Kansapedia
SUBJECT
TOPIC
TIME PERIOD
COUNTY
JOHN BROWN
Among the most well-known and controversial figures in Kansas history is John Brown. During his time in Kansas Territory, Brown demonstrated his most radical methods to fight the institution of slavery. Here his actions led to the territory’s nickname Bleeding Kansas. The work he started in Kansas erupted at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and he paid the price of his life for pursuit of the cause.
John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800, the fourth of eight children born to Owen and Ruth (Mills) Brown. After Ruth died, Owen remarried and he and Sarah Sally (Root) Brown had eight more children. Owen, a deeply religious man, hated slavery. His son John adopted these beliefs. They both believed in equality for African Americans and wanted them to have a place in society. When John was 16 he dedicated himself to religion and chose to further his education as a Congregational minister.
He married Dianthe Lusk in Ohio in 1820. They had seven children together before she died in 1832. Those who survived to adulthood were John Brown, Jr., Jason, Owen, Ruth, and Frederick. Brown then married Mary Day in 1833. They had 13 children.
Brown pursued several different types of work in his life, including as a farmer, tanner, and surveyor. In the course of these jobs he moved the family from Ohio to Massachusetts and New York. He was acquainted with other abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
Quick Facts
Born: May 9, 1800
Place: Torrington, Connecticut
Married: Dianthe Lusk, Ohio, June 21, 1820, she died in 1832
Married: Mary Day, Pennsylvania, June 14, 1833
Died: December 2, 1859
Place: Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia)
John Brown was an abolitionist in every meaning of the word. He became a prominent figure in the movement after moving to Kansas Territory.
Even before Brown came to Kansas he began plans to fight slavery. In 1848 he formulated a plan liberate enslaved people. While he knew he could not free the large populations trapped in slavery himself, he felt he could cause a panic that would lead to the end of the institution. The Fugitive Slave Act passed in 1850 mandating the return of those who escaped slavery to find refuge in free states. Brown founded a militant group to prevent their capture.
When Kansas Territory opened for settlement in 1854 several members of Brown’s family moved to the area. His half-sister Florella (Brown) and her husband Samuel Adair, were abolitionists and drawn to be a part of the free-state cause. They settled near Osawatomie where they established a Congregational church in 1855. Soon several of Brown’s sons moved to the area. When they became concerned by the presence of proslavers who held enslaved people in the area they convinced their father to follow them to the territory. He arrived with another son in that fall. Tensions in the region were growing amid accusations of fraudulent elections and strife between proslavers who lived along the border and new antislavery settlers in the territory.
Timeline
1800 – Born in Connecticut
1854 – Kansas Territory opens for settlement
1855 – Arrives in the territory
1855 – Pottawatomie Rifles organized
1856 – May 21 – Sack of Lawrence
1856 – May 22 – U.S. Senator Charles Sumner caned
1856 – May 24 – Pottawatomie Massacre
1856 – June 2 –Battle of Black Jack
1856 – August 30 – Battle of Osawatomie
1858 – December 20 – Leads rescue raid into Missouri
1859 – January 31 – Battle of the Spurs
1859 – Raids federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia
1859 – Hanged for treason
Brown and his sons rallied free-state supporters, quickly forming the Pottawatomie Rifles, a self-appointed militia of about one hundred armed abolitionists. They hoped to guard against Missouri proslavery men who became known as Border Ruffians. As these opposing forces patrolled, passions erupted on both sides of the slavery issue. Brown became a pivotal figure in this fight that resulted in several deaths.
By 1856 the territory had earned the nickname, Bleeding Kansas, much to the credit of Brown and his followers. In May proslavery men attacked and destroyed free-state homes and businesses in Lawrence. This came as Brown learned an abolitionist senator had been beaten with a can on the floor of the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. His rage led to action days later, on May 24, 1856, when he and the Pottawatomie Rifles kidnapped and executed five proslavery men with broadswords.
When those who had attacked Lawrence kidnapped two of Brown’s sons, he and his followers engaged in the Battle of Black Jack. Several days after the massacre, this five-hour battle ended without injury through negotiation.
Positioned along the Kansas-Missouri border, the free-state town of Osawatomie was under increasing threat from Border Ruffians. On an August morning several hundred proslavery men advanced toward the free-state guards. One of Brown’s sons was shot and killed in the encounter. Brown was unable to gather enough support to match the force of the intruders. Four more men were killed before freestaters finally fled the battle in all directions.
Brown left Kansas Territory soon after the battle, but he returned two more times, wearing a heavy beard as disguise. Late in 1858 he led a raid into southwest Missouri to free enslaved people. In the process one of the enslavers was killed. Near Holton early in 1859 as Brown was transporting the 12 freed people, he was engaged by a posse hoping to secure the bounty posted for Brown’s capture. Brown’s men boldly ordered them to surrender, but their fear of Brown was so great they fled instead with no shots fired.
With a much larger goal in mind, Brown turned his efforts toward gathering resources and support to gain national attention. His raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, was intended to secure weapons and spur a riot of Blacks across the South. Brown’s troops were overwhelmed and forced to find refuge. After negotiations failed most of his raiders were taken prisoner. Two of his sons died and Brown was convicted of treason and sentenced to be hanged. In one of his last statements he claimed he had “captured the attention of the nation like no other abolitionist or slave owner before or since.”
The legacy of John Brown is present in much of eastern Kansas yet today. One of the most well-known works of public art in the nation is John Steuart Curry’s mural, Tragic Prelude. This original work with its fiery depiction of Brown at the center of the brewing storms of civil war can be seen at the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka.
John Brown resources
Kansas Memory
Articles of Agreement for Exchange of Prisoners following Battle of Black Jack, signed by John Brown
Related Topics
Abolitionists
Battle of Black Jack
Battle of Osawatomie
Battle of the Spurs
Bleeding Kansas
Brown's Family
Civil War in Kansas
Freestaters
Henry Pate
Marais des Cygnes Massacre
Pottawatomie Rifles
Pottawatomie Massacre
Proslavers
Sack of Lawrence
Quote
I have only a short time to live—only one death to die, and I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no more peace in this land until slavery is done for. I will give them something else to do than to extend slave territory. I will carry the war into Africa.
John Brown told his son Jason Brown, August 30, 1856
Sources
Bordewich, Fergus M. "John Brown's Day of Reckoning," Smithsonian Magazine, October 2009.
Horwitz, Tony. Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War.Henry Holt and Co., 2012.
Johannsen, Robert W., ed, "A Footnote to the Pottawatomie Massacre, 1856," Kanas Historical Quarterly, Autumn 1956: 236-241
Kansas Historical Society, "The Radicalization of John Brown in Kansas Territory," Our Kansas Stories.
Malin, James, "Identification of the Stranger at the Pottawatomie Massacre," Kanas Historical Quarterly, February 1940: 3-12
Reynolds, David S. John Brown Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. New York: Vintage Books, 2006.
