DiMattia-John+Brown

John Brown Slavery has been a big problem since the 1600's. Most of the slaves are being put to work in the Southern Plantaions of the United States.They are ordered to pick cotton and other crops.They work from sunrise to sundown. Some of the slaves are treated well by being repayed for thre work. Some get treated horribely and get beaten.There is a system called the "underground rail road" which helped the slaves escape and to live free.This programm happened in the northern states of America. Slaves hide in the day times and escape at night and to head North. Freedom from slavery starts past the Mason Dixie line, which borders Pennsylvania and Maryland.The slaves could be captured and sent back to there slave owners so most of them headed to Canada just to be safe. By 1860 one third of the souths population was slaves. In most of the states the laws for blacks were different from the laws for whites. Blacks were not allowed to share the same bathrooms, the same resurants, the same public transportation or the same schools. The black's could not own ther own property,vote or be at any public place with white men.



Since my father was against slavery Ive ben against it since I was 5 years old. I remeber when I was 12 I lived with a family that beat there slaves. That was something I'll never forget and it will haunt me for the rest of my life. At that point I new that I wanted to help the slaves. So by doing this Ive helped slaves escape to Canada where they can be free. In 1855, me and five of my sons moved to Kansas and worked to prevent it from becoming a slave state. On the night of October 16th, 1859, me and a group of 21 men captured a federal arsenal in Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. We tryed to take over the arsenal’s weapons to start a war against slavery.Ive lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York and Ive Worked as a farmer, wool merchant, and land speculator, but i never was successful with those jobs. I gave land to slaves so they would have places to live. I also had a part in the Underground Railroad and, in 1851, helped establish the League of Gileadites, a programm that helped protect slaves from slave catchers.

On May 24, 1856 me, my sons and a couple of men killed 5 men in Pottawatomie, who supported slavery and burned down the anti slavery haven in Lawrence. I became known as "Old Osawatomie Brown" after defending the slaves of Osawatomie from pro slavery men. After I led the raid on to the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry the local militia stopped me and my men. My crew was rather shot or captured. I was then hung for treason and died on December 2, 1859. After I was hung church bells rang, guns were fired and large memorial meetings took place throughout the North. The Civil war started not to long after i died. Alot of people looked up to me and called me a hero and followed in my footsteps. Then finally in 1865 slavery ended.