This Sharps rifle bears no maker’s mark; it was made especially for John Brown. Brown carried this weapon on his Kansas campaign in 1856 and later presented it to Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut. In 1857, Brown contracted Blair to forge pikes for the clandestine slave insurrection he was planning for Harpers Ferry.

  • @AshyrEnglish
    23•6 months ago

    John Brown wears a hangman’s noose for a necktie up in Heaven. I asked him about it, and he said, “Where’s yours? Where’s yours?”

    His eyes were like glowing coins.

    -Kurt Vonnegut

  • @[email protected]English
    15•6 months ago

    A glorious instrument of freedom! Thank you for posting about it, I didn’t even know he used a special gun for the task, let alone that it still existed in such great condition!

    Do you know where this holy relic of patriotism is now? I hope it is in a museum so I can go see it.

    • @[email protected]OPMEnglish
      10•6 months ago

      This one is in the collection of the Smithsonian, specifically the National Museum of American History.

      • @[email protected]OPMEnglish
        10•6 months ago

        If you’re a big John Brown fan you should also check out the abolitionist Cassius Clay. He owned a cannon for home defense and called out Lincoln for not emancipating slaves.

        Recalled to the United States in 1862 to accept a commission from Lincoln as a major general with the Union Army, Clay publicly refused to accept it unless Lincoln would agree to emancipate slaves under Confederate control. Clay was nonetheless commissioned a Major General of the US Volunteers General Staff on April 11, 1862, and Lincoln sent him to Kentucky to assess the mood for emancipation there and in the other border states. Following Clay’s return to Washington, D.C., Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in late 1862, to take effect in January 1863.