseless.
In retaliation, Brown led some of his sons, along with others, in the Pottawatomie Massacre of five pro-slavery advocates, dragging them from their homes and slaughtering them with broadswords between the evening of 24 May and the early morning of the 25th. News of the Pottawatomie Massacre brought John Brown to national attention, and a bounty was placed on his head.
On 30 August 1856, slaveholder John W. Reid of Missouri led pro-slavery forces against Osawatomie, killing Frederick Brown, and engaging the rest of the family and their allies in the Battle of Osawatomie. Brown held his position as long as he could, but finally retreated, and Osawatomie was burned. Brown continued to engage pro-slavery forces through 1859, when he left the region, now a well-known, infamous wanted man, and began preparing for an assault on slavery he had been planning for at least 20 years.
Harpers Ferry
Brown's plan was to take the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, seize hostages to hold while he loaded all the weapons and ammunition into wagons, distribute these to the many slaves he was sure would rally to his cause, and launch a major slave insurrection which would break the hold of the pro-slavery advocates on the nation. He was advised in working out the logistics of the raid by Harriet Tubman (circa 1822-1913), who had also come to believe, as Brown did, that, for slavery to end, the country would need to be "purged by blood."
His plan was similar to Gabriel's Rebellion (1800) and inspired, in part, by Nat Turner's Rebellion (1831). Like Turner, Brown was confident that, once he struck the first blow, the slaves would rise up and join him. He expected thousands to fill the ranks of his army of liberation and brought pikes and other weapons to Harpers Ferry to arm those who did not receive weaponry from the arsenal. Brown and his troops would then flee to the mountains, establish strongholds, and engage in a guerrilla war with pro-slavery forces while, at the same time, providing a safe haven for fugitive slaves.
Brown rented the Kennedy Farm in Washington County, Maryland, just 4 miles (6.4 km) from Harpers Ferry as a staging area and, with 22 men, including three of his sons, took the arsenal on the night of 16 October 1859 without firing a shot. They cut the telegraph wires, took hostages, and alerted local slaves that the hour of their liberation was at hand, and they should spread the word.
Brown's men loaded the weapons into the wagons, and the plan was proceeding perfectly when a train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad pulled into the Harpers Ferry station. The night watchman had left his post, driven off by Brown's men, and a baggage handler and free Black named Heyward Shepherd had gone looking for him and was shot in the back by Brown's men when they mistook him for a White pro-slaver in the dark. The irony that the first casualty of the Harpers Ferry Raid to free the slaves was a Black man has been noted by writers and historians since 1859.
The missing night watchman appeared afterwards to warn the train, and the crew stopped it. Brown boarded with his men, explained what was going on, and then, inexplicably, allowed the train to continue on its way. As soon as they reached the next stop, the conductor sent a telegraph warning of the raid, which was at first ignored, but once the news was confirmed, orders were given to mobilize troops for deployment to Harpers Ferry.
In the meantime, now the morning of 17 October, the local militia had organized and attacked Brown's company, who took refuge in the arsenal's engine house, where firefighting equipment was stored (now known as John Brown's Fort), along with their hostages. The militia opened fire, Brown's men responded, and the fight continued all day. Watson Brown and Aaron D. Stevens were sent out under a flag of truce, but both were shot, and Brown's son Owen was later mortally wounded. The thousands of slaves Brown expected to rally never materialized, and so he was outnumbered.
The marines arrived, under the command of Robert E. Lee, in the evening and began their assault the morning of the 18th. Lt. J. E. B. Stuart tried to negotiate a truce, which was rejected, and Lee then ordered Lt. Israel Greene to break down the doors of the engine house. Greene subdued John Brown, and the others were captured or killed in the ensuing battle.
Brown was imprisoned, tried, found guilty of treason to the State of Virginia and "conspiracy to foment a slave insurrection," and was hanged on 2 December 1859. His body was buried at his home in North Elba, New York.
Conclusion
John Brown, already a controversial figure, now became a martyr for the abolitionist cause and a catalyst for pro-slavery advocates to begin arguing for secession of the slave states from the Union. The raid on Harpers Ferry is understood as the flame that helped ignite the American Civil War, which did, indeed, "purge the land with blood" as Brown had foretold, ending slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865.
