John Brown was passionate about achieving abolition. His determination was so strong that he sometimes took actions that were irrational and almost sure to fail. The most important of those activities was on October 16, 1859, when he led 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. His plan, for him and his men to seize the weapons in the arsenal and use them to arm slaves in a revolt, failed. Local farmers, militiamen, and Marines led by Robert E. Lee stopped them almost immediately, and most of John Brown's men were killed or captured within two days of the attack. After Harper's Ferry raid failed, John Brown was hanged on December 2, 1859. John Brown's passion about abolition caused him to take enormous and maybe crazy chances that risked his, his mens', his sons' and other peoples' lives. Parts of his personal history, including characteristics of his parents, his childhood, and his early adult life led him to be both passionate and reckless in pursuit of abolition.
             John Brown's parents had certain characteristics that John Brown inherited or adopted that may have contributed to his passionate views on abolition and his sometimes reckless manner of activity. His mother (and her family) had a history of mental illness. Many believe that John Brown too was mentally ill. George M. Fredrickson describes him as "a narrow minded and possibly insane religious fanatic." If he didn't inherit his mother's mental illness, he may have suffered from it. As children, people learn how to behave and how to segregate illusional from rational thoughts. His mother may not have been able to teach him how to segregate his thoughts. John Brown's father was a deeply religious man who strongly believed that slavery was wrong and should be abolished. John Brown also strongly believed that slavery should be abolished and took his father's views to new extremes.
             Several things that happened to John Brown in his childhood may a...