An abolitionist born in Torrington, Connecticut on 9 May 1800, Brown spent much of his youth in Ohio where he was taught by his parents to hate slavery and to worship the Bible. After serving as a cattle herder for General William Hull during the War of 1812, Brown worked as a foreman in the family's tannery. In 1820 he married Dianthe Lusk, with whom he had seven children. In 1825 he moved his growing family to Pennsylvania to open his own tannery. Following Dianthe’s death in 1831, Brown married sixteen-year old Mary Anne Day, with whom he had an additional thirteen children.
For the next twenty-four years Brown was involved in a multitude of occupations, including the speculation of land, farming, and the development of tanneries. With the failure of all of these businesses, Brown began to turn his attention to the plight of the oppressed and lived for two years in a freemen's community in North Elba, New York and served as a conductor on the underground railroad.
By the age of fifty Brown was an ardent abolitionist and believed himself to be an instrument of God to lead slave revolts. In 1855 he moved to Kansas, where five of his sons already were, with the desire to make the state a haven for antislavery reformers. A year later he was involved in the burning of Lawrence, Kansas and organized a militia with the Osawatomie River abolitionist community. On the night of 23 May 1856 he led six men, including four of his sons, on a rampage against pro-slavery men along Pottawatomie Creek. After dragging the unarmed men from their homes, Brown and his followers hacked them to death. Instantly Old Brown of Osawatomie became a feared and hated abolitionist. In the fall of 1856 Brown returned to Ohio with his vision of a slave insurrection. Financed by abolitionists New Englanders, Brown led raids against slaveholders along the Missouri River, but was unable to initiate the rebellion he dreamed of.
In the summer of 1859 Brown moved his operations to a farm across the Potomac River from the Federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. On the night of 21 October, he and his band of twenty-one moved against Harpers Ferry and seized the undefended arsenal with a plan that seemed doomed from the start as he had not informed the slaves of the area of his plan, nor developed an escape route. In the short battle a number of people were killed, including an innocent free black and two of Brown's sons. A detachment of U.S. Marines, led by Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee, were sent from Washington and when the band refused to surrender, Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart led an assault against the engine house on the 18th. In his capture Brown was wounded and two more raiders were killed.
Brown and six companions were tried in a sensational trial. Found guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, Brown was executed on 2 December 1859. Among the throng of spectators present at his hanging was John Wilkes Booth, future assassin of President Abraham Lincoln.
Although Brown became a martyr to many in the North, more than a few Southerners blamed the failed slave insurrection of Republicans and threatened secession if a Republican were elected President in 1860.
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