To this day, many see Brown as a heroic figure, a true freedom-fighter willing to sacrifice his life to ensure that all black Americans live forever free, Frye says. He is a hero, a martyr, “St. John ...

Captured by Robert E. Lee, tried, and hanged, Brown refused to repent, becoming a martyr to northern abolitionists and immortalized in the song, "John Brown's Body." ...

The hanging would make Brown an abolitionist martyr. John Brown's dedication to the abolition of slavery prompted Frederick Douglass to write the following: "Did John Brown fail? John Brown ...