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.
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Definition
Timeline
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1800 - 1859Life of the American abolitionist John Brown.
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c. 1812John Brown witnesses a slave boy beaten and commits himself to abolition.
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1817 - 1826John Brown is active in the Underground Railroad in Ohio.
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1820John Brown marries Dianthe Lusk.
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1826 - 1835John Brown is active in the Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania.
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1832John Brown's first wife, Dianthe, dies.
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1833John Brown marries Mary Ann Day.
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1835 - 1846John Brown opposes slavery in Ohio.
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1846 - 1850John Brown is a popular abolitionist speaker in Springfield, Massachusetts.
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1850John Brown establishes a farm in North Elba, New York.
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1855 - 1859John Brown leads "free-state" abolitionist forces in Kansas.
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1859John Brown leads the raid on Harpers Ferry.
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2 Dec 1859John Brown is hanged for treason and trying to foment a slave insurrection.
