History Minute (048): John Brown

As reported by Zinn:

John Brown was a white abolitionist, 60 years old when he plotted a rebellion against slavery. Others in the movement, including Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass tried to dissuade him, saying his plan could not work. And they were right: local militia and marines, led by Robert E. Lee, overpowered Brown and his fighters. Even when only Brown remained alive, he refused to surrender and was wounded and taken prisoner, and eventually was hanged. In his last written statement in prison, he said: 

"I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, not an activist himself, said of the execution of John Brown: "He will make the gallows holy as the cross."

Excerpt From

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn