BROWN, JonN (1800-59). An American abolitionist of the extremely radical type. He was born in Torrington, Conn.. May 9, 1800, of Puritan ancestry. In his earlier years he en gaged in the wool business and in a variety of other pursuits, in all of which he was uniformly unsuccessful. He was twice married, and be came the father of a score of children, but he seems not to have shown either the disposition or the ability properly to maintain a family. His roaming career in Ohio, Connecticut, and New York was not such as to secure for him the standing even of an average citizen. He was, however, a man of much natural force, and upon becoming imbued with the single idea which con trolled his later life he appeared as an agitator of great power, although manifesting many of the characteristics of the fanatic. His life work has given rise to a marked diversity of opinion, some considering his deeds highly reprehensible if not criminal, while others have regarded his life and death as scarcely different from those of a martyr. The latter view was early prevalent throughout the North. and was upheld by many reputable abolitionists (q.v.), by the leaders among whom Brown seems to have been encour aged and assisted from the beginning of his work in Kansas until the time of the final catastrophe in Virginia. Brown first appeared as a public character in the struggle which the free-State • men were making for the control of Kansas (q.v.). He was somewhat prominent at Law rence in the critical days of December, 1855, and soon made himself notorious by the massacre of five of his opponents at I'ottawatomie on the night of May 24, 1856.
This was followed, on June 2, by his capture at Black Jack of Captain Pate. In time follow ing August be won national renown by the heroic stand which he made at Osawatomie against an overwhelming force of invaders from Mis souri. While he thus took a most vigorous share in the critical border war, he became the expo nent of the bloodiest and most unscrupulous type of frontier ruffianism. After the conclusion of violence in Kansas Brown seems to have main tained relations with his respectable and wealthy sympathizers in the Northeastern States, and by them lit' was encouraged :rid materially aided in his eliorts to free the blacks. 1'he culmination of long secret planning caiiie in the fall of 1559, when, after hating as a hi hid taken a farm near his objective point, be led a hand of fewer than a. score of follower into harper'. Ferry on tine night of October 11i. I85'J, and seized the national arsenal, thus giving what lie supposed would be the signal for a general insurrection of the slates.
This audacious act. however• resulted only in en In initv for the partieipants, and in so embitter ing and arousing tim South as to make any peaceful a Ira ugeiuent of the slavery problem a still snore remote probability. 'l rOop.s of the regular arwy, under connmand of Pobert E. Lee (q.v.l soon regained control of the arsenal, and captured Brown and his followers. it row n was tried, convicted of "treason, and of conspiring and advising with slates and others to rebel, and of murder ut the first degref•;" was sentenced to deatte.and was executed at (-'harlxrtown, \C. \"a., December '' ISJ9. lie was buried at North n Elba. N. Y. During the following years a popular song in the North had the refrain: "John Bron•n's body lies a uionldertng in the grave, But his soul goes marel,iug o))." The general approval of iris deed in the North served only to impress upon the South the ex tremes to wliich certain Northerners might go, and the futility of hoping for any uuconte ted maintenance of slavery in the Union. Brown's biographer, Sanborn, has said: "Although John Brown would have' justified a slave insurrection, or indeed almost any means of destroying slavery he did not seek to incite general insurrection among the Southern slaves. The venture in which he lost his life was not an insurrection in any sense of the word. but an invasion or foray." thy the other hand, a recent writer, speaking of the IIarper's Ferry affair, has said that "it waserime, and nothing but crime, eunnnon crime and public crime, crime that made violent and destructive means possible and actual, and seeniIngly neecs sary for the attainment in the United State; of that principle of the svorld's civilization wliich ha decreed the personal freedom of all men." Of his twenty children, eight died in early child hood. The sou: who grew to manhood took an active part in their father's work and obeyed limn implicitly. 1''iye of then] removed to Kansas in IS.i4 and immediatelv entered with enthu=iasin into the struggle with the pro-slavery settlers; and four of them partieipated in the Harper's Ferry raid, of which Owen Brown, who died in ISS!i, was lung Ilse only sur'yivur. A work en titled I,i%e anti Letters of .lohn Browns, Literntor of Kunsns mud .Ilar•tyr• of 4"irnill )i, edited by F. B. Sanborn ( Boston. 1 SS3) . gives a sympa thetic antl exha list lye biography. 1'ur an ltuf i. vorable estimate of Brown, consult iturgecs. The ('iri! liar and the ('oiustftution ( New York, 1901). For a cs1imntc, consult Phodes. II s/org of the Uni(cd Rates from /lie ('oatpro riiise of 1S30 (New York. IS93).