oct 16, 1859 - John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

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John Brown was a militant abolitionist who seized a United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry where he planned on ending slavery by massacring white slave owners. Brown traveled to Kansas with five of his sons to fight against the proslavery forces in the contest over that territory. On May 21, 1856, proslavery men raided the abolitionist town of Lawrence, and Brown wanted revenge. On May 25, Brown and his sons attacked three cabins along Pottawatomie Creek. They killed five men with broad swords and triggered a summer of guerilla warfare in the territory. One of Brown’s sons was killed in the fighting. The raid failed, but it inflamed sectional tensions and raised the stakes for the 1860 presidential election.

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