John Brown

John Brown became a legend of his time. He was a God fearing, yet violent man and slaveholders saw him as evil, fanatic, a murderer, lunatic, liar, and horse thief. To abolitionists, he was noble and courageous. John Brown was born in 1800 and grew up in the wilderness of Ohio. At seventeen, he left home and soon mastered the arts of farming, tanning, and home building. Along with all the rural arts Brown was skilled at, one of his most conspicuous talents was profuse and painful failure. He made many attempts at work and every one turned into a disappointment. In 1837, Brown made his first public statement on human bondage and from then on continued to speak out against slavery. For three years, he traveled East beseeching abolitionists for guns and money. While doing that, Brown created a plan that one night, a small group would capture the federal armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. There, the group would seize all the guns and escape. Slaves would then join the group, creating an army, and diminish slavery in the South. On October 16, 1859, John Brown led a procession into Harpers Ferry and the raid went perfectly as planned. By noon, however, the Virginia militia entered Harpers Ferry and closed the only escape route. At the end of the day, Brown only had five of the twenty-two men he began with available to continue fighting. On October 18, the Marines, headed by Colonel Robert E. Lee, requested the surrender