John Brown

John Brown (1800 – 1859) was a radical American abolitionist whose uncompromising hatred of slavery propelled the United States toward civil war. Deeply religious, Brown viewed slaveholding as a sin against God and humanity that moral persuasion alone could never purge.

After leading armed antislavery settlers during the violent 'Bleeding Kansas' conflicts, Brown planned an ambitious slave insurrection throughout the American South. On October 16, 1859, he led an integrated band of 21 men in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Captured by federal troops under Robert E. Lee, Brown was tried for treason, murder, and slave insurrection. His dignified defiance on the scaffold transformed him into a moral martyr for Northern abolitionists and inspired the famous marching song 'John Brown's Body'.