"I thought slavery a great moral evil. So anyway i started blastin..."

"His zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was a taper light, his was the burning sun. Mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the silent shores of eternity. I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave. I could live for the slave. John Brown could die for the slave." - Frederick Douglass being a fucking incredible writer

I live just 6 miles from Harpers Ferry and only 6 miles from Charles Town where Brown was tried and hung. I had to take photos for the local newspaper a couple weeks ago at the site of his hanging. This area of the country is so full of history and if one has a creative mind one can feel the history of the area. I also live just one mile from the site of one of Mosby's raids and had the honor of handling Mosby's revolver.

"I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with Blood. I had...vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done." -final words of John Brown

John Brown was an officer in the Masonic Lodge here in Hudson, Ohio and his Dad, Owen employed a man named Jesse Grant at his tannery who was the father of Hiram Ulysses Grant, or Ulysses S. Grant as he would become known. It is truly amazing how so many significant personalities became so intertwined in such out-of-the-way places.

John Brown, a true American hero if there ever was one.

Another odd coincidence in the story... present at Browns hanging was a John Wilkes Booth, who noted that while he disagreed with Brown, he respected his willingness to act and die for his cause. And yes, that John Wilkes Booth

Someone once interpreted Brown's actions like this, which stuck with me; if it was YOUR family being imprisoned, separated and sold, how would you feel about someone (like Brown) who was willing to kill and be killed to set them free?

Grew up in Alabama, knew people who did not use bad language but when they got really mad they would say “I’ll be John Brown!”

Douglass and Tubman both spread the word to not join up with Brown, believing the operation to be a suicide mission. Those 200 rifles were supposed to be in the hands of his men during the raid - he went ahead with the operation with only 10% of the manpower he had planned for. Additionally, he stopped a train as it was passing through the arsenal, but allowed it to pass through. As far as I'm aware, no one knows for sure why he allowed the train to move on, but it's probably related to the lack of manpower. Those on the train of course sent a telegram at the very next stop, and that's what blew the operation.

"Tragic Prelude" at 1:28 painted at the Kansas Capital in Topeka is a really brooding piece of artwork. I do recommend seeing it in person

The opening of the John Brown raid was a raid on the farm of Lewis Washington, great-grand nephew of George Washington. He was taken hostage along with some others. The true goal of that raid was the capture of a sword and 2 pistols that had belonged to George Washington. Brown knew of them and wanted them as talismens. Lewis Washinton and some others captured with him were taken to Brown and kept as hostages in the firehouse with the main body. Also taken as hostages were arsenal workers arriving for the day's work. Amazingly they nostly all survived that experience and firefight. Next (or about the same time some were raiding the Washington farm) was the murder of Heywood Shepherd, a freed black railroad baggage handler. He had left the station upon hearing a body of men crossing the nearby railroad bridge at night. An unusual occurrence and he wanted to see what was going on. He saw, tried to get back to the station and they shot him in the back and killed him. A physician who lived nearby came to see when he heard the shot and the man's dying scream. When the doctor saw there was nothing to do, he left and Brown and his men let him. Upon getting back to town the doctor began ringing a church bell to warn the town folk, also dispatching runners to Charles Town. Meanwhile Brown and his men had captured a Northbound railroad train which had stopped near the bridge because the telegraph wires wer down. After explaining what was going on Brown allowed the train to depart. He later called that his biggest mistake. As soon as the train got to the next station it telegraphed alerts to the railroad HQ and to Martinsburg and Washington. DC. Response was immediate, first militia then Marines under the command of Robert Lee who rescued his relative and the other hostages. Actually the Marine Officer who tried to stab Brown in the chest, had first tried to cleave the man's head in two, but Brown was moving *he fired his Sharps hitting another Marine in the belly (he died soon) and the Marine's dress sword only made a deep gash in Brown's neck, but it was sufficient to knock Brown down. Since Brown was trying to npw unsheath his own (G. Washington's) sword the Marine Officer tried to stab his chest. The brass buckle of the sword strap over Brown's shoulder is what stopped and bent the Marine's light uniform sword double. Others joined in and Brown was captured. The firehouse is still standing as are some of the other key historical places involved in the John Browns raid. I pass by the courthouse where he was tried and hung several times a year.

When you were describing the wafer primer system all I could think was “what could possibly go wrong?”

