A throwback to old-school Puritanism, John Brown brought passion - and violence - into the abolitionist movement.  Work with the Underground Railroad gradually gave way to more radical methods, as "Osawatamie Brown" demonstrated that abolitionsts didn't have to be pacifists. And Kansas bled.

Part 1 of our portrait of John Brown looks at his early life, the growth of abolitionism in the young United States, and the opening act for the American Civil War known as "Bleeding Kansas." By 1858, John Brown had already established himself as abolitionism's most militant proponent. But, he had bigger plans in mind. 

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