Let Freedom Ring

Historical photos courtesy of Hudson Library & Historical Society, 

Summit Memory/Akron-Summit County Public Library and

Summit Memory – Summit County Historical Society collection

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Most cars breezing by Hudson’s Green on bustling Main Street miss it. Off of the connecting Church Street sits Hudson’s double spired Town Hall with an unassuming historical marker paying tribute to the man historians say lit the spark that ignited the Civil War. In that very spot in 1837, abolitionist John Brown first publicly declared that he was committing his life to ending slavery.

While history books teach accounts of his pivotal 1859 raid on the federal armory and arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, and leadership of the “Bleeding Kansas” massacre, the sense of purpose that drove him to take such measures was shaped here in the Western Reserve, slowly building to its eventual explosion.

“The rest of the world doesn’t know very much about him until he goes to the territory of Kansas, when in actuality his formative years are right here,” says Leianne Neff Heppner, president and CEO of the Summit County Historical Society of Akron, OH that has John Brown’s home on its Akron property.

As numerous biographers have traced his path from a mild-mannered tanner to the leader of bloody anti-slavery clashes, his relationships with family and friends in the Western Reserve and visits home have emerged as cornerstones.

“There’s that huge influence of those people around him in Northeast Ohio that are supporting him and teaching him — like Lora Case — in the anti-slavery movement,” Heppner says.

Engage: Learn more about the Underground Railroad in The 330 with these sites and activities.

In 1805, Brown’s father, Owen, moved their family from Torrington, Connecticut, to Portage County and then specifically to Hudson, a town founded in 1799 by New England pioneers, many of which hated slavery. It was here that he strengthened anti-slavery views, networked with abolitionists and assisted Owen and others in moving enslaved Black people who escaped, which the National Park Service calls freedom seekers, on the Underground Railroad through Hudson and Akron, toward freedom in Canada. The Western Reserve — described in the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly as a hotbed for abolitionism — had all the elements to help kindle the fire of John Brown’s fight for equality and history-changing Harpers Ferry raid.

“From the time he was 5 or 6, he felt a very strong passion about everyone being created equal,” says Gwendolyn Mayer, archivist at the Hudson Library & Historical Society. “In the eyes of God, we should all be the same —  that was the way he was raised.”

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From the time he was just a boy, Brown led a life many Northeast Ohioans would recognize — one marked by dogged hard work. When Brown was only 6, Owen began teaching him the business of tanning hides of squirrels, raccoons, wolves or deer into whip lashes, caps and clothing. Oswald Garrison Villard, the author of “John Brown, 1800-1859: A Biography Fifty Years After,” wrote that during those early years, Brown was placed in the “school of adversity.” Hunting expeditions were treacherous due to extreme weather, including a deep frost that took the corn harvest in 1806, and those hardships shaped his rugged spirit. “John Brown grew up to a self-reliant manhood. Under these conditions was his character molded and forged, until there emerged a man of singular natural force, direct of speech, earnest of purpose and usually resolute,” Villard wrote.

Brown knew loss early, too. His mother died when he was just 8. “When that happened, he ended up spending a lot more time outside. He had a pet squirrel, and he had amazing husbandry with animals,” Heppner says. Being around animals, especially that little bobtail pet squirrel, instilled him with compassion.

He read a lot of books too, and with his father raising him as a devout Christian, the Bible was chief among them. “He was greatly influenced by the Bible and what he understood to be the reason for Christianity,” says Tom Vince, historian and archivist at Western Reserve Academy, which is the site of the former Western Reserve College.

Owen joined the First Congregational Church in Hudson in 1808. Brown was a Sunday school teacher, and Case wrote in his autobiography, “Hudson of Long Ago,” that he was among Brown’s young pupils in 1816. He described how Brown had a practical way of demonstrating the Christian principle that it is “more to give than to receive.” Case wrote that if someone had gotten into an argument, Brown would fold his hands behind him and calmly adjust his body language to convey that his response “came from the heart.”

His father raised his children to have a deep hatred of slavery, too. During the War of 1812, Owen brought Brown with him to a cattle contractor military job in Michigan, and they stayed with a family that had a Black servant around Brown’s age. Brown observed he was doted on, while the servant was badly clothed, beaten with a shovel, poorly fed and lodged in the cold. It led him to “swear eternal war with slavery,” Villard wrote. Brown went on to have two wives and 20 children, and he raised his family with a desire to destroy slavery and to assist people trying to get out of slavery. In a letter, John Brown Jr. relayed how his father gathered his mother and siblings around their fireplace and “were called upon by their father to take a solemn oath to do all in their power to abolish slavery.” Every family member raised their right hand and took the oath before each other and God.