A real shame the pike footage was corrupt. They're imo, more interesting than the rifles. He contracted several cutlers in Connecticut and ended up skipping out on payment. The hafts were actually rake handles basically purchased ready made and fitted with the tanged pikeheads.

As a European, I must admit I might have known much about the American Civil War, but I had never heard of that guy and his raid, nor about its outcome; very interesting!

The reload time sucks, but the 149 damage that thing does is nothing to scoff at.

JOHN BROWN'S BODY LIES A-MOULDERING IN THE GRAVE, BUT HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON!

His soul is marching on

John Brown’s body lies a moldering in the grave, but his sharpe’s goes firing on.

I recently moved to western Mass and learned that John Brown spent time in Springfield getting to know and trying to recruit local abolitionists. Which reminds me I need to visit the Armory museum.

Proud of this part of my states history! His soul's marching on!

The *Democratic* party fractured, allowing Lincoln to be elected, not the Republican. There was one Republican candidate - Lincoln. There were two Democratic - Breckinridge and Douglas (yes, *that* Douglas), as well as Bell from the "Constitutional Union" party, in its one-and-only appearance. That said... the electoral vote in our reality was Lincoln 180, everybody else 123, so it wasn't really that close. NY and PA had more electoral votes than the Carolinas, GA, AL, MI, AR, LA, FL, and TX *combined*. Edit: Just to clarify: My comment had nothing to do with the present-day political issues, and none of the comments below should be taken to reflect understanding of recent political history. I was only referring on a *well-attested, undisputed* item, namely, the names and party affiliations of the candidates in the 1860 election. I feel that my comment was hijacked to discuss current-day politics.

It's a funny quirk of history that John Brown has widely been forgotten, but if you hum a few bars of the song written about him - "John Brown's Body" - almost anyone would instantly recognise it.

A fascinating tale! As an Australian, I was only aware of the Pete Seeger song, and it's interesting to hear the backstory behind it!

Forgotten American history no more. Thank you Ian!

As a Kansas resident i want to thank you for covering one our only famous historical figures

A fabulous blend of rifle and a history lesson too! Great episode Ian.

That sabre stab story is interesting, as it's said that the guy was a bit hasty when mustering out of his baracks and grabbed his dress sword instead of the training/fighting sword, so it was nicer, but less sturdy and sharp than the actual sword he usually used to carry into battle.

As a non-American, just recently learned the story of John Brown. Good timing on that video for me

Thanks for this. I find it fascinating when you spend a few moments putting a firearm in historical context.

A tragedy that true Americans will never forget. RIP John Brown. It was a shame he wasn’t successful

Now those are some amazing historical artifacts from our nations history! Thanks for sharing as always Ian!

For some reason I keep forgetting about the 1852 sharps rifle. I've always imagined John Brown and his sons with hunting rifles and shotguns.

Worth noting that slavery got abolished in the UK much earlier and without significant violence for two reasons: Many of the abolitionists were both Quakers and very rich. This made it hard for the pro-slavers to portray them as _dangerous_ lunatics and even harder for them to argue that slavery built prosperity. (Adam Smith had, a century before, published a paper saying that slavery _weakened_ the economy, and the Confederacy's "war machine" rather proved him right when the American Civil War came.) In any case: in England and Wales there wasn't really any legal entity to abolish. The High Court ruled in 1773 that there never had been an act of the Westminster Parliament that made slavery legal! This had been known long beforehand. When someone asked King Charles II what was the legal status of the black and mixed-race people on islands such as St Helena and Montserrat, he replied "they are my subjects, like any other." This was a concise but actually complete statement of the law as it stood at the time. Had Parliament been less determined to assert its right to over-rule the king, slavery in much of the world might have ended there and then.

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away, but with blood." Bars

Hmm.... a carabine with a PEZ--dispenser. That begs the question if at that time PEZ was available with chewing tobacco flavour?

no conundrum here: his was the only correct response to slavery

I can't remember where I read it, but I saw it written somewhere that John Brown was feared by the establishment in large part because he represented something completely beyond their control: a white man with the conviction to kill and ultimately die for the freedom of black people. For all his flaws and mistakes I have a lot of respect for him and his willingness to fight for what was right. Anyone willing to die for the freedom of others is someone we can all learn from.

0:27 Ian "John Brown is best known for his raid..... (on the arsenal at Harper's Ferry) that cost him his life" Silly me, I thought John Brown was best known for being the cover model for Kansas' 1974 eponymous album.

