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Uh, hello? Is this Pacific Source Health Plans? This is a health plan. I'm trying to reach Pacific Source. I know. I'll get a person on the phone when I call them. What do you think I am? I mean, you sound like a person. That's what counts. Automated systems can do a lot, even sound a lot like people. What automated systems can't do is offer the quality our members rely. Empathy. When you call Pacific Source Health Plans, you'll talk to a person who cares. What did you say Your name was? Nexa 9000. Hmm. The year is 1859. A storm is gathering over America, a conflict born out of chains, blood and conscience. And at its center stands a staunch abolitionist named John Brown. To his allies, he was a prophet sent to tear down the sin of slavery by any means necessary. To his enemies, he was a fanatic, a madman with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other. From the prairies of Kansas, where the free soil and slave power clashed in bloody skirmishes, to the stone arsenal at Harper's Ferry, where Brown launched his desperate raise raid. His life was a fuse that lit against the powder keg of a nation. When the noose tightened around his neck, he did not cry defeat. He declared that the struggle would only end when the land was washed clean in blood. This is the story of John Brown, a man who lived and died believing that the soul of America could not be saved without fire to cleanse the institution of slavery. Today on Flipping Tables. Hello and welcome back to Flipping Tables. I'm your host, Monte Coven of curiosity leader, former Christian nationalist, cat lover, coffee addict and the personal belief that bats are just gothic sky kittens. I've got a few announcements heading into October, which is my favorite month of the year. It's not only my favorite season, my my birthday and my favorite holiday, but I have a whole new merch drop coming to Monty Mater.com on October 5th this coming Monday or this past Monday. Actually. If you're listening to this, I'm especially excited about the Halloween pinups that are going to be there. I've also got Halloween, Halloween soap coming out and protest jewelry. So if you are not signed up for my newsletter, please sign up on the contact page on my website. I send at most one email a week and cover key news action items and I make special announcements and often give discount codes there. Are you a Sirius XM listener? I'll be joining John Fugal Sang on his SiriusXM show Tell Me Everything at 6:20pm Pacific Standard Time or 9:20pm Eastern Standard Time this Thursday, so it'll be tomorrow as of this release October 9th. Very excited. I met with him in NYC and I'm just so incredible and he's just doing such great work. If you've not read his book the Separation of Church and Hate, I highly recommend it. Just some Personal Updates I had a kind of an emotional month. I ended up quitting gigging with my cover band every week here in Nashville and decided to put that energy towards my original album with the band and taking care of my health and not feeling flipping my sleep schedule every week. And I'm also getting ready to transition out of the personal training business that I've been running for over 10 years, which a lot of my clients have been with me for eight to 10 years. But I'm realizing that especially with my upcoming book that will hopefully be completed next year and moving that forward, I realized that if I want to take care of my health and make sure that I'm being the best that I can be to do this work, to do work in activism and education and manage these platforms that I can't work three jobs while I do them. But it's been hard. It was the last show that we did was at my favorite venue with my favorite sound guy. We've been playing that venue every Sunday for four and a half years and it was the first time I've cried on stage. It was very emotional and it's very emotional to have those conversations with my clients about moving on into something else. I'm excited and I know it's the right decision, but it's a lot of goodbyes and a lot of things that I've used in my life to identify myself with. And it's also very intimidating, especially on the music front. It's when you get to perform every week and you get that outlet, makes you feel very connected and original. Music is so much riskier and there's so much more space in between shows. And there's the work. So much more work that goes on in the back end. But I just wanted to share that with you. I know that I only have 24 hours in a day, so I've decided to commit myself more fully to this work and the book and my own original album with the guys. So I just want to say thank you for your support. Whether it's rating and liking the podcast that helps me so much, it helps me stay relevant in the podcast list, it helps people find the show. It's so meaningful. It's such a small thing, but rating and liking and reviewing the podcast is so helpful. Sharing my podcast or my page, and especially thank you to my Patreon supporters, because you are the fire behind the machine. You are the reason that I'm able to make these decisions, to just focus on this. And for people on Patreon, the gift box tiers, which are the advocate and activist tiers, are reopen. There's only 11 new slots on there. And basically what I do is every quarter, the people in these tiers get a gift box from me. It's exclusive merchandise, a handwritten note from me. I always gift a book. We're already working on the Christmas boxes. Those are going to be so much fun. I can't wait. And on the social media side, my last announcement. I will be getting rid of TikTok when this new US only platform takes control, which sounds like it's going to be controlled by the Murdochs and the Ellisons. I just don't feel comfortable with it. So if you follow me on TikTok, find me on another platform. I'm heavily on Instagram still and working on building YouTube and Substack. But as meta gets more and more regulated and the algorithm gets diff. More difficult to manage, I am anticipating that at some point pages like mine might be shut down. So I would highly recommend signing up for my newsletter on my contact page, on my website, or signing up for my Patreon, even as a free member, so that if. If my page gets lost, you know where to find me. Um, and I'm going to be spending a lot more time this month and moving forward in Patreon, working on building that community a lot more. And you also, of course, get free ad. Free episodes there every single week. And I'm really excited for the future moving forward. Patreon, we're. We're looking at doing monthly live streams just for Patreon users, bonus episodes of the podcast, Community gatherings, book clubs. I've had a lot of interest in a book club, and we're trying to figure out how to do that. Running it through Patreon show flipping tables is also expanding a little bit. So I really want this show to always be about dismantling ideology and expanding the mind and the imagination. Curiosity is a core tenet for me, but I'm going to start expanding the topics a little bit. We're still going to be doing evangelical history, Christian nationalism, biblical conversations, but we're going to include some of the famous talks on religion, and we're going to do cults and true crimes that are tied to religions. We're going to talk about ancient historical time periods. They're going to be more biographies, plant medicine, ancient traditions, and some really mind bendy scientific theories. There's been some really interesting developments in science recently that I think really relate to our understanding of how the world started and how it changes. We're still going to have expert interviews and have a lot of the same topics, but we're just going to expand it a little bit more and really challenge ourselves to keep pushing our mind outward. And last but certainly not least, highway to Hell. My travel and true crime podcast is is coming back the week of Halloween, is coming out on Halloween itself. Talk about how we're gonna so if you've never listened to that podcast, I did it last year, I'm bringing it back. We feature different cities, we we tell their famous true crime or paranormal stories and then we do kind of a mini travel episode at the end of it, giving travel recommendations, restaurants, hotels, and even recommend local bands to go listen to. We've also been taking applications for researchers on both this podcast and highway to Hell. So if you're interested in that, please email inf Monty mater.com and put research in the subject. I think that's it. Let's dive in to John Brown so John Brown is not your average 19th century evangelical Christian. While like many Christians throughout history, he believed that he was sent by God with a purpose, his purpose was way different from most people of his time. He wanted to end slavery by any means necessary. The man was no coward, and when he said that was what he believed, he truly believed it. Brown took the all men are created equal deathly seriously. And in a time when he could have used the tone of his skin to fly under the radar and not worry about