Living in Hudson during the early 19th-century put the Browns at the heart of heated debate. “Hudson was a community that was well-aware of what was going on in the world in the 1830s. We had a newspaper, and we were debating intellectually the issues of slavery,” Mayer says. “It was a very divided community.”

Much of the debate swirled at Western Reserve College, which was founded in 1826, and it thrust the college into the national spotlight. By the 1830s, staff and students were split on how to best approach the anti-slavery movement. On the abolitionist side were firebrands including professor Elizur Wright Jr., the Rev. Beriah Green and college president the Rev. Charles B. Storrs. “They were saying that immediate abolition of slavery and citizenship for all African Americans would be best,” Vince says. Meanwhile, the town’s founder, David Hudson, and several college trustees were on the colonizationalist side. “Many people in this town — and certainly not unusual in this country at the time — favored colonization. Why? Because of Liberia. The U.S. had sent freed slaves back to Africa [in the 1820s],” Vince says.

He credits the college as a reason why Hudson was a stop on the Underground Railroad beginning in the 1820s. “The theoretical and philosophical end of the abolitionist movement — you could trace it to the people who were involved with the old college,” he says.

There was never slavery in Ohio, Heppner says. But because slave catchers were on the hunt, the Underground Railroad — not an actual railroad but the term for the organized effort — was established to secretly help freedom seekers reach Canada and other nations where slavery was illegal. Late Hudson Library & Historical Society archivist James Caccamo described the early movement of freedom seekers throughout town as an “open secret” in his book, “Hudson, Ohio, and the Underground Railroad.”

Hudson had more than four Underground Railroad routes, with the main one along present-day Main Street. Owen was Hudson’s chief stationmaster on the Underground Railroad. According to Caccamo, he likely hid freedom seekers at various Hudson houses he lived in — including two on Hudson Aurora Road that are still standing.

Brown participated in the Underground Railroad too while he lived in Hudson until the mid-1820s. John Brown Jr. wrote in his journal around 1825 that his father sheltered two freedom seekers on the property of his tannery. The Hines Hill Road site is still standing and is a bonus stop on a new mobile Hudson Library & Historical Society tour titled the Anti-Slavery Movement and the Underground Railroad in Hudson, Ohio. Brown also had a house on Ravenna Road that was said to have a barn with a secret compartment, according to Caccamo.

Others in Brown’s family were also involved in the Underground Railroad, including his half-brother, Jeremiah Root Brown, according to Caccamo. He likely sheltered freedom seekers at his still-standing East Streetsboro Street farmhouse that had a dry cistern that local tradition says was used to hide people, according to the Hudson Library & Historical Society. Another likely spot is the still-standing Thirty Acres house of abolitionist John B. Clark where traces of a tunnel possibly used by freedom seekers were found, according to Caccamo.

The site of Case’s parents’ home, Case-Barlow Farm, which is now a park, was a well-known stop, and family tradition says they hid freedom seekers on a wooded lot at the farm’s edge, according to the Hudson Library & Historical Society. Case wrote that his log cabin on East Streetsboro Street was actively used, recalling a story in 1859 when seven freedom seekers came through a station in Ravenna and discreetly arrived at his home Friday at midnight. “I waited until Sunday p.m., then I started on my train for John Markillie’s station in Hudson and saw them aboard his train for Johnson’s depot in Northfield,” he writes. “Johnson’s train carried them safe to Cleveland and from there, they went on a boat safe to freedom.” Markillie, a notable abolitionist and photographer, was the other stationmaster in Hudson.

Colonizationalist David Hudson also assisted freedom seekers. In a Jan. 5, 1826, diary entry, his son, David Hudson Jr., recounted that “two men came this evening in a sleigh, bringing a negro woman, a runaway slave and her two children.” They hid the freedom seekers on their property. Hudson’s 1806 home is now owned by the Western Reserve Academy and is the oldest frame home in Summit County.

While trustees ousted abolitionist firebrands Green and Wright from Western Reserve College and the new president the Rev. George Pierce was more moderate, there were still abolitionist activities on campus in the 1830s. In a Nov. 11, 1834, diary entry, student John Buss recalled meeting a 40-year-old freedom seeker, who had run away from a slaveholder two months prior and was with his wife and child. Buss describes him as intelligent and having “good evidence of piety.” He notes that within 15 minutes, people at the college raised $5 (equivalent to $100 today) for his family’s journey to Canada.

