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The Life of John Brown

Decent Essays

“Caution, Sir! I am eternally tired of hearing that word caution. It is nothing but the word of cowardice!” (“John Brown”) John Brown, known for his actions prior to the Civil War, spoke these words, and they truly show who he is. Brown, born on May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut, fought for everything he believed was right all the way up until his death in 1859. He was known mostly as an abolitionist and a freedom fighter, constantly trying to liberate slavery. John Brown’s actions would lead him to having a role in Bleeding Kansas, as well as Harper’s Ferry. John Brown was born in Connecticut and was the fourth child of Owen Brown. Growing up, he would go to church with his family, but would later leave at the age of sixteen to Morris Academy to become a minister. He had to leave the college and return to his family to work in his father’s tannery due to eye inflammations. Finally, in 1836, John Brown finally settled down in Ohio with his second wife and lived a normal life. He then moved once again to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he would vow after the murder of a man named Elijah Lovejoy, “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery! (“Holy war”) After the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, John Brown would create The League of Gileadites to protect escaped slaves from being captured and taken back to the south. Upon his departure from Massachusetts, he ordered them to act

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