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"Now I Have Done"
Statement delivered on November 2, 1859

Exerpt from "A Plea for Captain John Brown"
First printed in 1859

"I believe that to have interfered as I have done—as I have always freely admitted I have done—in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right."

John Brown
"Some eighteen hundred years ago Christ was crucified; this morning, perchance, Captain Brown was hung. These are the two ends of a chain that is not without its links. He is not Old Brown any longer; he is an angel of light."

Henry David Thoreau

John Brown (1800–1859) was an abolitionist whose actions spoke louder than words. On December 2, 1859, he was hanged in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, for having plotted to provide arms to African American slaves and lead them to freedom in Canada. Brown had been convicted by a military court one month...