Free Terror Attacks : From the Zealots to Bin Laden (True Crime) by Anne Williams, Vivian Head

he did go to school he hated all the restraints that went along with it. Often brawling with fellow classmates, Brown spent a lot of his youth in solitude, and when he was only 12 years old his family entrusted him with the safe transportation of their cattle hundreds of miles away. He was a lone soul and resolutely carried out his task until they arrived safely at their destination.
    One incident in Brown’s adolescence had a very profound effect on him. As usual Brown had been travelling around the country, and in the year 1812 he stopped at a house to ask the master if he would be kind enough to give him a meal and a bed for the night. While he was in the house Brown met a small black slave boy who was a similar age to himself. He watched in horror as the scantily clad youth was verbally abused by the man who had been kind enough to take Brown in. Brown was confused: why should the man show him kindness, and yet beat this young black boy who was so obviously an orphan?
    In 1820 Brown married Dianthe Lusk and for most of their married life they lived on the western slopes of the Alleghenies, where Brown worked as a tanner. Together they had seven children, but she died during the birth of their eighth. In 1833 he married his second wife, Mary Ann Day, with whom he had 13 more children, although only six lived to be adults.
    During his adult life Brown had always been involved in the abolitionist movement, although his feelings did not run very deep in the early years. He started to become more and more involved, but he was frustrated with how little action the movement actually took towards freeing slaves. In 1839 a black preacher spurred him into action by telling him of all the verbal abuse and injustice that he had put up with over the years. It was after that conversation with the preacher that John Brown decided to dedicate his life to fighting slavery, and to do this he enlisted the help of his entire family.
    It was at this point in his life that Brown knew what his mission was to be, and with each tale of torment he heard, his determination grew stronger. Wanting to learn more about the abolition movement, in 1845 Brown started studying the history of the insurrection. After just one year of studying it is thought that the attack that took place at Harper’s Ferry later in his life was already starting to formulate in his head.
    Despite his contributions to the antislavery cause, Brown did not emerge as a significant figure until 1855, when he followed five of his sons to the Kansas territory. This new territory offered brand new land and a call for:
     
All lovers of freedom who desired homes in a new region to go there as settlers, and by their votes save Kansas from the curse of slavery.
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    When Brown was on his way to Kansas he stopped to take part in an antislavery convention in New York State. It was here that he solicited weapons and funds, and where he managed to obtain guns, ammunition and swords from sympathetic free-state supporters. Once in Kansas, Brown became a leading figure in the fight against slavery, and the immediate result was conflict and bloodshed. From the very moment he entered the territory, John Brown was itching for a fight and on May 21–22, 1856, a group of proslavery agitators attacked the town of Lawrence, burning buildings and killing two men.
    The following year Brown went to a proslavery town and brutally killed five of its settlers in retribution for another attack. For the remainder of that year Brown and his sons continued to fight for their cause. It is estimated that between November 1855 and December 1856 around 200 men were killed and about two million dollars’ worth of property was destroyed in the territory.
    For fear of being caught Brown went into hiding. Meanwhile two of his sons, who weren’t even involved in the fighting, were arrested. They were eventually set free but were apparently severely mistreated during their