what didn't negatively affect him, he chose not to. He hated slavery so much that he was willing to do and did die in the end for it. And his raid of Harpers Ferry and the subsequent execution is considered the spark or one of the many sparks that ignited the Civil War. Brown had been catching the attention of America long before his raid on Harpers Ferry and his arrest. In fact, exactly a year prior, another incident occurred, planned by Brown and his financial support. A group of abolitionists known as the Secret Six wanted to distract from the upcoming attack on Harpers Ferry because those plans had gotten leaked. He wanted to raid the ferry for its arsenal. That baby had a lot of firepower and it was his intention to arm his own militia, including both white and black men, slave and free, and openly violently revolt against the horrific institution of slavery. So, tucked away at the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers, Harpers Ferry was once a quiet settlement founded by Robert Harper harbor in the late 1700s, where his ferry service gave him the gave it the town's name. It has steep cliffs and river crossings, making it a natural crossroads. And in 1796, George Washington himself designated the site as one of the only two federal armories in the United States. By 1801, the arsenal was operating at full capacity, employing hundreds of workers and producing thousands of rifles, muskets, pistols that would equip American soldiers for decades. Behind its brick walls lay not only an enormous store of weapons and ammunition, but also a symbol of the nation's growing industrial and military military power. It was this cache of arms that drew the abolitionist John Brown to Harpers Ferry in October of 1859. He was convinced that he could ignite a slave uprising across the south and wanted to be able to arm them. Brown and a band of 21 men stormed the arsenal, seizing the armory in a desperate bid to arm the enslaved. For a brief moment, Harper's Ferry stood as the potential spark of a revolution. But the plan, as we're going to find out, unraveled pretty quickly. The US Marines, under Colonel Robert E. Lee and JEB Stewart surrounded the building, crushing the raid within two days. Bratton was captured, tried, and executed. Yet his stand at Harpers Ferry electrified the nation, widening the rift between the north and the south and pushing America closer to the Civil War. During the conflict that followed, the little town's significance only grew. Its armory, railroads, location at the mouth of two rivers made it a coveted prize, and the Union and Confederate forces traded control of Harpers Ferry eight times in the Civil War. In 1862, General Stonewall Jackson compelled the largest surrender of Union troops in the war, capturing more than 12,000 soldiers at the site. By the war's end, the town was battered and its armory was destroyed. But its name was forever etched into American history. Even after the cannons fell silent, Harpers Ferry remained a place of transformation. In the Reconstruction era. It became home to Storer College, one of the first institutions dedicated to educating formerly enslaved people. It was here in 1906 that W.E.B. dubois and the members of the Niagara movement gathered to chart the course that would lead to the founding of the NA naacp. That was a weird way to say that. From a ferry crossing to an armory, from the site of John Brown's raid to a beacon of black education and civil rights, Harpers Ferry evolved into more than a Town. It became a symbol, a crossroads of not only rivers, but of a nation's struggle for freedom and equality. But let me back up to the event that was meant to distract from that raid on Harpers Ferry. In December of 1858, Brown led a group of men into the slave state of Missouri, where they raided two slave homesteads and liberated at least 12 slaves from those homesteads. He made headlines with this raid and then headed back into Kansas, which was at the time in conflict over whether or not it would become a slave or a free state. In the early 1850s, the United States was bitterly divided over whether new territories should allow slavery or be free states. And for Kansas in particular, the dispute was so violent, it was referred to as Bleeding Kansas. The flashpoint came with the Kansas Nebraska act of 1854, authored by Senator Stephen A. Douglas. Instead of banning or permitting slavery outright in new territories, the law allowed for the settlers of each territory to decide the issue for themselves through popular sovereignty. This overturned the earlier Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in Kansas's latitude. Almost immediately, with pro slavery and anti slavery groups rushing into Kansas to sway the vote, pro slavery settlers, many from neighboring Missouri, established their own legislature, while anti slavery settlers founded a rival government in Topeka. Fraudulent voting intimidation and violent clashes erupted as each side tried to assert control. The territory again became known as Bleeding Kansas because of the bloodshed between armed militias, raids, massacres carried out by both factions. One of the most infamous episodes was the oh, I got to do this, do this one right. Patawatomi. Patawatomi massacre in 1856, where abolitionist John Brown and his followers murdered five pro slavery settlers. That same year, violence spread even to Congress. From Senator Charles Sumner, an outspoken abolitionist was brutally caned on the Senate floor after denouncing the crime against Kansas. The struggle raged for years, but ultimately, after repeated conflicts and failed compromises, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free State. In 1861, after the raid in Missouri that we mentioned earlier, President James Buchanan offered a $2,500 reward for John Brown's capture. That's over $100,000 today. In response, John Brown offered a 200. 200. Excuse me, a $2.50 reward for James Buchanan's capture, which is. Is pretty cheeky and hilarious. A president that John Brown believed was too immoral to be in the White House. Oh boy, I'd love to know what his opinion is now. Throughout Kansas, pro slavery men plotted to ambush and kill John Brown and his men, about 22 of them, black and white 80 pro slavery men came over to take Brown and his militia. And apparently at the mere sight of his militia and how serious they were, they lost their resolve and all 80 man just, just ran off. All bark and no bite. Alpha men and cowards. Oh, that sounds so familiar. A local newspaper would let later write, quote, old Captain Brown is not to be taken by boys and he cordially invites all pro slavery men to try their hand at arresting him. That is so gangster. By February of 1859, Brown made it into Iowa, where he was met with more support from abolitionists and the support of Alan Pinkerton, who would later found the Pinkerton Detective Agency, which would become the US template for detention detective investigation. Alan Pinkerton raised $500 for the support of John Brown and organized a boxcar to help with his escape. Three months after the attack in Missouri, he was able to put 11 formerly enslaved people on a ferry to Canada where they could ensure their freedom. Oh, and by the way, John Brown was 58 when he did this, when he did this raid to this, these two homesteads in Missouri and freed these people. So how did he get here, especially in this timeframe, especially as a white man? Let's just start all the way at the beginning. In May 9th of 1800, a child was born in the rocky hills of Torrington, Connecticut. His full name was John Brown, the fourth of eight children of Owen Brown and Ruth Mills Brown. There was. This was no ordinary family. From the moment of his birth, John Brown's life was shaped by faith, hardship and a moral vision that would one day make him one of the most polarizing figures in American history. John's father, Owen Brown, was born in 1771, the son of a Revolutionary War soldier. He grew up in the closing years of colonial America, when the new nation was still fragile and the ideals of liberty clashed with persistence of slavery. Owen was a strict but principled man, a staunch Calvinist who carried with him the fierce moral convictions of the New England Puritan heritage. His work was practical. He was a tanner by trade, steeped in the difficult labor of turning rawhides into leather, a profession both unpleasant but also very necessary. John's mother, Ruth Mills Brown, came from a respected Connecticut family. Ruth was remembered as gentle, devout and deeply rooted in the Congregationalist faith that dominated New England. Unlike Owen's stern and fiery edge, Ruth represented a softer kind of piety. Together, they gave John a home marked by strong religious discipline, hard work, and the belief that God had a hand in guiding daily life. Torrington, the village where John was born, was small and rugged. It was set against the backdrop of Connecticut's rolling hills and stony farmland. Life here in the 1800 was austere, kind of harsh. Communities were bound tightly by the church, their families and labor. John was baptized into this setting almost