![\"John](\"https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/john-brown\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2019\/05\/John-Brown-c.-1856-718x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Page Head” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row admin_label=”Page Header” module_class=”page-header” _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Exhibit Title” module_id=”exhibit-title” _builder_version=”4.19.5″ text_font=”||||||||” header_text_color=”#00457A” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”John Brown” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Brown c. 1856. Image: West Virginia State Archives.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Before heading to Kansas in an attempt to help prevent the spread of slavery into the state and surrounding areas, Brown went to Syracuse, \u201cbent on raising funds at the organizational meeting of the Radical Abolitionist Party\u201d [1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n This inaugural Convention of Radical Abolitionists took place from June 26 through June 28, 1855 in Syracuse, New York. At this point, three of Brown\u2019s sons were already in Kansas waiting for him. At the convention, Brown \u201cappealed for money and guns to take him to Kansas.\u201d His speech was effective and swayed many of the members of the audience, since \u201cmost members agreed that armed resistance was the only course left to the friends of freedom in Kansas.\u201d Douglass then asked for contributions to the cause, which resulted in a monetary donation of $60 and some guns [2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 1855 Convention of Radical Political Abolitionists took place just a few months before the 1855 Colored National Convention, held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from October 16 through October 18. Some of those who attended the abolitionist convention also attended the Colored National Convention, such as James McCune Smith and Frederick Douglass [3]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brown’s allies Gerrit Smith, Lewis Tappan, and Jermain Loguen attended the abolitionist convention, while Mary Ann Shadd Cary, Charles Lenox Remond, and William Cooper Nell attended the national convention [4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”3_5,2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n One of the members of the Chatham Convention, John A. Thomas, attended and was a member of the Finance Committee at the 1855 abolitionist convention (listed as John Thomas on that convention’s minutes). Thomas was a self-liberated individual from Maryland who took refuge and settled in New York. He established a farm with land deeded to him by Gerrit Smith, a member of the Secret Six – a group of six men who were some of Brown’s chief financial backers. Thomas’s involvement in the 1855 abolitionist convention and the Chatham Convention highlights the importance of the convention movement to interracial activist networks [5]<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n In an editorial written after the 1855 abolitionist convention, Douglass \u201cspoke of Brown as an active and self-sacrificing abolitionist who had presented his case most feelingly.\u201d Brown then used the money raised to travel to Springfield \u201cto purchase firearms and flasks\u201d for the fighting in Kansas [6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although Brown\u2019s impassioned appeals seem to have affected the audience of the convention, when Brown \u201cfinally entered the [Kansas] territory on October 4, 1854, he was accompanied only by his son, Oliver, and his son-in-law, Henry Thompson\u201d [7]<\/a>.<\/p>\n If not in deed, members of the Radical Abolitionist Party supported Brown in their beliefs and their devotion to eradicating slavery. The Radical Abolitionists \u201crefused to compromise with the Slave Power or with anyone who wanted to navigate around the issue of slavery\u201d[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Frederick Douglass” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n A portrait of Frederick Douglass published as the frontispiece to My Bondage and My Freedom<\/em>, 1855. Image: The University of Texas at Austin<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”Political Map” _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Reynolds\u2019s Political Map of the United States, c. 1856. The Kansas Territory, in the center, is colored in white. Slave states are colored grey, Free states in pink, and territories in green. Image courtesy of Library of Congress Geography and Map Division via Wikimedia Commons.<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.27.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n This group also advocated for African American rights, such as citizenship, women\u2019s suffrage, Native American rights, \u201cand even believed in the redistribution of political power and resources\u201d [9]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since \u201cRadical Political Abolitionists saw themselves as part of a crusade,\u201d they believed that the use of violence to combat injustice was not only justified, but divinely sanctioned. If political means for combating slavery failed, \u201cviolence was available\u201d [10]<\/a>.<\/p>\n James McCune Smith, one of the party\u2019s founders, stated \u201cthat they intended to abolish slavery \u2018by means of the Constitution or otherwise.\u2019\u201d To make sure his point was heard loud and clear, McCune Smith later told Gerrit Smith, “should there be any quarrel in the future as to the meaning of [or otherwise], I mean fight” [11]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Radical Abolitionist Party fully backed Brown in his battles in Kansas and the Harpers Ferry Raid by collecting donations. The party, in advocating for the immediate, and, if necessary, militant overthrow of slavery, \u201csaw itself as \u2018the only political party in the land, that insists on the right and duty to wield the political power of the nation for the overthrow of every part and parcel of American slavery\u2019\u201d [12]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Radical Abolitionist Party, from its founders through its multi-racial membership, was one of the organizations that carried Black ideas about freedom and citizenship not only to free and enslaved peoples, but also directly impacted John Brown’s political thought and practice.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row admin_label=”Credits & References” _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text admin_label=”References” _builder_version=”4.27.5″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Quarles, Benjamin.\u00a0Allies For Freedom: Blacks and John Brown.\u00a0<\/em>Oxford University Press, 1974, p. 65.<\/p>\n [2] <\/a>Stauffer, John & Todd, Zoe, ed. The Tribunal: Responses To John Brown And The Harpers Ferry Raid. <\/em>Harvard University Press, 2012, p. xxvii.<\/p>\n [3] <\/a>\u201cProceedings Of The Colored National Convention, Held in Franklin Hall, Sixth Street, Below Arch, Philadelphia, October 16th, 17th, and 18th, 1855.\u201d Colored Conventions Project, https:\/\/omeka.coloredconventions.org\/items\/show\/281<\/a>.<\/p>\n [4] <\/a>\u201cProceedings of the Convention of Radical Political Abolitionists, held at Syracuse, N.Y., June 26th, 27th, and 28th, 1855 (New York: Central Abolition Board: 1855).\u201d Cornell University Library, accessed June 30, 2025, https:\/\/digital.library.cornell.edu\/catalog\/may818307<\/a>.<\/p>\n [5] <\/a>\u201cJohn Thomas.\u201d Historic Saranac Lake Wiki, https:\/\/localwiki.org\/hsl\/John_Thomas<\/a>.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Quarles 32.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Quarles 32.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Jackson, Kellie Carter. Force And Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, p. 88.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Jackson 88.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/john-brown\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2019\/05\/Frederick-Douglass-ca.-1855-678x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFrederick Douglass<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/oldsite.coloredconventions.org\/john-brown\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/32\/2019\/05\/Reynoldss_Political_Map_of_the_United_States_1856.jpg\")
<\/p>\nReynolds\u2019s Political Map of the United States, c. 1856<\/h3>\n
References<\/h3>\n