Brown Johnabolitionist

Brown, John, abolitionist, was born in 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut. After several not very successful years in business as a tanner and a wool-dealer, he removed, in 1855, to Kansas, where with his four sons he headed the anti-slavery cause. In 1856 his house at Ossawatomie was burned and one of his sons slain. In 1859 he conceived the idea of liberating the slaves by a general uprising, and in pursuance of this seized the United States armoury at Harper's Ferry. The negroes, however, were not responsive, Brown was taken prisoner, and on December 2nd of the same year was hanged at Charlestown, Virginia. His fate gave an immense impulse to the anti-slavery movement, which culminated during the war of Secession which broke out the next year.