immediately, welcomed into the strict Calvinist religious world that his parents lived by, and honestly as did most of his community. So really quick, before we move on into John Brown's growing up in his adulthood, let's talk a little bit about Calvinism, because the impact of Calvinism is pretty central to how John Brown would grow up, how he would approach issues. So when we talk about the Protestant reformation and Protestantism being born out of Catholicism, the names that usually rise to the top is Martin Luther hammer hammering the 95 theses to the church or Henry VIII breaking with Rome. But another name which was quieter, a little bit less dramatic, and yet in some ways was just as world shaping was John Calvin. John Calvin was born in 1509 in Noyon, France. Calvin was a bookish man trained first in law before turning his keen analytical mind toward theology. If Luther was kind of the thunderclap that broke the medieval Catholic system, Calvin was the architect who carefully built the new framework of the faith. His great work, the institutes of the Christian religion, was published in 1536 and expanded over the years in out a vision that would become the backbone of reformed Christianity. At its heart, Calvinism is about one thing, the absolute sovereignty of God. For Calvin, God wasn't just powerful. He was the author of all reality, the one who ruled over history, nations, and the very fate of the human soul. Humans, by contrast, were deeply flawed. In Calvin's words, the heart is an idle factory. Sin wasn't just a bad habit, it was a condition you were born with, a corruption of the human will itself. This radical view of human helplessness and divine supremacy would become, become later become, summed up in key five doctrines, which are usually represented by the acronym tulip. So let's walk through them. T stands for total depravity. According to Calvin, sin has stained every part of human nature. We cl, we can't climb our way back out of it. We can't get to God through good works. And our own decisions kind of lead us into sin. Left to ourselves, we're spiritually dead. The U stands for unconditional election. If no one can save themselves, then salvation has to come from God's choice. Choice before the foundation of the world. God elected certain people not because of their goodness or potential, but simply out of his mercy and will. The fault in this is that it means he did not elect certain people, which raises a lot of questions. L is for limited atonement. Christ's death was not a vague offer of forgiveness floating in the air. It was a precise act that secured salvation for the elect and those who God had chosen. And I means God's irresistible grace. When God calls someone, they cannot resist. Grace isn't a polite invitation. It's a power that awakens the dead and brings them to life. And finally, p is perseverance of the saints. If salvation is God's work from start to finish, then no one, then no one who is truly saved can ever be lost. They will persevere and held in God's grip until the very end. In Geneva, Switzerland, Calvin helped create a city governed by Reformed principles, sometimes called a Protestant Rome. Pastors, elders and civic leaders worked together in a system that valued discipline, education and accountability. From there, Calvin's teachings spread like wildfire. To the Netherlands, where the Dutch Calvinists would resist Spanish Catholic rule. To Scotland, where John Knox founded the Presbyterian Church. To England and New England, where Puritans carried Calvinist convictions across the Atlantic, shaping early American colonies. And Calvinism didn't just transform churches, it transformed politics. If God alone is sovereign and every ruler is under his authority, then corrupt kings could and should be resisted. Twisted Calvinist covenant theology imagined a society itself as a sacred contract with God, an idea that would echo in the democratic experiments of the Dutch Republic and later the American Revolution. But Calvinism was also very controversial. Opponents accused it of making God into a tyrant, choosing some for heaven and leading others to hell. Even within Protestantism, there was pushback against Calvinism. Arminians rose up to argue that human beings still had some freedom to reject or accept God's grace. Calvin didn't believe they did that. It was preordained that you were elected and it was going to happen or it wasn't. You didn't have any say in the matter. The famous Synod of Dort in 1618-1619 gathered church leaders to settle the dispute and form a council. And form that council came the very five points that crystallized Calvinism's core that we went through earlier. In America, we see the Calvinist influence prominently displayed in the Puritans. The Puritans were English Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of England of what they saw as lingering Catholic corruption. But their worldview was steeped in Calvinist doctrine. For them, life was divided into two spheres, the sovereign will of God and the sinful, frail world. Of humankind. From Calvin, they inherited the idea of predestination again, that God had already chosen the elect. You were either chosen or you weren't. This created that, that paradox where on the one hand, salvation is entirely in God's hands, and on the other, Puritans live with this almost frantic urgency to demonstrate through discipline, order and good works that they might be one of the chosen. This what led to the Puritan work ethic. Their moral codes eventually led to the witch trials. This gave rise to what historians again call the Puritan work ethic. If every action could be evidence of God's election and you want so desperately to be chosen, then laziness, wastefulness, or sin weren't just personal failings. They were threats on the entire community's covenant with God. Calvinism also shaped how Puritans thought about government. They believed society itself was built on a covenant. Just as Israel in the Old Testament had covenanted with Yahweh, so too must the colonies covenant with God. Leaders were chosen not just for their skill, but for their godliness. This is where we kind of get these idea of, of a moral requirement for a leader. A lot of this comes from in America, Puritan ideas, laws were often drawn directly from scripture, and moral offenses such as adultery, drunkenness, blasphemy, witchcraft were punished as threats to the spiritual health of the whole community. Community. In this way, Puritan towns became what John Winthrop would call. He was the governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony, called a city upon a hill. Borrowing from the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, Winthrop declared in 1630 that the Puritan settlement would be a shining example to the world of what a godly community could be. Behind that vision was this Calvinist covenant theology that would later shape Dominion theology, the Seven Mountains mandate movement, and even what we're seeing now with Christian nationalism. But Calvinism didn't just produce unity, it also feud. Obviously a lot of dissent, as religion often does, because again, if God alone is sovereign and every believer has direct access to scripture, then no human authority, whether king, bishop, or even a Puritan minister, was beyond question. This opened the door for fiery debates. Figures like Roger Williams and Anne Hutchison challenged Puritan orthodoxy, arguing for liberty of conscience and criticizing the tight grip of church leadership. And if you remember, Roger Williams is the man who would eventually form the Baptist theology, ideology and denomination, the original Baptists, not the Southern Baptist that we have today. Ironically, those challenges would help sow the seeds for religious freedom in America. It was this conflict, this pushback, this idea that the Puritans had This stance that God had already chosen, everything was set in place, place, and everything had to be done just a certain way. But you had people like Roger Williams coming and saying, listen, since we all have access to the scripture, each person should be able to worship God and build a faith based on their own conviction. Another proud influence, Calvinism, gave the Puritans a sense of destiny. If God had called them out of England into a wilderness, then their very survival and prosperity were signs of divine favor. This became the very dangerous justification behind colonialization. If we're successful, then it's proof, proof that God has ordained us to do this, not proof that we're committing genocide against other people groups or stealing their land. It was also closely tied to this idea of whiteness being associated with purity and brownness being associated with what they called hereditary heathenism. And this conviction that they were justified by God in their expansion did help them be successful. But it tragically fueled conflicts with indigenous people who many Puritans saw as outside of God's covenant. They did not believe that indigenous people qualified for God's pre election. So, in summary, what's the legacy? Calvinism in Puritan America created a culture of