John Brown’s Militant Abolitionism

John Brown was a radical abolitionist who chose armed action to abolish slavery. In 1859, he raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry in an attempt to spark a slave insurrection. Although the plan failed and he was executed, he was remembered in the North as a martyr for freedom and feared in the South as a threat. His actions greatly heightened tensions on the eve of the Civil War.

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