Third Thursday: Presentation on the Life of Abolitionist John BrownVideo. Actor Norman Thomas Marshall gave a short reenactment followed by a discussion on the life of Abolitionist John Brown, on Thursday, February 21, 2019, at the Connecticut State Library.
The year 2019 will mark the 160 year anniversary of John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry. John Brown was an American abolitionist who believed in and advocated armed insurrection as the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. Born in Torrington, Connecticut in 1800, Brown first gained national attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856. On October 1859, Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today West Virginia), intending to start a slave liberation movement that would spread south through the mountainous regions of Virginia and North Carolina. He seized the armory, but seven people were killed, and ten or more were injured. He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but only a small number of local slaves joined his revolt.