In Summit County, only Akron was as busy as Hudson on the Underground Railroad, according to Caccamo. Vince attributes the First Congregational Church as an important factor. “That church was strongly anti-slavery,” he says.

Many members were abolitionists, and some were colonizationalists, with at least 10 being involved in the Underground Railroad, including Brown, Case and David Hudson. Several anti-slavery discussions naturally took place there, including a prayer meeting in 1837 following the death of newspaperman and abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy, in which pro-slavery men shot him in Illinois and demolished his press.

Owen led a prayer, and Case described being there: “It seemed by his expression as we listened to his prayer that he felt as though the Judge of all of the earth was at the door of his heart.”

Following his father, Brown earnestly made his seminal pledge to the congregation, himself and his country. Case recorded: “I pledge myself with God’s help that I will devote my life to increasing hostility towards slavery.”

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Brown’s life was indeed a testament to that promise. “That’s what he did end up doing. Anything that he got involved in there on out had something to do with that commitment,” Heppner says.

So when he got a stable job at Perkins Hill in Akron tending to 1,500 Merino and Saxony sheep for Col. Simon Perkins after moving around and years of financial struggle, he used it as an opportunity to help Black people. Traveling to buy sheep and sell wool allowed him to transport freedom seekers from station to station on the Underground Railroad.

“Those individuals that were trying to escape … could hide in his wagon,” Heppner says.

When he went back to Akron, he hid freedom seekers in the barn behind the home that he rented from 1844 to 1854 across the street from the Perkins mansion, which are both now a part of the Summit County Historical Society. “When there was danger, he brought the Blacks home, concealing them in his house and barn for days or weeks at a time … often having hidden several at once about his place,” Grace Perkins later recalled.

Her husband, Simon Perkins, a state senator who helped form Summit County in 1840 and the son of Akron’s co-founder, didn’t interfere with Brown’s efforts. “Perkins was not listed as an abolitionist, but he knew about what was going on across the street,” Heppner says. “He didn’t do anything that there would be any problems.”

Brown’s urgency ramped up after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 was passesd, which drastically increased slave catchers’ efforts and upped the penalties for those aiding freedom seekers.

“That was probably a big tipping point for him,” Heppner says. “They weren’t safe north of the Ohio River.” Brown continued his Underground Railroad effort and was regarded as a revered transporter for his ability to change course, avert capture and learn signs on his routes to ensure safe passages.

In Hudson, the Fugitive Slave Act made the Underground Railroad “much more active and organized,” Vince notes, and Owen continued his work as stationmaster.

Slavery further divided the First Congregational Church. “There was a breakaway, right when they had a pastor who was more of a moderate or not in favor of abolitionism,” Vince says. So in 1842, Owen split off to form the Free Congregational Church. Members had to swear they would fight against slavery.

As tensions heightened, Brown increased his reach, forging partnerships throughout the country.

“John Brown was extremely charismatic when it came to making relationships. He has a reputation of being the hothead, but he was very passionate about his belief in equality and freedom,” Heppner says. “He was set on a mission. He built magnificent relationships with people all over the United States to help him with his cause.”

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With his mission growing grander, he looked for more ways to help Black people within the U.S.

While Brown continued to travel as a shepherd for Perkins and rent his Akron home, he bought land in North Elba, New York, from famous abolitionist Gerrit Smith. Brown’s family lived among a farming community for free Black people and treated them as equals. “He wants to help free Black men and escaped slaves … learn how to care for themselves by farming,” Heppner says.

He also lived part-time in Springfield, Massachusetts, during the late 1840s. He grew close to the city’s free Black community and spent time with abolitionist organizations. In 1851, he gathered with the Springfield branch of the United States League of Gileadites, an integrated anti-slavery self-defense group aimed at protecting against slave catchers. Black anti-slavery leader Frederick Douglass later attested that it was during this era that Brown began looking to violence as an answer to the issue of slavery.

“I think he knew all along it was gonna take bloodshed. We know that Brown had conversations when he was working for Perkins in Springfield, Massachusetts, and Frederick Douglass was like, I don’t think violence is the way to go,” Heppner says. “But he didn’t put it into action until his sons were traumatized by the Ruffians. That’s when he turned to violence.”

