Brown came from a staunch Calvinist and anti-slavery family.[1] He failed at most business ventures he tried and declared bankruptcy at age 42.[1] He attended a meeting of abolitionists in Cleveland, Ohio in 1837 that changed his life. He publicly declared he would destroy the institution of slavery. By 1848 he was already making plans to start a rebellion.
Brown had planned to set up a base in the Blue Ridge Mountains.[7] From there he and his followers would help runaway slaves and launch attacks on slaveholders.[7] He described this plan to abolitionists who might fund this plan.[7] But the plan changed. By 1858, with the money and men to proceed, a follower revealed Brown's plan.[7] He was forced to go into hiding.[7] After a year, Brown was ready to go again. He rented a farm in Maryland across the river from Harpers Ferry.[7] But many of his followers had changed their minds or didn't believe the plan would work. He did have 21 men and on October 16, they set out for Harpers Ferry.[7]
About 4 am on the morning of the 17th, Brown and his men arrived at Harpers Ferry.[8] They cut the telegraph lines then captured the federal armory.[8] Next they captured Hall's Rifle Works, a weapons supplier to the federal government.[8] Then Brown and his men took 60 prominent citizens as hostages. Brown hoped slaves would join the fight but none came.[8] Later that morning the local militia arrived and kept Brown and his men pinned down in the arsenal's engine house.[9] Later in the afternoon, US Marines arrived commanded by Colonel Robert E. Lee.[9] The Marines stormed the engine house killing several of Brown's men.[9] They captured Brown. He was quickly put on trial for treason against the state of Virginia, murder and slave insurrection.[9] Brown was sentenced to death and was hanged on December 2, 1859.[9]
Aftermath
Brown quickly became the Martyr for the Abolitionist cause.[10] Many said he accomplished more by his death than he ever did in life.[10]
Israel Greene also resigned from the army and joined the Confederacy. He became a Captain in the Confederate Marines and rose to the rank of Major.[10]
↑At the time, Harpers Ferry was located in Virginia. When Virginia seceded from the Union, the people in the western region of the state did not agree.[2] They decided to form a separate state. On June 20, 1863, West Virginia became a state.[2] Harpers Ferry, the site of John Brown's raid, is in the present-day state of West Virginia.[2]