discipline and industrious industriousness, later mythological mythologized as the American work ethic. It also created a political theology of covenant and consent, which influenced later ideas about democracy and constitutional government. It gave a deep sense of moral mission, a belief that America, America itself had a special role in God's plan. A belief that echoes right now into modern politics and has become incredibly dangerous. But it was the Puritans who said, America is this key central main character in God, the Bible, and the fulfillment of God's plan. And that has become again what we've seen now with dominion theology, the Seven Mountains Mandate and Christian nationalism. So today Calvinism is still around. It lives in Presbyterian, Reformed, in some Baptist traditions very steeped in Christian nationalism. It's still debated, but it's still influential. And the legacy is a paradox again. On the one hand, it's a theology that insists on human helplessness, and on the other hand, a tradition that produced some of the history's most disciplined, driven, world changing communities, both good and bad. In the words of Calvin himself, he says, we are not our own. Let us not therefore set it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us. According to the flesh, we are gods. Let us therefore live for him and die for him. And while Calvin himself did not reduce his theology to those bullet points that we covered earlier, later Followers again would summarize these key doctrines in an acronym tulip. And again, that's total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and perseverance of the saints. And again, this huge movement of discipline, living, education, church order and politically that stress on covenant theology. Everything is predestined, but also this ideal that corrupt rulers can and should be resisted. And this is the belief system that John Brown grew up in. By the time John was 5, he had already experienced the rhythms of New England's farm life. Rising early, helping with chores, sitting through long hours of church sermons that stressed human sinfulness and divine judgment. It was a world where faith was not just a private matter. It was the glue that held the community together and it would imprint on him deeply. And as we go through, we will see that this strict, very black and white mentality, this very judgment oriented faith, faith will deeply, deeply influence how John Brown fought for the end of slavery and how his abolition, abolitionism took a much more militant form. How things were very crystal clear for him. He did not have a lot of room for a gray area in 1910, 1905. Excuse me. In 1805, when John was only five years old, the Brown family made a major move. They left Connecticut for Hudson, Ohio, part of the expanding western frontier. And this shift was pivotal because for young John it meant leaving behind the familiar landscapes of New England and entering the rougher, more fluid world of the frontier settlements. His father's tanning trade continued in Ohio, but what defined this new life was the presence of more diverse communities and the early stirrings of the national slavery debate. And I want to make a quick note here that diverse communities are so critical. One of the ways that we are able to avoid dogma or falling into rigidness is when we experience difference around us, whether that's a different race, a different culture, different languages, different food. It has a way of making us more compassion and seeing humans in a much broader perspective. And I think that this was, this move to Ohio, I think was a big influence on why John Brown would grow up to be so passionate about the issue of slavery. Because Ohio was a free state, but it lay close to slaveholding Kentucky and Virginia. This borderland reality would begin to shape John's understanding of human bondage, even though at age 5, he was far too young to understand the full scope of it. Again, the Brown's religious life is this Calvinist, Congregationalist, steeped in Old Testament severity, Ten commandments, black and white judgment. The family worshiped with intensity, viewing Daily life as a battlefield between good and evil, which is very similar to the rhetoric we heal to hear today. Owen Brown, John's father, also raised his children with a fierce opposition to slavery. So Owen Brown was a. Had a very different attitude towards slavery than many of his contemporaries. It reflected the strong abolitionist leanings among some of the early New England Calvinists, even before John Brown could read. Because, and, and I want to make a note that the New England Calvinists again, this strict, austere religion at this time, many of them were already active abolitionists or leaning into abolitionism there. There was a shift in attitude in New England much earlier than in other areas of the country and the territory. But even before John Brown could read, he absorbed, absorbed the rhythm of scripture recitation, hymn singing and stern moral lessons at the family hearth. His earliest memories would have been filled with biblical stories of Moses leading the people out of bondage, prophets standing up against kings. These stories would echo throughout his life, forming the foundations of a man who decades later would try to arm enslaved people at Harper's Ferry. By all accounts, John Brown as a child was quiet, observant and unusually serious. This is a, a discreet description of him that's going to pop up a lot. People kept saying he was serious, stern, austere, quiet. He was not your class clown kind of a guy. He was not your carefree boy. In his early years were defined by chores, work, constant influence of religion. And by all accounts, he remained a very stern individual throughout his life. Family stories suggests that even as a child, he was very sensitive, deeply moved by the ideas of right and wrong, wrong, punishment and mercy. When John was five years old, America itself was barely into its second generation. The presidency had passed from George Washington to John Adams and then to Thomas Jefferson. The nation was expanding westward. Native Americans were being pushed off their lands. And the question of slavery loomed larger and larger. John Brown's first five years unfolded in the landscape of both nation building and national contradiction, a contradiction his life would eventually confront. Had on. In 1805, when John was just five, the Browns left Connecticut and moved west again to Hudson, Ohio, America's new frontier. And it was this contrast that he was able to see the impact of slavery. Because it bordered the slave states and because of that, Ohio was part of the underground railroad. His father, Owen, again outspoken against slavery, helped shelter fugitive slaves along the routes that we know now as the underground railroad. And this will also impact, impact people that John meets later in life. This early exposure to the institution's cruelty seared it into John's memory. And I can't imagine being a kid of 5 or 6 years old and seeing your dad sneak these people who are scared, they're beaten, they're scarred, these, you know, adults and children into your home to hide them, help them get free. That has to be incredibly formative as a child, especially as a child who's growing up in a religious place. Belief of such black and white. When John was only 8 years old, tragedy struck his brute. His mother Ruth died, and this loss also profoundly shaped him. Friends later recalled how the sensitive boy never fully recovered from his mother's death. And he carried a lifelong sense of loneliness and intensity. He took on farm chores early and again, even house chores because his his mother was gone at a very young age. And again, always demonstrating this quiet seriousness rather than playfulness you see in a lot of children. A story that's often retold from his youth describes how John once witnessed witnessed a slave boy being beaten with an iron shovel. The image horrified him, and he later wrote that it marked the beginning of his hatred for slavery. Though intelligent, John's formal schooling was inconsistent. He briefly studied at schools in Hudson and Plainfield, Massachusetts, before moving to Ohio. He even dreamed at one point of becoming a Congregational minister, inspired by his religious devotion. But he had poor eyesight. He was chronically ill, and the lack of steady resources for his family prevented him from being able to pursue higher education. Instead, John apprenticed for his father, doing the tanning business. The work was grueling. Just stinky hides, vats of lie, endless, endless labor. Tanning is a very manual, stinky kind of thankless job, but it provided him with skills and a trade, and by his late teens, he was traveling to other towns seeking opportunities and forming connections. In 1820, at the age of 20, John married Dianth Lusk, the daughter of a family. They settled in New Richmond, Pennsylvania, where John tried to establish himself as a tanner and a farmer. Together, John and Diane had seven children. Life was difficult, money was tight, and John struggled with debt. He was not financially successful. Tragedy struck again when Diane died in 1832, 12 years of after 12 years of marriage, after childbirth of their seventh child, leaving him not only struggling, but now he's the single parent of several young children. The following year, in 1833, John remarried Mary Ann Day, a teenager 15 years his junior. With Mary, he would go on to have 13 more children. That is so insane, though many did not survive infancy at this time. I believe I might have to double check myself on this, but the infant mortality rate I believe was about 50% at this time in history. His family life was a blend of affection, strict discipline and relentless hardship. I need to, I need to stop for a second. Going back to the 13 children. That is a lot of kids. A lot of kids. So if she was born in 1815, so she would have been. Marianne would have been 18 and then proceeds to have 13 kids. As much as I struggle with a lot of what's going on recently and I. I see a lot of things happening negatively for women. I am so glad bad I was not born in this era. Just so thankful. Anyways, back to the topic. So that's, I mean 20 children. Granted. Again, a lot of them did not survive infancy. 