Okla-homey
12/2/2008, 07:26 AM
December 2, 1859: John Brown hanged
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8623/johnbrownjohn2sq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Brown in 1859
149 years ago today, radical abolitionist John Brown and the survivors of a mixed company of his sons and disciples were hanged in Charleston, WV by federal authorities. The previous October, the terrorist group led by Brown had attacked the US Arsenal at Harpers Ferry VA hoping to incite and arm a more generalized slave revolt in the South.
Background
There were few things that mortified Southerners more than the notion of "servile insurrection," particularly since in much of the South, enslaved blacks substantially outnumbered free whites. Thus, anyone who was found to have incited a slave revolt, was dealt with quite harshly -- usually by hanging.
John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800. His first wife died in childbirth bearing their seventh child. In 1833 at age 33, John Brown married 16 year old Mary Ann Day, of Meadville, PA, who bore him a total of thirteen children, although only six lived to adulthood. All together, of John Brown's twenty children, only half survived their childhoods, and two more were killed during the raid on Harper's Ferry.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/816/jonfamily17ud.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The second Mrs Brown and two of the 13 kids she bore John...don't know the girls names or if they survived to adulthood.
Brown was a sort of business ne'er do well whose abolitionist tendencies became militant during the mid-1850's. As a leader of the "Free State" forces in Kansas he fought pro-slavery settlers in the sharply divided U.S. territory.
Despite his willingness to kill pro-slavery Kansans in cold blood, commit atrocities and his fervent belief that "the end justified the means," he enjoyed only moderate success in his fight against pro-slavery residents of the Kansas territory and on the bloody Kansas-Missouri border.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7870/jonbrown173lq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Brown is revered by some folks, hated by others, even today. He's the central subject of this mural in the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka depicting his activities in Kansas just prior to the Civil War
Brown settled on a more ambitious plan in 1859.
With a group of racially mixed followers, Brown set out to Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia, intending to seize the Federal arsenal there. Arsenals were essentially government installations where military arms were manufactured and securely stored until needed by the militia or an expanded regular army -- they were essentially a huge cache of muskets, pistols, ammunition and other military equipment and the one at Harpers Ferry was massive yet not well guarded because it was out in the sticks. No one had considered a domestic threat to it.
After raiding the arsenal and acquiring all the small arms needed, Brown planned to retreat to the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and Virginia, where they planed to establish an abolitionist republic of liberated slaves and abolitionist whites--yeah, I know...wacky.
Their "republic" hoped to form a guerrilla army to fight slaveholders and ignite slave insurrections, and Brown reasoned its population would grow exponentially with the influx of liberated and fugitive slaves.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2953/johnaerial5xe.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Harpers Ferry, WV as it appears today. The site of John Brown's capture is part of a national historic site administered by the NPS and the center of that site is depicted on this photo. Harpers Ferry sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. The arsenal was sited there because early machine shops ran on water power from mills and Harpers Ferry was perfectly situated to provide lots of water moving by at a pretty good clip to turn those mill waterwheels. It was also a spot where several railroads converged making shipment of materials needed for weapons manufacture a snap
At Harpers Ferry in October of 1859, Brown's well-trained unit was initially successful, capturing key points in the town and cutting all the telegraph wires, but Brown's plans began to turn to crap quickly after his raiders stopped a Baltimore-bound train and then allowed it to pass on through town. News of the raid spread quickly, and militia companies from Maryland and Virginia arrived the next day, killing or capturing several of Brown's raiders.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4158/johnbrownsfort13xd.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Site of the Brown conspirators "last stand," the Harpers Ferry arsenal fire engine house. The conspirators not killed outright in the assault were hanged later.
On October 18, 1859, a battalion of U.S. Marines rushed from Washington, DC and commanded by US Army Colonel Robert E. Lee and then Lieutenant James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, both of whom were destined to become famous Civil War generals, recaptured the arsenal, taking John Brown and several other raiders alive. On November 2, Brown was sentenced to death by hanging.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2552/johnt029090a9br.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Federal assault led by Robert E. Lee on Brown conspirators holed-up in the arsenal fire engine house.
On the day of his execution, 16 months before the outbreak of the Civil War, John Brown prophetically wrote, "The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6826/johnlastmoments0nq.png (http://imageshack.us)
John Brown on his final walk to the gallows in Charleston WV in 1859
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3868/johnbrownweb6at.gif (http://imageshack.us)
You can get a John Brown Ale in Lawrence KS. I bet 95% of the people who order one have no idea who the guy was.
