ng slavery was passed, and freedom had won in Kansas. In
January of that year John Brown returned to the mountains of Virginia,
and "The Great Black Way," and the dark shadows of the night following
the North Star to liberty. For many years he had been planning an
uprising of the slaves, and an attack upon Virginia. Some biographers
think he conceived the plan as early as 1849. Away back in 1834 Brown
wrote to his brother his determination to war on slavery; but at first
only through educating the blacks. As time went on he came into sterner
conflict with it.

Brown, in fact, became a fanatic who really believed that the millions
of slaves would rise at his call, and that he could lead his host as a
new Moses, out of the land of bondage. He intended to operate in the
Blue Ridge Mountains, because the paths into the black belt of slavery
were easily followed. Men like Douglas and other escaped slaves who
were living in the North did not see their way clear to join the
movement.

On Sunday, October 16, 1859, John Brown, with sixteen men, started out
to capture Harper's Ferry and redeem three million slaves. Brown rode in
a one-horse wagon, that held provisions, pikes, one sledge-hammer and
one crowbar; his sixteen men, with guns, followed on foot. Without a
single shot they captured the armoury and the rifle factory, and at
daylight, without the snap of a gun or any violence whatsoever, they
were in possession of Harper's Ferry. On Monday morning the panic spread
like wild-fire. The rumour went abroad of an uprising of all the slaves
of the South. In a few hours the governor called out the militia,
Jefferson guards marched down the Potomac, and two local companies took
positions on the heights. The assault began in the afternoon. One by one
Brown's handful were killed, his two sons, Oliver and Watson, were shot
down, and Brown, badly wounded, was captured.

The trial and examination of the old fanatic makes a fascinating story.
At noon of Tuesday, the governor of Virginia bent over him as he lay
wounded and blood-stained upon the floor. "Who are you?" asked the
governor. "My name is John Brown; I have been well known as old John
Brown of Kansas. Two of my sons were killed here to-day, and I am dying
too. I came here to liberate slaves, and was to receive no reward. I
have acted from a sense of duty, and am content to await my fate. I am
an old man. If I had succeeded in running off slaves this time, I could
have raised