John Brown

John Brown was an abolitionist, who believed in the immediate end of slavery in the United States. He led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) in 1859, with the goal of starting a slave rebellion. The raid failed and Brown and his followers were arrested. Brown was subsequently tried and convicted of treason, murder, and inciting a slave insurrection, and was sentenced to death. His execution on December 2, 1859, was widely covered in the press and further polarized the country on the issue of slavery, which would ultimately lead to the American Civil War.