USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -In retaliation for the “sack” of the free-state town of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, the abolitionist John Brown led a brutal attack on a pro-slavery settlement at Pottawatomie Creek on the night of May 24. This was an example of the kind of violence that alienated even his anti-slavery supporters.

Detailed explanation-2: -Pottawatomie Massacre, (May 24–25, 1856), murder of five men from a proslavery settlement on Pottawatomie Creek, Franklin county, Kan., U.S., by an antislavery party led by the abolitionist John Brown and composed largely of men of his family.

Detailed explanation-3: -John Brown was a leading figure in the abolitionist movement in the pre-Civil War United States. Unlike many anti-slavery activists, he was not a pacifist and believed in aggressive action against slaveholders and any government officials who enabled them.

Detailed explanation-4: -He participated in the underground railroad and in 1851 helped found the League of Gileadites, an organization of whites, free blacks, and runaway slaves dedicated to protecting fugitive slaves from slave catchers. In the 1840s Brown was in contact with such antislavery leaders as Gerrit Smith and Frederick Douglass.