20 kids. It's too much. It's too much anyways. So. Brown was ambitious and restless. Even though he wasn't particularly financially successful in tanning and farming, he decided to pursue various trades beyond tanning. He tried farming sheep and cattle. He speculated in land. He attempted to breed and trade racehorses. He established a wool sorting business and later a wool brokerage in Springfield, Massachusetts. And most of them failed. It left him very heavily in debt. He dealt with a lot of debt, a lot of financial difficulties in his life. Still, his experience brought him into contact again with these diverse communities and it shaped his views. In Springfield, for example, he lived among a strong African American population where black churches and abolitionist circles were thriving. Throughout these years, Brown's Calvinist faith remained central to him. He read the Bible every single day, day, held family prayer meetings and saw himself as living constantly before the eyes of God. His worldview was heavily shaped by the Old Testament stories of prophets and warriors, figures who took direct and often violent action in the name of justice. This religious intensity gave him again this stern moral compass. Black and white, right and wrong. Friends and observers described him as uncompromising, severe, but deeply earnest. By the 1840s, Brown was involved in the wool trade. He attempted to set up a cooperative system where American wool could be sold directly to European manufacturers. He even traveled to England in 1849 to promote his plan. But it collapsed when buyers rejected his wool financially. This in particular was disastrous because this cross transatlantic crossing was very expensive. Yet this period placed Brown at the heart of the abolition networks in Springfield. He worshiped at the free Church, which was a hub for anti slavery activists. He met leading black abolitionists such as Sojourner Truth and attended lectures by Frederick died Douglas, more on that later. These encounters radicalized him further. But even before he became militant, Brown identified it with abolitionism. He was Basically an abolitionist since his childhood. He began publicly declaring slavery to be a sin and calling for its complete eradication, unlike some gradualists. So a gradualist was people who said, well, let's compromise step by step and kind of weed slavery out. Abolitionists were like, no, this is a sin against humanity. We're not doing this. We need to get rid of this now. Brown rejected compromise. He rejected the idea of gradualism. And he joined the American anti slavery Society in the early 1830s and began raising his children with similar commitment, telling them they must dedicate their lives to destroying slavery. And then there was an enormous Turning Point. In 1837, abolitionist and editor Elijah Lovejoy was murdered by a pro slavery mob in Illinois. Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who lived from 1802 to 1837, was a Presbyterian minister, a journalist, and one of the earliest martyrs of the American abolitionist movement. He was born in Albion, Maine and educated at Waterville College, which is now Colby, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He combined a religious calling with a passion for publishing. Lovejoy first gained prominence in St. Louis, Missouri, where he edited the St. Louis Observer, a religious newspaper that became known for its sharp condemnations of Catholicism, alcohol, dueling, and above all, slavery. I love that dueling was such a problem problem that the newspaper had to be like, hi, stop doing that. Through its pages, Elijah was able to publish powerful anti slavery editorials insisting that slavery was not only a political issue, but a profound moral evil that corrupted the heart of the nation. His words were uncompromising, unflinching, rooted in his Christian convictions and his belief in the freedom of the press to confront injustice. And another comment I want to make here because we have, have this interesting movement happening here in the US like we have Christian nationalism and Christian fundamentalism that is, is really trying to take away religious freedom, freedom from people, wants to control the nation. But. And we have even fascist movements throughout history which are dominantly, at least in Europe and the Americas, Christian movements, they're pushed by Christians, supported by people who claim to be Christians. But also in each of these movements there's these, this act of resistance and this pushback that also comes from who I would deem true Christ followers, true Christians who say, I'm not going to go with the flow. I'm not going to go along with this ideology just because it's branded as Christian. I'm going to push for what's right. I'm going to fight against the system that is using my name and my faith to promote this. And we see that a lot in Nazi Germany because the Germany was a 97% Christian nation when the Nazis rose to power. And Christians overwhelmingly supported Hitler, as did Christian in America. But there were key Christians and key churches who played a role in resistance and ultimately the defeat of that movement. And we see that here in abolitionism that there were so many Christ followers who took a hard stance saying, no, this is wrong. I will not go along with performative Christianity because it's convenient. And Elijah Lovejoy's writing provoked fury among pro slavery residents in Missouri. Obviously they destroyed his presses multiple times. Crimes, they threatened him. This was their livelihood. And it wasn't. It's because it's not just slavery, because obviously many of these people truly did believe that black people were inferior, that white people were this. But it was also the only way that they could run these large plantations. It was a source of their income. It was, it was what their wealth depended on. And we know what people will do for money. So hoping for greater safety, Elijah eventually relocated across the Mississippi river to Alton, Illinois where he founded the Alton Observer. But his abolition abolitionist editorials continued to draw violent opposition. And then on November 7, 1837, a mob descended on the warehouse where his newly delivered press was being stored. When Lovejay and his supporters tried to defend the press, gunfire broke out. Lovejoy was shot and killed. His press was destroyed and then thrown into the river. Lovejoy's death sent shock waves across the United States. He became the first American to die for the abolitionist cause. And his murder transforming him into a symbol of of both struggle against slavery and the fight for a free press. His uncompromising publications, especially the anti slavery editorials in both the St. Louis observer and the Alton observer cost him his life. But they also inspired a generation of abolitionists who would carry the fight forward. Lovejoy's murder was a clear warning. To openly oppose slavery was not just controversial, it was dangerous. This event deeply shocked Brown. At a memorial service for Elijah Lovejoy, John Brown reportedly rose and swore an oath publicly here before God and in the presence of these witnesses. From this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery. Now before we get into John Brown's abolition years and the raid on Harpers Ferry, let's take our first mid show sponsor break. This episode is brought to you by Ground News. I'm sure many of you, like me, have had some news meltdowns recently. It feels like a hundred major headlines a day. And so much of the information we are fed is filtered to us by our algorithms. Algorithm. 