"John Brown, The Martyr," 1870

Before the Civil War, Southern slave-owners stubbornly defended the necessity of slavery while vocal abolitionists continued to oppose it. John Brown took matters into his own hands. In 1859 he tried to steal government weapons, but he was caught and hanged for treason. Northerners honored him because he was willing to die for a cause. But it gave Southerners one more reason to prepare for war.