330 Political Activity and Resistance to Oppression: From the American Revolution to the Civil War
witnessed a slave being abused by his master while strolling
one day on the outskirts of the city, an event that reportedly
propelled Brown into the radical abolitionist camp.
Beginning in 1816, John Brown received education in
Massachusetts and Connecticut, but ill health required him
to return before his completed his studies. He returned to
Ohio, where he worked for his father’s business and even-
tually married Dianthe Lusk in 1820. Approximately one
year later, their fi rst child, John Jr., was born, and in 1825,
Brown moved his young family to Pennsylvania where he
established a farm and tannery. Over the next several years,
John Brown faced a series of painful tragedies; his busi-
nesses failed, and his wife and newborn son died. In 1833,
however, Brown married again, this time to Mary Ann Day,
with whom he eventually had 13 children. Combined with
the off spring from his fi rst marriage, Brown had a total of
20 children, 12 of whom survived past childhood.
For much of the 1830s, Brown’s political views re-
mained in obscurity. Yet beginning in 1837, it became clear
that Brown would eventually become an ardent abolitionist.
In 1837, Elijah Lovejoy, a minister, abolitionist, and newspa-
per editor, was murdered in Alton, Illinois. He was attacked
by an angry proslavery mob, an event that propelled Brown
to action. In the wake of Lovejoy’s death, Brown pledged
that he would dedicate his life to the destruction of slav-
ery. Th us, Brown fl ooded his household with abolitionist
ideology, and his surviving children became abolitionists.
While in Pennsylvania, he established havens for African
American children to receive an education. In addition, he
constructed additional refuges in Ohio and Massachusetts
with the intent of intellectually freeing the former slaves.
Brown also intended to go to Oberlin College in Virginia to
found an African American colony of small-scale farmers.
Unfortunately, the abolitionist cause did not pay well
for John Brown. By 1842, aft er numerous failed jobs, John
Brown declared bankruptcy. Subsequently, his solitary pur-
pose was the eradication of slavery in the Union. In 1849,
Brown moved to the newly created African American com-
munity of North Elba, New York. Th e community had been
created when a wealthy and prominent abolitionist named
Gerrit Smith donated 120,000 acres of his personal property
to black families who were disposed to clearing and farming
the land. Brown off ered to build a home in the community
and assist the local families. Unfortunately, North Elba strug-
gled in the years that followed, in part because the land was
not designed for agriculture and in part because residentsBrown, John
John Brown (1800–1859) was a staunch and radical abo-
litionist who professed the utter destruction of the sla-
veocracy through slave insurrection. On two occasions,
in Kansas and Harpers Ferry, Virginia, Brown led radical
abolitionists to fuel the tensions between the North and the
South over the issue of slavery.
John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut, on
May 9, 1800. His parents, Owen and Ruth Mills Brown, were
pious and conservative Calvinists; his father, in particular,
held especially infl exible religious views, including his belief
that slavery was immoral. Like many Calvinists, the Browns
assumed that religious crusades were the solution for the
eradication of slavery. When young John was fi ve years old,
Owen made a decision that transformed John into a young
abolitionist. In 1805, the Brown family moved to Hudson,
Ohio, a town renowned for possessing a virulent abolition-
ist movement. During his time in Hudson, John personally
A militant U.S. abolitionist, John Brown led an unsuccessful raid
against the federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, (West) Virginia, hop-
ing to spark a local slave rebellion. Th is event contributed to the
growing tensions between the North and South that led to the
American Civil War in early 1861. (National Archives)