The Revolutionary John Brown (1800-1859)

This is John Brown (1800-1859) – the American abolitionist.  he was hung for treason (against the State of Virginia) for leading an armed uprising.  He was a revolutionary who raised a small but determined force of liberal white people and enslaved and free black people.  He procured a large amount of arms in 1859 with the intention of setting large numbers of enslaved Africans free.  Unfortunately the slaves did not rise-up and Brown and his small group was left to fight the US Army and the angry town’s people on its own.  Brown’s second in command – Dangerfield Newby (an African-American) – was first of his followers to be killed by the rabid mob that had gathered to defend their ‘property’ – and his body was mutilated for ‘souvenirs’.  Brown was wounded in the final battle when the US Army stormed the building he was holding-up in and he was taken into custody.  Although today depicted as a religious fanatic – John Brown refused all help from any clergy – as the local clergy at the time were fully in support of the very slavery Brown sought to other throw through use of arms.  Ironically, it was Colonel Robert E Lee who led the troops that put an end to Brown’s uprising.  Brown was hung on December the 2nd, 1859 at 11:15am – but was not pronounced dead until 11:50am – 35 minutes after the noose first tightened.