Who was John Brown?

John Brown was was born on 5/9/1800 in Torrington Connecticut. His parents were Owen Brown and Ruth Mills.

As a young boy, he witnessed an enslaved boy being beaten, which stayed in his mind for years to come and inspired him to become an abolitionist. His father also believed that slavery was wrong, and raised Brown to believe the same.

During his time as an abolitionist, he moved around quite a lot which gave him financial hardships despite the various jobs he tried to pick up. (farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator.)

In 1849, he moved into a black community with his family on land donated by an antislavery philanthropist. But in 1855, he and five of his sons moved to Kansas to help anti-slavery forces. A year later, he led the Pottawatomie Massacre in closeby Kansas territory. He was nicknamed “Old Osawatomie Brown” for this.

He had many children, and some of those children fought with him during Bleeding Kansas and the Pottawatomie Massacre.

More information on the massacre and raid is on the legacy page.

Self reflection.. why did I want to make this project about him?

I personally feel connected to his beliefs and I'm suprised he was this dedicated to being an abolitionist. Me and him aren't very similar otherwise, we aren't the same race, look similar in any way, and we lived very different lives. But I find it incredibly admirable that he was so passionate about ending slavery, especially as a white man. He gave up a lot for the cause he cared about.

I really agree with his sentiment that violence is nessecary to end slavery, as violence was being heavily used in slavery to assert power, and that power needed to be resisted. Dedicated white abolitionists are not often talked about when discussing important historical figures in the battle against slavery.

Many people find Brown to be 'problematic' or shame others who support him for 'glorifying a murderer' even though the people he was fighting against were murderers too, not only that, they also raped, abused, traumatized, and ruined, generations for years to come. His status as a somewhat hated historical figure also motivated my reason to want to make this website for him.