6 Interesting Facts About John Brown, the White Abolitionist Who Led a Slave Uprising

The Beginning John Brown (May 9, 1800 – Dec. 2, 1859) was a white abolitionist who led a rebellion against slavery in the United States. Brown was born to a religious family from Connecticut who despised the institution of slavery. He fathered 20 children with various women from around the country. The Catalyst Brown was constantly moving from one state to the next. In 1837, Brown was living in the Ohio town of Franklin Mills, where he came to know the work of abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy. That year was a major catalyst for Brown. At that time, he was bankrupt and struggling to get back on his feet. Lovejoy was murdered because of his abolitionist work on Nov. 7, 1837. According Southern Illinois University archives, his violent death greatly stimulated abolitionist feeling throughout the North. Brown proclaimed, "Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!" John Brown, Frederick Douglass and Black Allies Brown was influenced by the life story of Frederick Douglass. In 1847, the two met in Springfield, Illinois, where Brown designed his plan to free enslaved Black people across the country. In 1849, Brown's abolitionism was still taking shape. He moved into an all Black neighborhood created in North Elba, New York. He wanted to be a "kind father to them." So he brought some land and farmed it. Even though he had good intentions, he clearly wanted to be a white savior to Black people that he saw as children. He also was a leader of the League of Gileadites, an organization that protected runaway enslaved Black people from the Fugitive Slave Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act On May 30, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act opened the door for the spread of slavery beyond the south and into the west. Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois was the main architect of the bill, which allowed the new settlers of these territories to choose if they wanted slavery within the territory. This concept of popular sovereignty eventually led to violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers. By 1855, Brown and his five sons were active in the fight against pro-slavery settlers. The following year, in retribution for an attack, Brown went to a pro-slavery town and killed five of its settlers. Attack on Harper's Ferry Brown headed back east to wage an anti- slavery war in Virginia. He met with Harriet Tubman to recruit Black fighters and gather financial support from major white abolitionists. Brown did not have the support of Douglass and Douglass encouraged Black people to not join him. On Oct. 16, 1859, Brown and his five sons, along with 16 other fighters, raided a federal arsenal at the Harper's Ferry. The plan was to hold many of the people in the area captive to inspire a great rebellion. The group held 40 towns' people but Brown was captured by future Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Legacy On Dec. 2, 1859, Brown was executed by hanging. Many historians believed that Brown's actions and the election of Abraham Lincoln sparked the secession of South Carolina. Brown's raid made whites fearful of an impending Black rebellion, poisoning of water sources, and other "terrorist" acts. While southern whites hated him, northern white abolitionists supported his passion for the abolition of slavery. Henry David Thoreau in his speech, Plea for Captain John Brown, stated, "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them as he was bid... No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature." Brown was allowed to say a few things in his Nov. 2nd trial. Here are Brown's last words: "I believe to have interfered as I have done... in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it be 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." French writer Victor Hugo wrote on Dec. 2 on behalf of Brown, proclaiming: "Politically speaking, the murder of John Brown would be an uncorrectable sin. It would create in the Union a latent fissure that would in the long run dislocate it. Brown's agony might perhaps consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it would certainly shake the whole American democracy. You save your shame, but you kill your glory. Morally speaking, it seems a part of the human light would put itself out, that the very notion of justice and injustice would hide itself in darkness, on that day where one would see the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty itself."

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