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John Brown – (1800 – 1859) – Abolitionist
John Brown was an American abolitionist who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to end all slavery.
He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and was ultimately made infamous in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
President Abraham Lincoln said he was a "misguided fanatic" and Brown has been called "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans.
In modern times, such aggressive violence in pursuit of a political agenda would be labled as domestic terrorism.
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During the Kansas campaign he and his supporters killed five pro-slavery southerners in what became known as the Pottawatomie
Massacre in May 1856, in response to the raid of the "free soil" city of Lawrence. In 1859 he led a raid on the federal armory at
Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in modern-day West Virginia). During the raid, he seized the armory; seven people (including a free black)
were killed, and ten or more were injured. He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed.
Within 36 hours, Brown's men had fled or been killed or captured by local farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee.
Brown's subsequent capture by federal forces, his trial for treason to the state of Virginia, and his execution by hanging in
Charles Town, Virginia were an important part of the origins of the American Civil War, which followed sixteen months later.
Historical / Biographical information courtesy of Wikipedia.
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