Image of John Brown

Selection from "John Brown's Body"

Works Cited

John Brown (1800-1859)

John Brown was an American abolitionist, born in Connecticut and raised in Ohio. He felt passionately and violently that he must personally fight to end slavery. In 1856, in retaliation for the sack of Lawrence, he led the murder of five proslavery men on the banks of the Pottawatomie River. He stated that he was an instrument in the hand of God.

Brown did not end there. On Oct. 16, 1859, Brown and 21 followers captured the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Brown planned the takeover as the first step in his liberation of the slaves, but it was taken the next morning by Robert E. Lee.

Brown was hanged on Dec. 2, 1859. He became a martyr for many because of the dignity and sincerity that he displayed during his popular trial.

Stephen Vincent Benét wrote "John Brown's Body," an epic about the Civil War. He framed his poem around the life and death of John Brown.

At the end of Book One, John Brown appears in court, on trial for the crime of treason - "an enemy of Virginia, an enemy of the Union, a foe of the human race." In this excerpt, Benét reprints Brown's speech to the court.