 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
John
Brown, the Abolitionist: Ulysses: Did you ever hear the song, "John Brown's Body Lies A-Mouldering in the Grave?" The song is sung to the tune of one of America's most favorite hymns, "the Battle Hymn of the Republic." Robert E.: But the original John Brown of the song is not the same John Brown whose body is buried beside a huge boulder in North Elba, New York.
Ulysses: Around 1846, John Brown learned of the abolitionist movement in the Northern states. Abolitionists thought the enslavement of African Americans in the South was morally wrong, and they worked to pass laws that would set the slaves free.
"Bleeding Kansas" Ulysses: In fact, the fighting was so bad, this western state soon became known in the east as "Bleeding Kansas." Robert E.: John Brown's sons were fighting to keep Kansas a free state. When John heard of this, he went out to Kansas to give his aid. Mary Ann and the younger children stayed on the farm in North Elba and worked the rocky land. In Kansas, the abolitionist cause inflamed John Brown with a religious fervor, and he waged a number of bloody skirmishes to win freedom for the slaves of Kansas. During the next three years, John Brown increased his war-like campaigns against slavery while attracting a following of like-minded men -- including several of Brown's sons. Raid on Harpers Ferry:
Robert E.: John Brown and his men, including several of his sons, sought refuge inside the fire house at Harpers Ferry. After a bloody battle, during which two of John Brown's sons were killed, the abolitionist was captured on October 18. Abe: John Brown was imprisoned at Charlestown, Virginia (now West Virginia), and was tried and found guilty of treason. On December 6, 1859, John Brown was hanged outside of Charlestown. His last wish was to be buried on his farm back in the peaceful Adirondack Mountains. Six days after John Brown's execution, his body as well as those of his sons, was buried by a boulder a few yards from his farmhouse. Ulysses: Within two years of John Brown's death, America was engaged in a bloody war to settle the question of slavery. Many people saw the attack on Harpers Ferry not as an act of treason, but as a praiseworthy endeavor. John
Brown's Farm: Abe: But the John Brown who rests in peace there is not the same John Brown who was immortalized in song. John
Brown of Boston:
Battle Hymn of the
Republic: The new verses quickly were adapted to the old tune, and the song became an inspiration, not only for the embattled Union forces during the Civil War, but down through the years to the present day. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" is now one of our country's most beloved patriotic songs. Neither of the John Browns ever heard the "Battle Hymn." The abolitionist had been "a-mouldering in his grave" two years before Julia Ward Howe wrote it. And John Brown of Boston died very early in the Civil War. He too never heard the ultimate song that his name had inspired.
NEW: Buy the PAPA BOOK or GIFT SETS
FREE AUTOGRAPHED BOOK PLATE by Prize-Winning Author Mary W. Schaller with your order of PAPA WAS A BOY IN GRAY Book or Gift Set. More
Papa Was A Boy in Gray Reports: More
Education Pages:
|
|||||||||||
Abe:
In 
Abe:
John Brown of North Elba was actually born in Torrington, Connecticut,
on May 9, 1800, but soon after his family moved to Ohio. This was
only the first of many moves John Brown made in his nearly sixty
years of life. As a young man, he studied to become a minister,
but his eyes were poor, and he soon had to give up his studies.
Then he became a tanner (working with leather), as well as a farmer
and surveyor. He married when he was twenty. He and his wife, Dianthe,
moved to Randolph, Pennsylvania, where he built a tannery as well
as organized a church, built a school, and served as the village's
postmaster. During the next twelve years, they had seven children.
When Dianthe died, John moved his family back to Ohio, and married
his second wife, Mary Ann. Together, they had thirteen more children.
Photo: John Brown.
Robert
E.: One of these abolitionists was a man named Gerrit Smith who
bought up large parcels of rugged farmland in the Adirondack Mountains
of New York. Smith offered farm plots to the free African Americans
in New York. He envisioned a special community of free African Americans
, and he called it "Timbucto." John Brown was fired up by this idea,
and he moved his large family to the Adirondacks where he settled
on one of Gerrit Smith's farms. Here John Brown set about to help
the new settlement grow by surveying the land for the free African
Americans, assisting them in building their farms, and planting
their crops. Unfortunately, Timbucto did not thrive, and many of
the would-be settlers moved away to climates that were warmer and
less harsh. Photo: Abe and Mary outside the farmhouse where John
Brown and his family lived.
Ulysses:
Though his intentions were good, John Brown had overstepped the
loose bounds of the law. By attacking a government instillation
with the idea of forming a rebellion, John Brown had committed treason
in the eyes of the law. Robert E. Lee, then a colonel in the United
States Army, was sent quickly to Harpers Ferry to put down the attackers.
Photo: Robert E. Lee.
Robert
E.: Mary Ann Brown remained on the farm until 1863, when she moved
to California in order to escape her husband's notoriety. She sold
the land in 1866, to a local farmer. In 1870, a group of John Brown's
admirers purchased the farm with the idea of turning it into a memorial.
In 1895, the farm was donated to the State of New York as a historic
site. Photo:
Mary and Abe admire the life-size bronze statue of John Brown with
a slave boy sculpted by Joseph P. Pollia. It was unveiled on the
welcome circle on May 9, 1935, on the 135th anniversary of John
Brown's birth. You can see the farmhouse in the background.
Robert
E.: One of John Brown's fellow songsters improvised a new line to
the verse of "Glory" and sang "John Brown's Body Lies A-Mouldering
in the Grave," much to the amusement of the 2nd Battalion Boston
Light Infantry as well as the embarrassment of a very lively John
Brown. Soon more verses were added. Other Federal units heard the
song and took up the refrain. It made a great marching song. Most
of the soldiers who sang it thought they were singing about the
abolitionist John Brown -- not John Brown of Boston. Photo: John
Brown, the abolitionist. 
