Who was John Brown and what did he do?

John Brown was a 19th-century militant abolitionist known for his raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, in a Calvinist household and would go on to have a large family of his own.

Did John Brown ever talk about the Pottawatomie massacre?

However, in New England abolitionist circles Brown rarely spoke of the Pottawatomie Massacre in Kansas, in which he had retaliated against the Border Ruffians by hacking to death five proslavery civilians with broadswords in the middle of the night.

What happened to John Brown after the Harpers Ferry raid?

After the Harpers Ferry Raid, John Brown was tried for murder, slave insurrection, and treason against the state. He was convicted and hanged on December 2, 1859, in Charles Town, Virginia (now in West Virginia).

What were John Brown’s last words before he was hanged?

John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. Before he died, Brown issued these final, seemingly prophetic words in a note he handed to his jailer: “Charlestown, Va, 2nd, December, 1859. I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood.

Was John Brown a hero or a villain?

But Brown’s vision of ending slavery was marred by the deaths of innocent civilians – both in Kansas and at Harpers Ferry. The nation was divided over his actions. Many abolitionists called him a hero.

Who was the first person to die in John Brown’s raid?

The first person to die in John Brown’s raid, however, had been, ironically, a black railroad baggage handler named Hayward Shepherd, who confronted the raiders on the night they attacked the town. On October 18, a company of U.S. Marines, under the command of Army lieutenant colonel Robert E. Lee, broke into the building.