John Brown relocated his large family frequently, moving restlessly through Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York and working as a tanner, sheep drover, wool merchant, farmer, and land speculator. In 1849 he settled his family in a Black community in North Elba, New York, on land donated by abolitionist Gerrit Smith.
What was John Brown’s life like?
Why is John Brown significant?
Militant American abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia), in 1859 that he hoped would spark a slave rebellion. It made him a martyr to the antislavery cause and was instrumental in heightening sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War (1861–65).