Brown’s sons wrote him calling for help from the Kansas Territory, and Brown moved there in 1855. Pro-slavery men had destroyed his sons’ crops and burned their buildings. In 1856, Brown rushed to the defense of anti-slavery landowners who had been attacked in Lawrence by pro-slavery settlers called Border Ruffians. In retaliation, a group of men, including some of his sons and Brown wielding a sword he got from Akron mayor Lucius Bierce, brutally killed five pro-slavery men. A federal manhunt for Brown ensued, and clashes continued, with a pro-slavery militia eventually taking two of Brown’s sons as prisoners. Another of his sons, Frederick, was killed. A battle took place between the groups at Osawatomie in August.

Following that, Brown began working with a group of men dubbed the “Secret Six,” which included Smith, to solicit funds and arms for his plan to attack the federal armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry with the intention of starting a war to end slavery.

A bit before the infamous raid, Case recorded that he saw Brown in Hudson, speaking at Ellsworth Hall the night before he left. He was speaking about the Declaration of Independence and what it cost the forefathers. “His main effort was to show what it cost the old pioneers to gain and maintain their inalienable rights for themselves and their posterity; and many of them having pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to maintain their liberties, sealed it with blood,” Case wrote.

At the train stop the next morning, Case met Brown who was deep in thought with his hands folded behind him, Case wrote. Brown lamented that he couldn’t do the previous night’s topic justice. “He could not find the words to express himself or impress upon the mind of the hearers, especially those who profess to be one with Him who said He came to break the yoke and let the oppressed go free, that they were guilty of the sin of hypocrisy,” Case observed.

On Oct. 16, 1859, Brown and his men stormed the armory and arsenal at Harpers Ferry and took the great-nephew of George Washington captive, along with other hostages.

They were met with local militias and then Col. Robert E. Lee’s Marines. Ten of his men died, and Brown was beaten until he was unconscious and captured. He stood trial and was executed publicly on Dec. 2, 1859.

The incident left many troubled by his tactics. “He was violent, and he did take things to a degree and make people uncomfortable,” Heppner says. “But a lot of people don’t know the other side of the bullying and different things he went through because he was committed to the cause.”

He explained his strategy in a famous letter written just before his execution: “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 very much bloodshed; it might be done.”

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While the raid, the bloodshed and Brown’s death shocked the country, his death was not in vain. Just as he had pledged to do in the center of Hudson in 1837, Brown had a part in ending slavery.

“The Smithsonian credits the beginning of the Civil War era with John Brown’s raid,” Heppner says. Scholar W.E.B. DuBois also attests that Brown’s actions “did more to shake the foundation of slavery than any single thing that happened in America.”

Vince recalls Brown’s legacy by looking at his last letter penned to boyhood Hudson friend Lora Case on his final day. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father as I understand it: an active (not a dormant) principle,” Brown wrote.

“As he’s about to go for execution, he wants Lora Case to know what he understands is the nature of true religion,” Vince says. “It’s an active principle — and that’s what he acted on.”

He adds that Brown’s mindset and actions were progressive for his generation. “Prematurely hanged — that’s what one diarist [George Templeton Strong] writes about John Brown, because the Civil War started less than a year and a half after he had been executed,” Vince says. “He was ahead of his time.”

He is remembered in many ways, but perhaps one of the most resonant is the John Brown Monument, which can be accessed at the Akron Zoo. It’s inscribed with an enduring proclamation: “He died to set his brothers free and his soul goes marching on.”

The Summit County Historical Society is ushering in a new era at the John Brown house to encourage more people to learn about the revolutionary figure who was shaped here in Northeast Ohio. A $1.2 million renovation project is wrapping up to give the house a restored exterior, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant ramp and bathroom, paved parking lot and updated HVAC for year-round access.

“The reality is that we’re looking at John Brown, an individual that gave his life for all people to be considered equal, and we want to make sure that all people have access to the home he lived in here,” Heppner says.

Following unrest over racial injustices in summer 2020, the society established the John Brown Institute in fall as a task force that continues to propel his ideas.

“It’s looking at John Brown’s legacy and … his role in the United States, his goal to free slaves — that concept of equality and liberty continues,” Heppner says.

The institute held its first community talkback in the fall. As part of The University of Akron’s Rethinking Race: Black, White and Beyond series Feb. 22 to March 5, the society is set to do another talkback and a digital African American History Tour that includes the John Brown house.

It’s been 162 years since we lost Brown on those gallows, but his spirit gave more life to the fight for equality. And to this day, it rages on.

“John Brown’s legacy is continuing,” Heppner says. “He’s not just a figure of the past. His role has helped inspire and influence even through today.”