John Brown first swam into my vision in the 1960s when I was a political activist in the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement at Chapel Hill, where I went to university.
The 60s passed and faded and I grew older, and in 1987 bought a house in upstate New York, and it turned out that John Brown was buried down the road from my house and that he had lived there longer than anywhere else and his house was still standing.
The attack of John Brown upon Harper's Ferry came upon Virginia like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky.
John Brown was tried for treason, murder, and inciting slaves to insurrection.