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First reaching national prominence in the 1850s for his radical abolitionism and fighting in Bleeding Kansas, Brown was captured, tried, and executed by the Commonwealth of Virginia for a raid and incitement of a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859.
Harpers Ferry Raid was an assault that took place October 16–18, 1859, by an armed band of abolitionists led by John Brown on the federal armory located at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now in West Virginia). It was a main precipitating incident to the American Civil War.
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry failed, and all the participants were killed in action or later executed. It succeeded, however, in making Brown a martyr for the anti-slavery cause and increasing tensions between the North and South, leading up to the American Civil War.
Brown was quickly placed on trial and charged with treason against the state of Virginia, murder, and slave insurrection. Brown was sentenced to death for his crimes and hanged on December 2, 1859.
On October 18, a detachment of U.S. Marines commanded by Robert E. Lee captured the remaining insurgents. Ten days later Brown was placed on trial and charged by the state with treason, murder, and inciting slaves to revolt.
Severely wounded and taken to the jail in Charles Town, Virginia, John Brown stood trial for treason against the commonwealth of Virginia, for murder, and for conspiring with slaves to rebel. On 2 November a jury convicted him and sentenced him to death.
A group of men, led by Owen Brown, was able to kidnap Washington, while the rest of the men, with John Brown at the lead, began a raid on Harpers Ferry to seize both weapons and pro-slavery...
In 1856, Brown was involved in an attack on pro-slavers with his two sons, an attack that resulted in five people dead and later became known as “Bleeding Kansas”. He made enemies in the future state, then only a US territory, and pro-slavers captured two of his sons and killed his third.
As the situation continued to deteriorate, Brown and his men moved with eleven of their key hostages to the fire engine house, a brick building that became known as John Brown's Fort, the site of his last stand.
FIFTH DAY. Monday, Oct. 30, 1859. The Court met at nine o'clock. The prisoner was brought in, and the trial proceeded without delay. Brown looks better than heretofore, and his health is evidently improving. He was laid on a bed, as usual. The Court House and its approaches were densely crowded.