• Brown was a white man, born in Torrington, Connecticut.

• He strongly believed in Christianity. He believed that Christians should treat people the same no matter what color their skin was.

• Many white Christians in America at this time did not agree with this

• Brown lived mostly in Springfield, Massachusetts before moving to the Kansas Territory.

• Several of his sons were already living there.

• Brown's sons wanted his help to fight people from Missouri.

• The people in Missouri wanted slavery to be legal in Kansas.

• On 24 May 1856, Brown and his sons killed five people in Kansas who wanted slavery to be legal.

• They dragged the people out of their homes and killed them with swords.

• This came to be known as the Pottawatomie massacre.[2]



• More violent things happened after this.

• This was the beginning of the period in the Kansas Territory known as Bleeding Kansas.[3]

• Before leaving Kansas, Brown and his followers were attacked at the Battle of Osawatomie on August 30, 1856.[4]

• His son Frederick was killed there.

• In 1859, Brown decided to attack the Harpers Ferry Armory in Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia).[6]

• He was planning on giving the weapons to slaves.[6]

• The slaves would use the weapons to fight against their masters and become free.

• Brown attacked the arsenal in October 1859. His sons and several other men, including several black men, helped him with the attack.

• His attack failed. Brown was captured, and was executed by hanging for treason against the state of Virginia on 2 December 1859.[6]



• People had strong feelings about John Brown.

• Some people thought that he was crazy or evil.

• Other people thought that he was a hero.

• His attack on Harpers Ferry helped lead to the American Civil War.

• The war would start in 1861.[7]