son of a wandering New Englander. Brown spent much of his youth in

Ohio, where he was taught in local schools to resent compulsory

education and by his parents to revere the Bible and hate slavery. As a

boy he herded cattle for General William Hull's army during the war of

1812; later he served as foreman of his family's tannery. In 1820 he

married Dianthe Lusk, who bore him seven children; five years later they

moved to Pennsylvania to operate a tannery of their own. Within a year

after Dianthe's death in 1831, Brown wed sixteen year old Mary Anne

Day, by whom he fathered thirteen more children.

During the next twenty-four years Brown built and sold several

tanneries, speculated in land sales, raised sheep, and established a

brokerage for wool growers. Every venture failed, for he was too much

a visionary, not enough a businessman. As his financial burdens

multiplied, his thinking became increasingly metaphysical and he began

to brook over the plight of the weak and oppressed. He frequently sought

the company of blacks, for two years living in a freedmen's community

in North Elba, New York. In time he became a militant abolitionist, a

to regard himself as commissioned by God to make that vision a reality.

so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends- either father, mother,

further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound within them." I

endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say I am yet too young to

infront of the Commonwealth of Virginia in Charlestown goes as

building. The fighting ended with ten of Brown's people killed and

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bible Testament, Virginia Charlestown, Underground Railroad, Anne Day, South Provided, Robert Lee, Brown Osawatomie, Englander Brown, Dianthe Lusk, Osawatomie River, free slaves,
Approximate Word count = 1111
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)