OPPapers.com

John Brown

He has been called a saint, a fanatic, and a cold-blooded murderer. The

debate over his memory, his motives, about the true nature of John Brown,

continues to stir passionate debate. It is said that he was the spark that

started the Civil War. Truly, he marked the end of compromise over the

issue of slavery, and it was not long after his death that John Brown's war

became the nation's war.

Born in Torrington, Connecticut on May 9, 1800, John Brown was the

son of a man extremely opposed to slavery. When John was five his family

moved to northern Ohio, to a district that would become known for it's

antislavery views. Brown spent much of his youth in Ohio, where he was

taught in local schools to resent compulsory education and by his parents

to revere the Bible and hate slavery. As a boy he herded cattle for General

William Hull's army during the war of 1812; later he served as foreman of

his family's tannery.

Brown moved around the country, settling in Ohio, Pennsylvania,

Massachusetts, and New York, taking along his ever-growing family (he

fathered twenty children). Working at various times as a farmer, wool

merchant, tanner, and land speculator, he was never financially successful.

He was stubborn, possessed a notoriously poor sense of business, and

had more than his share of bad luck.

In 1820 he married Dianthe Lusk, who bore him seven children; five

years later they moved to Pennsylvania to operate a tannery of their own.

Within a year after Dianthe's death in 1831, Brown wed sixteen year old

Mary Anne Day, by whom he fathered thirteen more children.

In the Panic of 1837, Brown -- like thousands of others -- would lose

everything. In 1842, he filed for bankruptcy. But despite his financial

setbacks, Brown always found a way to support the abolitionist cause. He

participated in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851, helped establish the

League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped

slaves from slave...