AMERICAN EXPERIENCE

THE ABOLITIONISTS

PART THREE

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 @ 7:00PM & 12:00 AM

By 1854, the battle over admitting new territories to the Union had reached a fever pitch. Kansas was the front line of a bloody battle between pro-slavery and free-soil contingents. In 1859, John Brown summoned Frederick Douglass to a secret meeting in Chambersburg, PA, and revealed his plan to capture the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, VA, and start a revolution; Douglass refused to join him. Brown went ahead with the raid, and was injured and captured. Before being executed, he managed to turn himself into a public figure and a martyr for the cause.

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