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Introduction: When radical abolitionist John Brown moved to Springfield, Massachusetts from Ohio in 1846, his goal was to represent the interests of the western sheep farmers in their dealings with the powerful New England wool merchants in order to provide the farmers with a fair market value for their product. With Simon Perkins, a sheep farmer he had met in Ohio, Brown began Perkins & Brown in an old warehouse. Springfield was chosen due to its central location. Eventually, the Brown family settled in a modest house around the corner from their warehouse on Hastings Street, then later moved to 31 Franklin Street. According to Dr. Arlene Rodriguez, "Springfield is one of the few locations in the country where John Brown has consistently been honored as a hero.
Although the company failed, the three years that Brown spent in Springfield were crucial to the evolution of both his thought and anti-slavery activism. Brown's relationship with Springfield's strong and militant African American community, along with key leaders in that community, was important to the evolution of his strategy. Moreover, it was during his time in Springfield that Brown first met Frederick Douglass. It was here that Brown developed close ties with leading abolitionists throughout the state (five of whom became members of the "Group of Six" who helped fund his 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry). Brown first shared his ideas for an armed uprising with Thomas Thomas, a former slave and trusted friend, in Springfield in the late 1840s. In addition, the creation of his League of Gileadites with local African American leaders (whose goal was to physically resist the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act) along with his plans for a more effective and organized Underground Railroad (designated as a "Subterranean Pass Way" through the south) were all developed in Springfield and contributed to making Brown's life there an important turning point. Local historian Joseph Carvalho III concludes that "most of all, his sojourn in this community opened his eyes and mind to the possibility of effective resistance."
Interestingly, few national historians have made this argument or drawn these connections as directly. Most biographers of John Brown focus primarily on the business side of his years in Springfield. For example, in his classic study To Purge this...