ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of John Brown remains as exciting and inexplicable as it was when his lifeless body first swayed from the hangman’s noose. John Brown was too much of a fanatic to be discouraged by failure. Brown’s fanatical fierceness and ruthless audacity made him an ogre in the eyes of the Ruffians and a “terrible saint” to the free-soilers. The dramatic murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, which shocked the entire North, brought about a radical change in Brown’s attitude towards slavery. The acceleration of the anti-slavery campaign in the late forties increased Brown’s eagerness to carry out his private plan. In 1848 he obtained from Gerrit Smith a parcel of land in the bleak Adirondacks on the promise of settling his family next to the Negro settlement established by the wealthy Abolitionist. Brown’s interest in Kansas must have begun to wane he believed it safe from Southern domination.
