Old John Brown's body lies moldering in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save;
But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave,
His soul is marching on.
John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true and brave,
And Kansas knows his valor when he fought her rights to save;
Now, tho the grass grows green above his grave,
His soul is marching on.
He captured Harper's Ferry, with his nineteen men so few,
And frightened \"Old Virginny\" till she trembled thru and thru;
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul is marching on.
John Brown was John the Baptist of the Christ we are to see,
Christ who of the bondmen shall the Liberator be,
And soon thruout the Sunny South the slaves shall all be free,
For his soul is marching on.
The conflict that he heralded he looks from heaven to view,
On the army of the Union with its flag red, white and blue.
And heaven shall ring with anthems o'er the deed they mean to do,
For his soul is marching on.
Ye soldiers of Freedom, then strike, while strike ye may,
The death blow of oppression in a better time and way,
For the dawn of old John Brown has brightened into day,
And his soul is marching on
John Brown (May 9, 1800 -- December 2, 1859)
was a radical abolitionist from the United States, who advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery for good.
He led the Pottawatomie Massacre in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
He was tried and executed for murder later that year.
President Abraham Lincoln said he was a \"misguided fanatic\" and Brown has been called \"the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans.\"
Brown's actions are often referred to as \"patriotic treason,\" depicting both sides of the argument.
John Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia) electrified the nation.
He was tried for treason against the state of Virginia, the murder of five proslavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection and was subsequently hanged.
Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party.
Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.
Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis.
Unlike most other Northerners, who advocated peaceful resistance to the pro-slavery faction, Brown demanded violent action in response to Southern aggression.
Dissatisfied with the pacifism encouraged by the organized abolitionist movement, he reportedly said \"These men are all talk. What we need is action—action!\"
John Brown's Body
\"John Brown's Body\" (originally known as \"John Brown's Song\") is an American marching song about the abolitionist John Brown.
The song was popular in the Union during the American Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown's_Body
Joseph Weydemeyer (friend of Marx and Engels)
\"As the country was moving toward a civil war, German Americans played an important part in the emergence of the Republican Party, so did Weydemeyer, who was one the men who drew the German community toward the Republicans and the antislavery cause.
Hence, Weydemeyer stand for the Republicans was in contradiction with the influence of the most prominent labor radicals at the time, as Wilhelm Weitling, who showed affinity for the Democrats and avoided attacks on slavery in his labor paper.
William Sylvis, leading native-born trade unionist, didn't stand for the Republicans as well.\"
