John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an
American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed
insurrection as a means to end all
slavery. He led the
Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in
Bleeding Kansas and made his name in the unsuccessful
raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
President
Abraham Lincoln said he was a "misguided fanatic" and Brown has been called "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans."His attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in
Harpers Ferry, Virginia electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, the murder of five proslavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection and was subsequently hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the
Republican Party. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that a year later led to secession and the
American Civil War.
Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the
Bleeding Kansas crisis. Unlike most other Northerners, who still advocated peaceful resistance to the pro-slavery faction, Brown demanded violent action in response to Southern aggression. Dissatisfied with the pacifism encouraged by the organized abolitionist movement, he reportedly said "These men are all talk. What we need is action - action!" During the Kansas campaign he and his supporters killed five pro-slavery southerners in what became known as the
Pottawatomie Massacre in May 1856, in response to the
raid of the "free soil" city of
Lawrence. In 1859 he led a raid on the federal
armory at
Harpers Ferry,
Virginia (in modern-day
West Virginia). During the raid, he seized the armory; seven people (including a free black) were killed, and ten or more were injured. He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed. Within 36 hours, Brown's men had fled or been killed or captured by local farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines led by
Robert E. Lee. Brown's subsequent capture by federal forces, his trial for treason to the state of Virginia, and his execution by hanging in
Charles Town, Virginia were an important part of the
origins of the American Civil War, which followed sixteen months later.
When Brown was hanged after his attempt to start a slave rebellion in 1859, church bells rang, minute guns were fired, large memorial meetings took place throughout the North, and famous writers such as
Emerson and
Thoreau joined many Northerners in praising Brown.
Historians agree John Brown played a major role in starting the Civil War. His role and actions prior to the Civil War, as an abolitionist, and the tactics he chose still make him a controversial figure today. He is sometimes memorialized as a heroic martyr and a visionary and sometimes vilified as a madman and a terrorist. While some writers, such as Bruce Olds, describe him as a monomaniacal zealot, others, such as
Stephen B. Oates, regard him as "one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation."
David S. Reynolds hails the man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights" and Richard Owen Boyer emphasizes that Brown was "an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free." For Ken Chowder he is "at certain times, a great man", but also "the father of American terrorism."
Brown's nicknames were Osawatomie Brown, Old Man Brown, Captain Brown and Old Brown of Kansas. His aliases were Nelson Hawkins, Shubel Morgan, and Isaac Smith. Later the song "
John Brown's Body" (the original title of the "
Battle Hymn of the Republic") became a
Union marching song during the Civil War.
