Pardon John Brown

May 9th 2009
Torrington born Abolitionist John Brown was born 209 years ago today.

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Brown was hanged for treason December 2, 1859.
If freeing slaves is treason, we should all be guilty.

Now - 209 years after this good man's birth, it's time we insist he be posthumously pardoned.

Learn more about John Brown.

. . . I believe to have interfered as I have done, . . . in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right.

Now, if it be deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children, and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done."



"He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them."
"No man in America has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature."

Henry David Thoreau


John Brown's Last Speech


Hanged in the mid-morning of December 2, 1859, Brown, now having realized that some things just won't be settled peacefully, stated his last words ominously:

“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.”