The life and contributions of John Brown.

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"You may dispose of me very easily. I am nearly disposed of now. But this question is still to be settled--this Negro question. I mean; the end of that is not yet," is the testimony that John Brown gave at his trial. Many historians consider him "narrowly ignorant" and "God's angry man". The truth I God never commanded Brown in the sense of giving him instructions; rather, Brown thought deeply about the moral meaning of Christianity and decide that slavery was incompatible with it. He was not "narrowly ignorant," having traveled widely in the United States, England, and Europe and talked with many American intellectuals of the day, black and white. (Document A). He raised the issue of slavery to another level. John Brown took it upon himself to end the war on slavery. Fredrick Douglas commented in their first meeting, "thought a white gentlemen [Brown] is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery."

John Brown was born into a deeply religious family in Torrington, Connecticut, 1800. He was heavily influenced by his father's vehement views on slavery. During adulthood he moved around many times and bore 20 children. He worked as a farmer, wool merchant, tanner, and land speculator but he never became very successful. John Brown did minor things as a young adult to promote abolitionism such as help finance David Walker's appeal and the "Call to Rebellion" speech. He gave land to fugitive slaves and he and his wife agreed to raise a black boy as an equal. In addition, he participated in the Underground Railroad and helped establish the League of Gileadites, an organization that worked to protect escaped slaves. It wasn't until 1855 that John Brown became...