Chapter 9, Crossroads at Harpers Ferry Summary

Even before she met him, Harriet had vision of John Brown. The two first met in Canada in the late 1850s. At the time, Brown was advocating a plot to stage an uprising against slavery in the South. Tubman was supportive of his plot. Brown and Tubman were both on a crusade against slavery. Brown had spent his early years in Ohio and his family grew up with his commitment to fostering racial equality.

Brown wanted to overthrow slavery. He went to Kansas after the Kansas-Nebraska act and joined in the border war there. He was one of the instigators in the Osawatomie Creek Massacre, which included the executions of some proslavery individuals. Brown became more convinced that it would take violence to overthrow slavery. In the late 1850s, he came up with the idea...