Abolitionist John Brown leads 18 men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry armory. The raid to seize the weapons failed and Brown was captured, tried, and hung. At his trial, Brown said: “Now,…

John Brown - Abolitionist - 1859 Raid on Harpers Ferry, VA

On this day in 1859 abolitionist John Brown led the attack on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Brown, a minister and fierce opponent of slavery, sought to obtain weapons from the arsenal to defeat the slaveocracy in the South.

John Brown (1800-1859), a white American abolitionist, was hanged for treason, murder and insurrection after his failed attempt to take over the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry to gain arms for a …

John Brown, militant American abolitionist and veteran of Bleeding Kansas whose raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859 and subsequent execution made him an antislavery martyr and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War.

photo of John Brown

A few years back a distant cousin contacted me about the Darling family. We talked via email for awhile and then I learned that she lived in Gleneden Beach on the Oregon coast, about an hour’…

This famous painting of John Brown was painted by my grandpa's first cousin, John Steuart Curry!

Abolitionist John Brown, Sr. c. 1846-1847 Quarter plate daguerreotype Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Kansas City, Missouri

John Brown was an abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States.