JOHN BROWN'S RAID

Radical abolitionist John Brown and 18 followers seized the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, on the evening of October 16, 1859. Brown hoped to incite a slave uprising by his actions. It would later become known that Brown’s actions had been financed by several wealthy Northern abolitionists. Brown was captured, tried for treason, and hung. The response to Brown’s death further intensified the tensions between the North and the South. Henry David Thoreau was one of many Northerners to consider Brown as “the bravest and humanest man in all the country,” while Southerners were outraged by Northern support of Brown’s actions.