John Brown

John Brown was an American abolitionist who sought to destroy slavery through armed resistance. His 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry helped intensify sectional conflict before the Civil War.

Abolitionism in the United States: A movement to end slavery in the United States, pursued through political, religious, and direct-action campaigns. Brown became an abolitionist amid a movement divided over whether moral persuasion could end slavery.
Harpers Ferry raid: An 1859 attempt by John Brown and his followers to seize the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry and spark a slave uprising. Brown’s best-known action brought his antislavery campaign to national attention.
Frederick Douglass: An American abolitionist, writer, and orator who escaped slavery and became a leading advocate for emancipation and civil rights. Douglass met Brown and later recounted their disagreements over the Harpers Ferry plan.
United States presidential election, 1860: The U.S. election in which Abraham Lincoln won the presidency amid intensifying conflict over slavery. The raid heightened sectional tensions before Lincoln’s election.
William Lloyd Garrison: An American abolitionist who advocated immediate emancipation and moral suasion, and edited the newspaper The Liberator. Garrison’s reliance on nonviolent moral persuasion contrasts with Brown’s advocacy of armed resistance.
Bleeding Kansas: A violent conflict between proslavery and antislavery forces in Kansas Territory during the 1850s. The violence in Kansas shaped Brown’s turn toward armed action against slavery.
Harpers Ferry: A town in present-day West Virginia at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Its federal arsenal was the target of Brown’s 1859 raid.
Harriet Tubman: An American abolitionist who escaped slavery and repeatedly guided enslaved people to freedom through the Underground Railroad. Brown sought Tubman’s help recruiting supporters for his planned campaign in the South.
Secession in the United States: The withdrawal of Southern states from the United States beginning in 1860, which led to the Civil War. Southern leaders invoked the raid as evidence that the North threatened slavery and Southern security.
American Colonization Society: An organization founded in 1816 that promoted the migration of free Black Americans to Africa, especially Liberia. Brown opposed colonization schemes that treated Black Americans’ removal as a solution to slavery.

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