#8221; (Stutler 6) With every day his views and ideas about slavery became more and more radical. Brown wanted to do anything he had to in order to abolish slavery.Brown had a great faith in God. Success had eluded him up to this point. He had sired 20 children and had gone through two wives, but he still felt unfulfilled. In 1846, Brown was working as a wool merchant but nothing ever came of it. Before 1855, Brown had gone through a series of lawsuits and bankruptcies that halted his success. Gerrit Smith, a philanthropist friend of Brown’s, was persuaded into giving a portion of the 120,000 acres of land he owned in upstate New York to Brown. This land would be open to refugee negroes. Brown lived on this land as a farmer for some time before realizing that people were just taking advantage of him. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Law was passed. This law plainly stated that citizens were required to help slave catchers if inquired upon to do so. This law would make it immensely difficult for slaves to successfully escape slavery. Slaves would have to be even more careful not to run into the wrong person. John Brown along with other northerners were outraged. Many abolitionists protested and claimed this law was outrageous. The question of whether it was right for the government to force abolitionist to help slave catchers was asked, Brown knew the answer was NO. John Brown would not help enforce slavery no matter the circumstances. It became more and more apparent to him that something must be done. Brown knew that he needed to do something fast to stop these injustices.John Brown formed the League of Gileadites in response to this law. Their goal was to resist it by any means. Brown and his followers believed that even killing was acceptable and necessary to put an end to this law. Brown believed that if he had to kill a man to end slavery or even kill a thousand men to end slavery it would not be a crime. Br...
