John Brown attempted to abolish slavery, even through violent means. A savvy businessman, he used his wealth and other resources to aid in an estimated 2,500 slaves passing through the numerous underground railroad "depots" which he had established on his various properties.
Crawford County is home to one such former site: his tannery near New Richmond.
The foundation of the tannery, as well as numerous information plaques on his crusade and business are located here. Just across the road, a small museum is run by the owner & caretaker of the property.
The graves of Johns 2nd wife and her son are also on the property.
A geocache has been placed on the property with permission. (
visit link)
Quick Bio from Wikipedi.com :
John Brown (abolitionist)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
John Brown
Enlarge
John Brown
John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American abolitionist, the first white abolitionist to advocate and to practice guerrilla warfare as a means to the abolition of slavery. He has been called "the most controversial of all nineteenth-century Americans."[1] His attempt to start a liberation movement among enslaved blacks in Virginia in 1859 electrified the nation. Conventional scholarship has presumed that Brown set about to incite a "slave insurrection" or some other violent rebellion, but the extent to which Brown wanted to promote a violent agenda is a point still debated by scholars. More recent researchers have argued that Brown sought to avoid the typical insurrection, although he was predictably charged with inciting a violent uprising by Southern slave owners and politicians.
Numerous American historians in the 20th century deprecated Brown as an insane and bloodthirsty zealot and madman. Few if any of these writers were biographers and some were motivated by pro-South sympathies, or bought into the notion that the Civil War was an avoidable, unfortunate event brought upon by northern (like Brown) and southern extremists. On the other hand, black scholars, following the testimony of 19th century abolitionists, tended to glorify Brown for his sincere and self-sacrificing devotion to the abolition of slavery. It is notable, however, that the leading John Brown documentary scholars, especially Boyd B. Stutler (d. 1970) and the Rev. Clarence Gee (d. 1975), upheld Brown as essentially moral, positive, and quite sane despite the controversy attached to his historical reputation. Conventionally, pro- and anti-Brown scholars have granted him significant credit for starting the American Civil War and, more recently, the Civil Rights Movement a century later, arguing "it is misleading to identify Brown with modern terrorists." [2]
Although black anti-slavery leaders were well aware of him from the late 1840s, Brown first gained "mainstream" attention when he led a company of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis, in which he fought pro-slavery southerners, directed the Pottawatomie Massacre on the night of May 24, 1856, and freed 11 slaves from slaveholders in neighboring Missouri. Brown's most famous deed was the 1859 raid he led on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (in modern-day West Virginia). Brown's subsequent capture by federal forces, his trial for treason to the state of Virginia, and his execution by hanging were an important part of the origins of the American Civil War, which followed sixteen months later. His role and actions prior to the Civil War, as an abolitionist, and what tactics he chose still makes him a controversial personality today. Depending on the point of view, he could be heralded as heroic martyr or vilified as a bloodthirsty terrorist.
Brown's nicknames were Osawatomie Brown, Old Man Brown, Captain Brown and Old Brown of Kansas. His aliases were "Nelson Hawkins," "Shubel Morgan," and "Isaac Smith." Later the song John Brown's Body became a Union marching song during the Civil War, evolving to The Battle Hymn of the Republic.