John Brown was passionate about achieving abolition. His determination was so strong that he sometimes took actions that were irrational and almost sure to fail. The most important of those activities was on October 16, 1859, when he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan, for him and his men to seize the weapons in the arsenal and use them to arm slaves in a revolt, failed. Local farmers, …showed first 75 words of 659 total…

…showed last 75 words of 659 total…It is clear that John Brown acted in ways that other people, even those who felt just as strongly about abolition as he did, would not have done. As heroic as come of his actions were, many of them are considered irrational even today. The unique and strange character of John Brown was the result of many things. Perhaps the most important of those are his parents characteristics, his childhood and his early adult life.