John Brown

John Brown

John Brown was known as a militant abolitionist who wanted to raise an army to fight slavery. In 1855, he and five of his sons attacked a pro-slavery town in Kansas, killing five of the settlers. Brown planned a raid in 1859 on the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, hoping to steal enough weapons and ammunition to support an anti-slavery war in Virginia. He and 21 other men were captured, and Brown was convicted of treason and hanged on Dec. 2, 1859.

https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.23764/

Courtesy of Library of Congress Digital Collection

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