To some, John Brown was a hero and a martyr to the abolitionist cause. To others, he was a treasonous murderer operating outside the law. Unlike most mainstream abolitionists, Brown believed that slavery would never end without the use of violence, and he was more than willing to take up arms against anyone who stood in his way. His ill-fated raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859, which resulted in his execution, was merely the final chapter in...