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So John Brown makes this oath at 37 years old. These words are his turning point. A vow that would consume the next 22 years of his life and carry him into violent battlefields and ultimately lead him to the Gap gallows. To understand the years after 1837, we have to see John Brown as he saw himself. He didn't see himself as a man of politics, but a man of God. Again, this, this Calvinist religion where he, he sees himself as not only having the option to fight against injustice, but the obligation to do that. And again, unlike many who hoped for compromise and gradual emancipation or persuasion of pro slavery ideals, Brown believed that slavery was so deeply entrenched that it could only be ripped out with violence. And he also believed that it was such a moral evil that there was an obligation to get rid of it. Now, in the late 1830s and 40s, Brown was still working in sheep farming and wool brokerage. And even though his system, trying to build this international cooperative system with England failed, failed in kind of a kind of epic way, he continued to move forward with his abolitionist convictions. And honestly, that became the most important central theme of his life. His convictions actually sharpened in, in the face of all of these kind of monetary failures, he turned more and more of his energy toward the cause of abolition. He joined the American Anti Slavery Society, corresponded with other abolitionists and began training his sons with military discipline that seemed out of place in peacetime Ohio, and it would soon become relevant. And during the 1850s, tensions are rising in America. This has become a central topic. We spoke earlier about the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave act. And there was these fierce debates over whether the new states would be slaver free. And it all pushed the nation closer to rupture. And it was really this westward expansion that really drove tensions higher and higher because you have these new states of is slavery going to be expanded here? Which gave, you know, white slave owners this huge opportunity for amassing more land, amassing more wealth, or are they going to be free, free? And again, just a reminder that the Kansas Nebraska act of 1854 was allowing settlers in new territories to decide the question of slavery for themselves. And so what this did was it caused a bunch of settlers, both pro slavery and anti slavery to move into new territories so that they could take over politically and establish it as free or slave. So overturning the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had banned slavery north of a certain line, allowed for more territories to become slave states. And this enraged northern abolitionists, who saw it as a betrayal. And it emboldened southern slaveholders, who saw new opportunities to expand. And again, Kansas in particular, carried the brunt of this expansion. It was a testing ground for the Kansas Nebraska act. These settlers move in, they're determined to control the vote of whether or not this is going to be slave or free. And this included armed militias. And the territory quickly descended into chaos. Violence in, in for religious or political views, and especially when wealth is being considered, is nothing new. Now, Brown moved to Kansas from Ohio because of this act. He took all his kids with him, and he said, we're going to go fight in this state to make sure that it comes in as a free state. And he quickly established himself in the free state town of osawatomie and quickly became a militant leader there. The crisis escalated In May of 1856, when pro slavery raged. Raiders attacked lawrence, Kansas, destroying a printing press and looting homes. Brown was furious. In retaliation, on the night of May 24th to 25th, 1856, he and his followers dragged five pro slavery settlers from their cabin along the potawatomi creek and executed them with broadswords. Like, we're going full medieval on this. The poetomi massacre was shocking. Newspapers across the nation condemned the brutality. Even many abolitionists were like, ooh, bro, you took it too, too far. But brown believed he was carrying out God's judgment. That's the danger of believing that you are the personal hand of God. John brown said up. This is God's. This is God. This is what's right. This is what's wrong. I'm carrying out God's judgment. For him, it was just old testament justice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. The massacre marked Brown as a dangerous radical, and it also gave him a reputation as someone willing to match pro slavery violence with violence. For the next year, Kansas became that war zone. Brown fought at the battle of blackjack in June 1850 56, where his men forced the surrender of pro slavery leader Henry pate. And what an interesting conversation that we have now. I was on someone else's podcast earlier today talking about, how do you deal with groups who are willing to break the law, who are willing to initiate violence? How do you fight back against those movements? Again, we see that so. So clearly in the Nazi regime, with groups that were willing to change the constitution, murder people, drag the them off, put them in concentration camps. At what point do you match violence for violence? Brown. This was. Brown is one of those complex figures where in certain ways he's incredibly inspiring. But it also forces us to wrestle with these tough questions like is this right, is this wrong? When do you have to fight back? When do you. We have this, you know, kind of this democratic mantra of when they go low, we go high. When is that no longer a fake effective? It's a lot of questions. And we see this throughout history. Every time there has been a revolution or a civil war, this question comes up. And in late August of 1856, a force of roughly 400 pro slavery Missourians under Captain John W. Reed marched into Kansas on a campaign to terrorize the free state communities. This was like an active war before the civil war started. This was skirmishes that were building into what would become the civil war. Their objective was to destroy Asawatomi and crush the resistance. Resistance. Osawatomi being a free state community and the resistance kind of branching out from there. On August 29, one of Brown's sons, Frederick Brown, encountered pro slavery scouts near Abbasatomi. Frederick was ambushed and killed, shot in the chest. And the news reached John Brown almost immediately. He later recalled, I had to look upon the mangled body of my own son. And I knew that the hour of battle had come. And I will say for my own right, I, I do believe that we look at revolutions and the majority of revolutions are peaceful, sustained resistance. But there are always turning point moments. And if someone murdered my child, that would be a turning point for me too. I, I can't. There's no way that I would let that slide and say, oh, we should talk it over. And I think if most people are honest, we would agree with John Brown's sentiment here. Brown quickly rallied what men he could. About 30 Free State fighters remember that the group invading Awasatami is 400. He gets 30. They're mostly volunteers and settlers. Outnumbered by more than 10 to 1, Brown prepared for a stand. I will say this about John Brown. John Brown is a thug. Like just a absolute courageous. No nonsense, he is just not even that article early in the quote where he says he openly challenges any pro slavery person to come try to arrest him. So he's got 30 men, they have 400. And on the morning of August 30th, Reed's forces advanced on. I have such a hard time with this Word today, Asawatomi Brown and his men moved to intercept them, using the terrain to their advantage. The area around the city was broken with timber, ravines and brush, ideal for ambush and kind of guerrilla style warfare. Brown positioned his small band in the woods and brush along the road leading into town. And when Reed's men advance, Brown's group opened fire, surprising them and halting their progress. For nearly an hour the outnumbered Free Staters held off the larger force, firing from COVID and retreating in stages. But the odds were impossible. Reed's men regrouped and pressed forward forward. Brown's fighters were forced to scatter. Five of Brown's men were killed against his friend. His son Frederick had already been killed. Brown himself narrowly escaped and retreated into the woods. With Brown's small force broken, Reed's men marched into Osawatomi. They looted and burned most of the town, destroyed homes, businesses and supplies, and nearly devastated completely this entire community. Militarily, the Battle of Asawatami was a defeat for John Brown. Clearly the town was burned, his son was dead and his small band was routed and dispersed. But politically and symbolically, it was a huge turning point. Brown's courage in standing against overwhelming odds became legendary among the Free State resistance among abolitionists. Newspapers across the north reported on the they called him Asawatami Brown, casting him as a defiant hero for abolitionists. He was proof that someone was willing to fight, not just speak against the expansion of slavery. And with this too, I want to make sure that I don't get confused by I the idea that oh, slavery was just a political issue. It absolutely was not. I absolutely agree with Brown here that in the face of such human rights violations, cruelty, murder, rape, genocide, that