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1715/insane7zo4nh.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/8623/johnbrownjohn2sq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
John Brown in 1859
149 years ago today, radical abolitionist John Brown and the survivors of a mixed company of his sons and disciples were hanged in Charleston, WV by federal authorities. The previous October, the terrorist group led by Brown had attacked the US Arsenal at Harpers Ferry VA hoping to incite and arm a more generalized slave revolt in the South.
Background
There were few things that mortified Southerners more than the notion of "servile insurrection," particularly since in much of the South, enslaved blacks substantially outnumbered free whites. Thus, anyone who was found to have incited a slave revolt, was dealt with quite harshly -- usually by hanging.
John Brown was born in Connecticut in 1800. His first wife died in childbirth bearing their seventh child. In 1833 at age 33, John Brown married 16 year old Mary Ann Day, of Meadville, PA, who bore him a total of thirteen children, although only six lived to adulthood. All together, of John Brown's twenty children, only half survived their childhoods, and two more were killed during the raid on Harper's Ferry.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/816/jonfamily17ud.gif (http://imageshack.us)
The second Mrs Brown and two of the 13 kids she bore John...don't know the girls names or if they survived to adulthood.
Brown was a sort of business ne'er do well whose abolitionist tendencies became militant during the mid-1850's. As a leader of the "Free State" forces in Kansas he fought pro-slavery settlers in the sharply divided U.S. territory.
Despite his willingness to kill pro-slavery Kansans in cold blood, commit atrocities and his fervent belief that "the end justified the means," he enjoyed only moderate success in his fight against pro-slavery residents of the Kansas territory and on the bloody Kansas-Missouri border.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/7870/jonbrown173lq.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Brown is revered by some folks, hated by others, even today. He's the central subject of this mural in the Kansas Statehouse in Topeka depicting his activities in Kansas just prior to the Civil War
Brown settled on a more ambitious plan in 1859.
With a group of racially mixed followers, Brown set out to Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia, intending to seize the Federal arsenal there. Arsenals were essentially government installations where military arms were manufactured and securely stored until needed by the militia or an expanded regular army -- they were essentially a huge cache of muskets, pistols, ammunition and other military equipment and the one at Harpers Ferry was massive yet not well guarded because it was out in the sticks. No one had considered a domestic threat to it.
After raiding the arsenal and acquiring all the small arms needed, Brown planned to retreat to the Appalachian Mountains of Maryland and Virginia, where they planed to establish an abolitionist republic of liberated slaves and abolitionist whites--yeah, I know...wacky.
Their "republic" hoped to form a guerrilla army to fight slaveholders and ignite slave insurrections, and Brown reasoned its population would grow exponentially with the influx of liberated and fugitive slaves.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2953/johnaerial5xe.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Harpers Ferry, WV as it appears today. The site of John Brown's capture is part of a national historic site administered by the NPS and the center of that site is depicted on this photo. Harpers Ferry sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers. The arsenal was sited there because early machine shops ran on water power from mills and Harpers Ferry was perfectly situated to provide lots of water moving by at a pretty good clip to turn those mill waterwheels. It was also a spot where several railroads converged making shipment of materials needed for weapons manufacture a snap
At Harpers Ferry in October of 1859, Brown's well-trained unit was initially successful, capturing key points in the town and cutting all the telegraph wires, but Brown's plans began to turn to crap quickly after his raiders stopped a Baltimore-bound train and then allowed it to pass on through town. News of the raid spread quickly, and militia companies from Maryland and Virginia arrived the next day, killing or capturing several of Brown's raiders.
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4158/johnbrownsfort13xd.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Site of the Brown conspirators "last stand," the Harpers Ferry arsenal fire engine house. The conspirators not killed outright in the assault were hanged later.
On October 18, 1859, a battalion of U.S. Marines rushed from Washington, DC and commanded by US Army Colonel Robert E. Lee and then Lieutenant James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, both of whom were destined to become famous Civil War generals, recaptured the arsenal, taking John Brown and several other raiders alive. On November 2, Brown was sentenced to death by hanging.
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/2552/johnt029090a9br.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Federal assault led by Robert E. Lee on Brown conspirators holed-up in the arsenal fire engine house.
On the day of his execution, 16 months before the outbreak of the Civil War, John Brown prophetically wrote, "The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6826/johnlastmoments0nq.png (http://imageshack.us)
John Brown on his final walk to the gallows in Charleston WV in 1859
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/3868/johnbrownweb6at.gif (http://imageshack.us)
You can get a John Brown Ale in Lawrence KS. I bet 95% of the people who order one have no idea who the guy was.
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/1715/insane7zo4nh.jpg