According to my old OIC, a history major and a Marine officer, it was an officer that went in first and encountered Brown, so he would have been carrying a shamshir (the Mameluke sword Matine officers carry), and it would have been the only recorded time a Marine officer engaged in combat with a Mameluke sword. The one and only time, and it bends, adding to Brown's absolute certainty he was on a righteous path as God turned a blade that should have killed him and gave him time to be more than just a man putting together an uprising.

Very cool. Thank you for the history lesson. More indepth than my history teachers ever did.

It is my understanding that the goal of the raid was not to have slaves escape and come to Harpers Ferry that morning in hopes of reinforcement and takeover of the town. But rather the raid was intended as more of a heist. There was a wagon train that was supposed to arrive once they had secured the Armory and then once loaded with weapons, escape into the Appalachians and start a insurrection from there. For unclear reasons the wagons did not show up, John Brown and his raiders were stuck waiting for them.

I have visited the battle site of Black Jack, a time or two, where some of John Brown's men did some preaching from those bibles. "He (Henry W. Beecher) believed that the Sharps Rifle was a truly moral agency, and that there was more moral power in one of those instruments, so far as the slaveholders of Kansas were concerned, than in a hundred Bibles. You might just as well. . . read the Bible to Buffaloes as to those fellows who follow Atchison and Stringfellow; but they have a supreme respect for the logic that is embodied in Sharp's rifle." - New York Tribune, February 8, 1856

Great video Ian, thanks for sharing this important piece of history with us. I would love to see that primer mechanism actually working! It's hard for me to imagine it being very reliable.

Thank you for a engaging history lesson. If our teachers would have been half as interested in the subject when we were in school, a lot more of us would have stayed awake in class.

"Slavery's gay because you own another man" - John Brown

Hi Ian, that's a beautifully-kept old carbine with a great provenance. Thanks for the chance to look at it, and thanks for the inpromptu history lesson on one of the great flash points of the American Civil War. It's good to hear and to keep in mind our history as a Nation.

The wait between Avatar movies is my heritage, since it lasted longer than the confederacy

Does anyone else want to have a look at John Brown's belt buckle? Freakin' thing _bent a sword._

Harper's Ferry is a wonderful place to visit. So much history and so beautiful as well. Regardless of Brown's methods, he was correct in that it would take violence to end slavery

John Brown was interesting to me even as a little kid. Pretty amazing historical figure.

Too Bad about the Pike Head Footage. I'm always interested in edged weapons from this period, including John Browning's broad swords. This antebellum period was kind of like the Last Hurrah for edged weapons. Soon too be eclipsed by cartridge loaded repeating firearms, making them a backup or weapon of last resort.

Absolutely fascinating historical coverage, with a nice dose of interesting philosophical/moral questions for good measure, thanks for this! :)

Pretty awesome story and history. The rifle rocks too! Definitely a lot of "what if's" in the telling of Harpers Ferry Raid.

The way this carbine deploys the little primer wafers... I can't stop thinking of Pez dispensers

Thank you for a great video, Ian; I very much appreciate your connecting these two weapons (Sharps carbine and pikes) with their historical context vis a vis John Brown's best efforts to do whatever it is he hoped to accomplish with his "raid" on the federal government arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Unsurprisingly, the comments section is far "spicier" than one usually finds for one of your superb videos. Glad to see some armes blanches (the pike) featured among the more common 'forgotten' weapons that are firearms.

In fairness, there aren't many other causes that one can be rightfully zealous about.

Wow, less than an hour after upload! These Sharps are such a cool design, and John Brown is a hero.

Hey! These have always been of particular interest to me, for obvious reasons. Thanks, Ian.

Painting by John Steuart Curry, a great painter from Kansas. “Grays” is most commonly used in military terms for cavalry units riding gray horses. There was also a black baseball team by that name. I don’t know why the team was called that.

Boy oh boy cant wait for “those”comments

We need some John Brown statues

🎶John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave John Brown’s body lies a-moulderin’ in the grave, But his soul goes marching on.🎵 GLORY, GLORY HALLELUJAH!!!

Fantastic video Ian! Thank you so much. God bless all here.

Brown was famously descibed as a lightning bolt for the war (i'm paraphrasing from memory).