action, like whatever action is necessary to end that treatment of people I think is justified. I think underneath that we get the broader view of standing for something so much, believing in something so much that you're willing to sacrifice for it. I to just want wanted to clarify that for Brown personally as Sawatami was deeply formative, the death of his son obviously hardened his resolve. Who wouldn't? The destruction of the town convinced him that slavery would never be ended by ballots or compromise, only by blood. And honestly, I think he's right. I don't think they ever would have voted or compromised this away. They would have always had an excuse to keep slavery in some form or fashion. Later, reflecting on Kansas and this battle, he declared without the shedding of blood, or he quoted from the Bible, without the shedding of blood there is no of sin. This fight cemented John Brown's reputation as a militant abolitionist. He would later be immortalized with the nickname Osawatomi Brown, and the title would follow him all the way to Harper's Ferry, which would happen three years later. And this battle was small in scale, but this impact was enormous. It showed the nation the true brutality of the conflict in Kansas, the determination of abolitionists to resist and the futility of compromise in the face of slavery. And again, for Brown, it was both personal tragedy and a crucial crucible, something to drive him forward. It steeled him for the apocalyptic vision that he would carry into Harper's Ferry and ultimately to his own death. Now, these actions caused him to come in direct contact with key figures that we mentioned before. Frederick Douglass met with Brown in Springfield, Massachusetts. They spoke for hours. Douglass later recalled, though a white gentleman, he is in sympathy, a black man and deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery. Slavery. That is such a powerful statement. Brown's passion was so deep. It was as if his empathy was so great. It was as if he had been pierced with the iron of slavery himself. It's such a powerful quote. Douglass admired Brown, but disagreed with his militant efforts. So even though Frederick Douglass, as a black man, is disagreeing with Brown about violence, Brown later revealed his Harper's Ferry plan to Douglas. Douglas told him bluntly, you are walking into a perfect steel trap and you will never get out of life. Which became kind of a prophetic message. Harriet Tubman also became a friend and trusted ally of Brown. Brown respected her so much and so deeply, he called her General Tubman. She helped him recruit supporters for his raid and was instrumental in building contacts in the free black communities. And he would also assist on the Underground Railroad in certain points. A circle of wealthy northern abolitionists, those who were called the the Secret 6, quietly supported Brown financially. And we see this now. We see people who are funding movements, both good and bad. And that's where, you know, we have a lot of conversation about, you know, dark money. Where is this money coming from? How much can people give? This is. This is not a new thing. It's been going on for quite some time. The Secret, Secret Six included Theodore Parker, a Unitarian minister, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a radical minister and writer, Jarrett Smith, a wealthy landowner, and a few others. They provided money, weapons and moral income, encouragement. But when the Harper's Ferry raid collapsed, most would scramble to distance themselves, which they. We see now when things fall out of favor, they're all of a sudden, oh, no, that's not what we meant. We weren't supporting that, not really. By the again. By the late 1850s, after his son's death, Brown's visions crystallized. Kansas had shown him in the small skirmishes that they could not end slavery with these small battles. They couldn't end it by votes. And he dreamed of something bigger. And his belief was that he could enslave sight a nationwide slave insurrection. His plan was bold and even utopian. He would seize a federal arsenal, arm enslaved people and lead them into the Appalachian mountains where they would establish a base of operations. From there they would raid plantations, liberate slaves and slowly rebuild. And slowly the rebellion would spread throughout the South. It was not merely a plan of violence, but of liberation. Brown even drafted a provisional constitution for the new society that he introduced. Envisioned the target was Harpers Ferry, Virginia, a small town at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. And if you look at a map, Harpers Ferry is now in West Virginia. But because this is pre civil war West Virginia and Virginia had not split yet. On the night of October 16, 1859, John Brown and his small band of followers slipped silently across the Potomac river into the sleepy town of Harpers Ferry. Brown was no stranger to bloodshed, as we've seen. But here at the confluence of these rivers, he planned his boldest strike. I mean seizing a federal armory. Like just think about that for a moment that you and a ragtag group that you've trained are going to seize this armory. And his force was tiny, which is 21 men. Five of them were black. Some of them were his sons. They carried pikes, rifles and an iron conviction again that slavery was only going to be destroyed forcefully. And Brown told one of his supporters before the raid, I am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged by away but with blood. In the first hours, Brown's plan seemed to be effortless. His men quickly captured the armory. In the arsenal, they cut the telegraph wires to prevent news from spreading. It took. They took several prominent locals hostage, including colonel Lewis Washington, who was the great grand nephew of George Washington. Brown treated his captives courteously, explaining his intention to free enslaved men, arm them and march into the mountains to wage war. We came here to free slaves to he said, and only that he wasn't interested in harming people. He was interested in ending slavery. But he was also willing to do whatever it took to end slavery. But as dawn broke on October 17, the town stirred to life. Alarm bells rang. Workers, shopkeepers, militiamen rushed to arms. Brown had expected enslaved Virginians to flock to his case. Right. He expected it to awaken this revolution. But very few slaves dared. It was. There was too much at stake. It would cost them too much. And that's one of the reasons that when you see oppressive systems, it often comes from support from the outside to break free, because many of those who are enslaved are too afraid to join these uprisings. As one contemporary noted grimly, the slaves remained passive, terrorized more by the thought of what if the revolution fails? Than inspired by the hope of freedom. And that's so true. It's like that instead of being me, the. The fear of what happens to me if I get caught is often so much greater than the hope for freedom. By midday, Brown's men were surrounded. The streets of Harpers Ferry echoed with gunfire as local militia and angry townspeople exchanged volleys with the raiders. Innocent bystanders were caught in a crossfire. The Baltimore American reported. The town has been in the greatest excitement. Citizens have fallen, raiders have been shot down, and it is a scene of blood and terror. Pushed back and outnumbered, Brown barricaded himself with his hostages and surviving men in a small brick fire eng house near the armory. The structure would have become the infamous, infamously known as John Brown's fort. For 36 hours, Brown held out against gunfire and taunts from the swelling crowd outside. By the morning of October 18, federal troops arrived under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee, a career officer who would soon lead the Confederate forces in the Civil War. Lee dispatched his aide, Lt. Jeb Stewart, to parlay with Brown. Stewart demanded his surrender. Brown's reply was unwavering, wavering. We are determined to hold this place until we die. I prefer death to surrender. Man, just what a ballsy dude. Lee ordered an assault. Marines led by Captain Israel Green rushed the engine house, using a ladder and a battering ram to smash through the doors. Shots rang out inside. Several of Brown's men were killed instantly. Others were wounded. Brown himself was struck down, stabbed and beaten with a sword, but survived. Green later recalled his establishment. He fought with the courage of a lion. He was the gamest man I ever saw. He never quailed for even an instant. By mid morning, the raid was over. 10 of Brown's men lay dead. 10 out of 21, including two of his sons. Harpers Ferry was quiet again, but the nation's conscience had been set ablaze. Wounded and shackled, Brown was transported to nearby Charlestown, Virginia, and despite his injuries, he spoke with composure and dignity. When questioned, he did not deny his his Intent. I wish to say, gentlemen, that I respect the rights of the poorest and the weakest of colored people oppressed by the cruel and unjust enactments of this nation as