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Brown, John

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
John Brown (1800-1859) became a legend when, late in his life, he led guerilla bands that included his own sons in attacks to end American slavery, with the most infamous of these the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Southerners saw him as a harbinger of Northern aggression, while Northerners embraced him as a martyr: both images of this man pushed a tense nation closer to civil war. John Brown was born into a family that was fervently patriotic, religious, and opposed to slavery. He moved between a number of northern states and various professions, all the while fathering twenty children in two marriages. He saw the Constitution and Bible as equally sacred texts, which slavery violated; therefore, he gradually accepted righteous violence in his quest for a perfect society. Brown publicly dedicated his life to the destruction of slavery in 1837 in an Ohio church. His early activism included financing abolitionist publications and participating in the Underground Railroad. Brown's work…
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Full text Article Brown, John

From Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
John Brown’s attack on a federal arsenal in...
Recognized as a martyr to the antislavery cause, the radical abolitionist John Brown gave his life to end the “peculiar institution” of slavery in the United States. Through his failed efforts to foment a slave insurrection by capturing the U.S. Army arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and…
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Full text Article John Brown

From Chambers Classic Speeches
John Brown (1800-59) was born in Torrington, Connecticut, of Pilgrim descent. He was successively a tanner, a land surveyor, a shepherd and a farmer. A committed abolitionist, he travelled throughout the USA on anti-slavery enterprises. He was twice married and had 20 children. In 1854, five of his…
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Full text Article Brown, John

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
abolitionist . A man of burning religious faith, Brown joined the battle against slavery in bleeding Kansas and achieved national notoriety with his participation in the Pottawatomie Massacre . Aided by his followers, he led a raid on an arsenal at Harpers Ferry , Virginia, in 1859. He planned to…
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Full text Article Brown, John 1800–1859

From Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
John Brown was born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, and he died on the scaffold in Charlestown, Virginia, on December 2, 1859. He was the only white abolitionist who repeatedly took up arms against slavery before the Civil War. Convinced that the standard tactics of persuasion and…
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Full text Article John Brown (1800–1859)

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
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Full text Article Brown

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary Full text Article Biographical Names
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Full text Article Brown, John

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Daguerreotype of John Brown, c.1856. Boston...
John Brown (1800-1859) became a legend when, late in his life, he led guerilla bands that included his own sons in attacks to end American slavery, with the most infamous of these the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Southerners saw him as a harbinger of Northern aggression, while Northerners…
| 862 words , 3 images

Full text Article Brown, John

From Gale Biographies: Popular People
John Brown (1800-1859) has been revered for generations as a martyr to the American antislavery cause. His attack on Harpers Ferry, Va., just before the Civil War freed no slaves and resulted in his own trial and death. John Brown was born at Torrington, Conn., on May 4, 1800, to Owen Brown, a…
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The ideological differences between the North and the South that festered before the American Civil War were reflected in their views of the abolitionist John Brown. To Northerners he was a martyr to the cause of freeing African Americans from slavery. To Southerners he was an insane criminal. To…
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Full text Article John Brown 1800–59

From The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
American abolitionist. On Brown: see anonymous Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by…
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