John Brown #1244

Caption from poster__         " Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the  furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further  with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say, let it be done.? "   John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was the first white American abolitionist to advocate and to practice insurrection as a means to the abolition of slavery. He has been called "the most controversial of all nineteenth-century Americans." His attempt to start a liberation movement among enslaved blacks in Virginia in 1859 electrified the nation, even though not a single slave answered his call. He was tried for treason (against the state of Virginia) and hanged, but his behavior at the trial seemed heroic to millions of Americans. He first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansa