Abolitionist John Brown

The son of a staunch abolitionist, Brown was convinced that black slavery was a sin against Christianity. In Pennsylvania his home was a station on the Underground Railroad, a secret network to aid fugitive slaves. In New York he settled his family in a black community founded on land donated by an antislavery philanthropist. By the time he was in his 50s, he had finally decided that force was the only way left to banish slavery.

His hatred of slavery marked his subsequent career. While living in Pennsylvania in 1834, Brown initiated a project among sympathetic abolitionists to educate young blacks. The next 20 years of his life were largely dedicated to this and similar abolitionist ventures, entailing many sacrifices for himself and his large family (Microsoft Encarta 2000).

In 1855 he followed five of his sons to Kansas Territory, then a center of struggle between the antislavery and pro-slavery forces. Under Brown's leadership, his sons became active participants in the fight against pro-slavery terrorists from Missouri, whose activities led to the murder of a number of a

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for a slave revolt from the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, but Douglass reiterated that he did not reject violence as a weapon against slavery. He believed that "it can never be wrong for the imbruted and whip-scarred slaves, or their friends, to hunt, harass, and even strike down the traffickers in human flesh." Douglass was accused of helping Brown and was again forced to flee to England (comptonsv3). On the night of Sunday, October 16, Brown and all but three of the men marched into Harpers Ferry, capturing several watchmen. The first victim of the raid was an African-American railroad baggage handler named Hayward Shepherd, who was shot and killed after confronting the raiders. During the night, Brown captured several other prisoners, including Lewis Washington, the great-grand-nephew of George Washington (unknown, 1859). There were two keys to the success of the raid. First, the men needed to capture the weapons and escape before word reached Washington, D. C. The raiders cut the telegraph lines but allowed a Baltimore and Ohio train to pass through Harpers Ferry after detaining it for five hours. When the train reached Baltimore the next day at noon, the conductor contacted authorities in Washington. Second, Brown exp
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