Inside History: Protest. Revolt & Reform

“I have been whipped, as the saying goes, but I am sure I can recover all the
lost capital occasioned by that disaster by only hanging a few minutes by
the neck. And I feel quite determined to make the utmost possible out of my
defeat.”
A letter by John Brown to his wife whilst in
Charles Town Prison, 1859.
John Brown was a complicated man. A man who saw his
actions as a just cause in the biblical sense of an "eye for an
eye". That was the kind of justice that Brown held onto
deeply. His life before Harpers Ferry was one of frustration
and limited success. He tried twenty different business
ventures of one kind or another. All ended in failure, several
of which ended in lawsuits and bankruptcies with one even
seeing John Brown serving in a debtor’s prison. In many
respects, he was a failure waiting for an opportunity to
shine brightly in the horizon. In joining the fight for the
abolition of slavery, Brown hoped to achieve that but would
fail once more as his doomed raid at Harpers Ferry would
see him hang. Yet, his name and legacy would live on.
In December 1858, John Brown and small band of men
entered Missouri. They attacked three small plantations
seizing 11 slaves and killing one owner. He then engaged in
an 82 day, 1000 mile trek in order to get the freed slaves
over to Canada. It was possibly the greatest
accomplishment of his life. This time, he actually made a
difference. It would become more personal for Brown as
during the journey one of the freed slaves gave birth to a
boy, he was named John Brown Daniel.
Brown was no stranger to violence when it came to the
cause of slavery. The passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of
1850 imposed severe penalties on those who aided
runaway slaves. As a response to this Brown founded the
militant group, The League of Gileadites. The League were
determined to help the runaway slaves by any means
necessary.
News would reach Brown that the state of Kansas was in
danger of becoming a slave state. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
allowed the state to make its own choice on whether or not
to accept the use of slavery. With both pro and anti slavery
factions moving into the state, it would soon become a
powder keg waiting for a spark. On May 24, 1856, armed
with rifles, knives and broadswords, Brown and his men
stormed into the pro-slavery settlement of Pottawatomie
Creek, dragged the settlers out of their homes and hacked
them to pieces, killing five and severely wounding several
others.
Daguerreotype of the abolitionist, John Brown, taken by African-American photographer Augustus Washington. Brown
is holding the hand-colored flag of Subterranean Pass Way, his militant counterpart to the Underground Railroad.
(Left to Right) Osborne Perry Anderson, Lewis Sheridan Leary, Dangerfield Newby,
John Anthony Copeland Jr, Shields Green
INSIDE HISTORY 13