That picture of brown with the Tornado in the background is a mural painted in the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka. Thanks for documenting history, as always, Ian.

Thank you Ian for this piece of history.

200 of the 1,000 pikes bought by Brown came from my hometown of Farmington, CT!

John Brown my beloved

Just recently watched North and South again which is a guilty pleasure of mine between the holidays 😅 They do display part of the raid there as well

Fascinating. Didn't know the details of the John Brown story - I'm not American nor immersed in the pre-history of your civil war.

I was unaware of that episode in American history. A pleasure for me to be able to go from weapons to historical events. P.S.: the tip of the spear seemed to me, at the beginning of the video, to be a smatchet knife and it seemed like a temporal contradiction hahaha. Greetings from Patagonia Argentina.

This channel is absolute gold .i have not missed an episode ever since i started watching him a couple years ago

Great history lesson today, much appreciated!

Bring John Brown back, and give him power armor

For anyone interested in John Brown, may I recommend the fantastic miniseries, The Good Lord Bird. Absolutely gripping and possibly Ethan Hawke's best performance.

I can't quite recall who said it but one of the best pieces of advice I've ever read was: "If you ever wish to gauge a man's character, ask him what he thinks of John Brown." If it's anything short of full support then we're probably not going to get along.

Very cool historical weapons !!!!! Rock on Ian !!!!!!!

John Brown was a true patriot.

My total knowledge of John Brown begins and ends with one episode of the Flashman Diaries.

Brown's last word's were "Forgive them Father, they know not what they do". I can think of no other phrase that could give a bigger case of the willies to the assembled company.

Thanks for covering John Brown. One of the most misunderstood and important figures in American history

Great video! I love the ones that delve into history! ❤

Cool! I love that you find a describe this wonderful bits of firearms history and tangents to that history.

HIS SOUL'S MARCHING ON

To quote Dr. Henry Jones Jr, often known as Indiana, 'It belongs in a museum!'

That is an amazing piece of American history. Thank you.

I live in Kansas. I have seen the mural in the Kansas State Capitol rotunda, which you placed on your opening to the video. John Brown is a radical and well-respected for the most part in Kansas.

The irony that Lee did the same thing for the opposite reason on an absolutely hellish scale but didn’t meet the same fate.

Very cool to be able to handle pieces of that particular part of history.

Awesome video mate. Not your usual stuff but very, very informative and entertaining.

I can’t be the only one who’s ears pricked up when hearing “John Brown………” and then nothing. If this channels taught be anything it’s that 99% of the time it’s gonna be “John Brown……..ing” I’m totally aware of who John Brown was (and think that I view him as a sort of hero, a deeply complex and maybe psychopathic one, but overall probably a hero none the less) , but I’m amazed Ian could break 10+ years of conditioning and not add that “ing”to the name.

AND HIS SOUL IS MARCHING ON!

Fascinating as always.

Once again, great video, Ian! Tell me, have you ever come across a 1856 Springfield carbine with a detachable stock? My family had one, handed down thru the generations which I played with as a child in the 1960s. There was a brass turn screw which 'locked' two stock 'hooks' into the pistol grip. "1856 Springfield" was clearly etched into the metal just above the trigger guard. I've tried to find a photo of the firearm but no luck. Thanks.

I was beginning to think, before you went in that direction, that John Brown is a real test case for the distinction between a terrorist and a freedom fighter. The cause was obviously just, and you'd have to be a full-on pacifist to believe it didn't justify some measure of violence to achieve it; but Brown's actions don't look all that rationally and proportionately directed towards the goal.

IMO Ethan Hawke perfectly portrayed John Brown in The Good Lord Bird. The whole raid is depicted very good. Thank you for this wonderful episode on one of my favorite 19th century weapons! Much love from 🇺🇦

A fascinating piece of our history. Brown, who was a bit of a fanatic, was correct in his prophecy though. 2 years later, his "Rebellion" started and a lot of blood was shed to eventually end Slavery. Thanks for showcasing Brown's "Carbine," and the Pike. I wasn't aware any of the Pikes had survived until now. Brown lived and died for his convictions, and that's a rarity, especially in our modern world.

Very interesting story! I am Canadian so American history is quite secondary to our own and so I had never heard of this fellow or the raid. Obviously he was a man of great influence while living and in death. I love this channel more and more every day and it has been YEARS!

John Brown should be on your 100 dollar bills.