John Brown, born on this day in 1800, was a militant abolitionist who advocated for and practiced armed insurrection to overthrow the system of slavery in the U.S. He became the first American executed for treason after raiding Harpers Ferry.

Brown first gained national attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856. He was dissatisfied with the pacifism of the organized abolitionist movement, stating “These men are all talk. What we need is action - action!”

In October 1859, Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (modern day West Virginia), intending to start a liberation movement that would spread south through the mountainous regions of Virginia and North Carolina.

Although Brown’s group successfully seized the armory at first, his raid was defeated by a combination of volunteer militia and state forces led by Robert E. Lee, who later commanded the Confederate States Army. Seven people were killed, two of whom were Brown’s sons Oliver and Watson, and at least ten more were injured.

Brown had intended to arm enslaved people with weapons from the armory, but only a small number of locals were willing to join him, possibly due to an unfamiliarity with firearms. Within 36 hours, those of Brown’s men who had not fled were killed or captured by local farmers, militiamen, or U.S. Marines.

Brown was hastily tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five men, and inciting a slave insurrection. He was found guilty on all counts and was hanged, becoming the first person executed for treason in the history of the United States.

“I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done.”

  • John Brown

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  • Carl [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    11 minutes ago

    trying to set up stripe for my itch.io account and I don’t know why but I’ve had to explain over and over again that I’m trying to sell a video game and they keep asking me for the link to the video game and I keep giving them the link to itch.io where the video game is and they keep saying give us the link to the video game I DON’T KNOW HOW ELSE I CAN DO THIS THIS IS THE FUCKING LINK IT’S THE LINK WITH THE BUTTON WHERE YOU CAN PRESS IT TO BUY THE PRODUCT AAAAAAAAAAAAA meow-tableflip

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    3 hours ago

    Asked a co-worker what the bully sitch was in his elementary school cause I had a funny story about a kid who kinda attempted to be the Neslon Muntz of the school but his heart wasnt really in it, ot was just like, a position that seemed to need filling. Anyway, turns out he couldnt pick out a specific bully cause he got it from most of the kids, which I should have seen before I said anything.

    The guy at my school would bull charge people and if you stepped out of the way at the last second he would run harmlessly past like a video game enemy. He was really just trying to fill a role. So it was a funny childhood story and I figured thats what hed tell me too. His family is also RICH like, his dad is an architect who designed a fucking shipyard, his mom got the Order of Canada and somehow he doesnt know why cause rich kids never know what their parents do at work. He went to like…way way nicer schools. Public school still but I grew up and went to school in a series of really really bad neighborhoods. The parking lot of my elementary school was the Jail parking lot in Trailer Boys for visual reference and a lot of non park scenes were shot around there, like Julian drinking swish with a dog behind the King of Donair. Greasy place. A sixth grader found a body in the woods next to the playground when I was in first grade and we got a half day and I learned what a sex worker is. I kinda forgot that the more targeted bullying and cliquieness of rich kids was kinda worse than the kids that were just generally hostile. You didnt have a group specifically targeting you just for fun. People might wanna take your shit here and there and some kids were just violent. People were usually more reactive cruel, if you dod something embarrassing they’d be on your ass immediately but it would be over within a week. Rich kids are premeditated and its just based on who they see you as and not something you did. I had to merge with some in JR High and deal wirh em a bit cause I was in French immersion which half the slots yku could pay for and the other half were free but your parents stood in line for 6 hours and hoped to get you in before the cutoff. I was the only line kid that graduated bi lingual in my grade. The program tries hard to push out the poors. Im weirdly good at language stuff, but I found out when Jr high hit where English and French immersion kids were more integrated that English kid math homework was 2 years behind ours and we did it in a foreign language. So its also a secret AP program thar starts at age 5. He did the same program in a richer neighborhood so the class distinction between the normal kids and the French immersion kids was lesser. They had the program only going in schools in poorer neighborhoods and bussed the rich kids in. We grew up very similar but mostly incredibly different

  • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    4 hours ago

    That waterfall falcon flies through in the first level of starfox 64 makes no geographical sense at all. Both sides of this waterfall empty into a tiny pond there is no water flowing into the waterfall and ine end leads to a huge canyon thar empties out into the ocean.

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    2·
    4 hours ago

    Not to diminish anyone but if your sissification journey doesn’t involve you smoking crack whilst your wife shows you pictures of fat cocks after each it to build up a Pavlovian response associating BBC with the euphoric feeling of a crack hit, then you could become a much bigger slut than you are right now

  • PowerLurker [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    12 hours ago

    chapobear i owe you an apology. during many site culture struggle sessions i called you “marginally better than the rest of the internet.” i ventured into Doing Discourse on niche hobby reddit and this statement was show to be patently false. the level of condescension and light hostility those fuckin doofuses operate under w/r/t the most anodyne disagreements is fuckin wild.

    truly a hangout for all the most annoying, hostile, antisocial coworkers youve ever had across all the jobs you’ve ever had all just clustered into the same place.

  • infuziSporg [e/em/eir]@hexbear.netEnglish
    9·
    13 hours ago

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