much as I do of those most wealthy and powerful. And his trial was quick. Prosecution charged him with murder, treason against the commonwealth of Virginia and inciting a slave insurrection. Yeah. Brown refused, refused to plead insanity as some of his supporters urged him to, and instead used the courtroom as a pulpit. I mean, this man, man, just so incredibly correct. I mean, even at the end, like, he knows the jig is up. He knows he's going to die. And I. I love the quote from general Green. He was the gamus man I ever saw. He never quailed for an instant. In his closing statement at his trial, November 2, 1859, he delivered the words that this would get published across the nation. I believe that to have interfered as I have done in behalf of his despised poor was not wrong, but right now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are dis. Are disregarded, I say let it be done. That gives me chills, especially. Oh, just. I'm just gonna read it one more time. Now, I believe that you have interfered, as I have done, in behalf of his despised poor, was not wrong, but right now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded, I say let it be done. And, man, how many of us, when seeing injustice this, Are so convicted, are so convinced of equal rights and honoring people and justice, that we say, if I have to die for it, I'm happy to do that. That is so inspiring. On the morning of December 2nd. So a month later, 1859, Brown was led from his jail cell to the gallows. He walked calmly, refusing attempts at rescue and declining to make a false final speech. Instead, he handed his jailer a simple note that said, I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without my very bloodshed, it might be done. Thousands gathered to witness his execution. Soldiers surrounded the site to prevent any disturbance, and townspeople looked on in silence. A report from the Richmond inquirer noted, not a movement was made by the crowd, nor a word uttered that could mar the solemn solemnity of the occasion. At 11:15am on December 2, 1859, the trapdoor fell and John Brown was dead. In death, John Brown became larger than life. To the south, he was proof of Northern fanaticism and a harbinger of slave revolts. The radical left. To the abolitionists in the north, he was a martyr. Henry David Thoreau declared that Brown was more alive than he ever was before. Before. He is not old Brown any longer. He is an angel of light. And Ralph Waldo Emerson would later prophesy that Brown's gallows would be glorious like the cross. The raid on Harper's Ferry lasted barely three days. Militarily, just an absolute disaster. Brown failed to spark the slave uprising he envisioned, lost most of his men and died condemned as a traitor. Yet politically and morally, it shook the nation. And I mean, what a clear stance. What a clear line. Line drawn in the sand. It terrified the south, emboldened abolitionists, and intensified sectional tensions to the breaking point. Abraham Lincoln would later reflect on John Brown's raid, saying, initiated that war which was to end in the extinction of slavery. Abraham Lincoln credited John Brown with initiating the Civil War and ending slavery. Less than two years later, the Civil War began. Union soldiers marched into the battle singing. John Brown's body lies a moldering in the cross grave but his soul is marching on. His prophecy was fulfilled. The crimes of slavery were indeed purged with a lot of blood, the blood of war that claimed over 600,000 lives. From his vow in 1837 to his hanging in 1859 at the age of 59, John Brown lived as if possessed by one singular mission. The destruction of slavery. He was uncompromising, violent, often reckless, but was unshakably convinced that he was an instrument of God's will to his enemies. He was a terrorist or right. Because who we do, who we define as dangerous or radical or as a terrorist really depends on who wins the war, doesn't it? It depends on who gets to write history. And to John Brown's admirers, he was a saint and a martyr. But whether the villain or the hero, John Brown forced the nation to confront its greatest sin. His raid at Harper's Ferry lit the fuse of war that would decide the fate of slavery once and for all. And again, his final words still echo. The crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood. And there's so many things here, right, that we see even now in our country. We see people that say violence is never the answer. And we see people that say, hey, at some point you have to fight fire with fire. John Brown I think is incredibly inspirational. Not just because he was willing to die for what he believed, because again, we're not talking about funding, we're not talking about, I think more money should go to the military. We're talking about enslaved, enslavement, rape of an entire group of people, murder, beatings. We're talking about people who had no rights whatsoever. Do we feel convinced enough that all people are equal? Do we feel convinced enough that those things are so wrong that we would give up our lives for it? I think that's very, a very important question. But one of the other major things about John Brown, and especially his father Owen Brown, is often when we tell these stories and, and we, you know, we talk about the founding fathers who were mostly slave owners and we say, oh well, you know, you know, they were products of their time. Or we look at marrying 13 year olds, oh, you know, it was a reflection of the time. We, I don't think we get that excuse anymore. I've decided I'm not using that excuse because even in these times where children are being married off, slavery is enacted, women are being abused. You still have people who could have benefited from the system who said no, this is wrong. I think that we need to stop giving that excuse and we can just look back at those periods of time and say this was absolutely evil. And I'm glad that we've evolved past it. So I hope that this episode was inspiring. I hope it challenges you, I hope it makes you a little uncomfortable. How far am I willing to go? If it meant protecting people's lives, if it meant protecting due process, process preventing people from getting snatched off the street, am I willing to attend a protest even though it's uncomfortable? Am I willing to keep calling my representatives, which I mean are much safer than what John Brown did. Am I willing to put my face out there? Am I willing to like challenge my family's beliefs? Am I willing to stand up to my church? All of these things which, which in their own right are scary, are nothing compared to the stance that John Brown bravely took. John Brown's so convinced that equality in humanity was so important that there that it was willing to die for, that he was willing to lead an uprising for. And as a man who slavery could have benefited him had he chosen that path. I think John Brown is extremely, extremely, he's like humans, he's complex in some ways. Problematic in other ways, incredibly brave. And I hope that this episode inspires you and challenges you. I. I hope that in my life, I am even 25% as brave as John Brown was. And I, I hope that as we move forward into scary times, as of this recording, we're in the middle of the government shooting shutdown. And as we move into, you know, what I foresee as more conflict, I hope that we can take his courage and apply it. That I will fight for what's right, no matter what. I will not cave. I will not cower. And the more of us that make that decision, the bigger the movement becomes, because courage inspires courage. And I just want to take a moment to thank you for your support, thank you for your growth. I know that there's a lot of people that listen to the this episode, to these podcasts who are newly deconstructing, and you're trying to figure out where you fall in all of this. You're trying to figure out a new worldview and where you belong. And I hope that you challenge old belief systems about what's really right for everyone. Does this benefit everyone or does it benefit me? And as I end today, I just want to leave you with that courage is available to you no matter how dark the future gets. And to close out this episode, I just want to say thanks to Phoenix Studios for this recording. Thanks to my assistants, Laura McCuskey and Emily Battles, who are literally saving my life and are the only reason that all of this is possible. And for the new incoming researchers that we have joining the show shortly. And I want to thank the following Patreon users because I've been forgetting my shout outs. Anna McClellan, Anastasia Stevens, Annalise Knight, Andy Lee, Andrea Echelman, Andrea Ferrante, Andrea Jewell, Andrea Cuba, Andrea Pinkston, Andrea P. Last Initial. Andrea Savic. Andrea. There we go. Andrea Sanchez, Andrea M. Andrew Coffey, Andrew McKay, Ange Angel, Angel Laxton, Angel Thomas, Angela. Angela Cava, Angela Fasold, Angela Hubler, Angela Chu, Angela Penestri, Angela Villa Vivaldi, Angeli and Angelia Hansen. Thank you for your support. Thank you for joining my Patreon. And as always, stay brave, stay curious, and I will see you next week on Flipping Tables.