On May 9, 1800, John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut. Though not Black himself, Brown became one of the most radical and committed white allies in the fight to end slavery in the United States. He believed slavery was a moral abomination that required direct, even violent, resistance. His most infamous act was the 1859 raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, an attempt to incite a slave rebellion. Though the raid failed and Brown was executed, his actions inspired countless abolitionists and further intensified the national debate over slavery—paving the road to the Civil War. Frederick Douglass once called him “a man who had no fear.”
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