Brown turned from a pious businessman into a determined rebel

A group of freed slaves was led by John Brown from Missouri to Michigan. John Brown crossed the Kansas-Missouri boundary in December 1858 to enter the slave state of Missouri. Once there, he and his supporters released 11 slaves and escorted them over a distance of more than 1000 miles to Detroit, Michigan. (One of the freed women gave birth while traveling.) President James Buchanan placed a $250 bounty on renowned abolitionist John Brown after Brown's followers killed a slaveowner during their raid in Missouri. That didn't deter Brown, who got to see the folks he had aided escape into Canada board a vessel.

John Brown and his family traveled to Springfield, Massachusetts, a largely abolitionist community, in search of a place to start again. There, especially with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1859, his opinions on how the fight against slavery should be fought sharpened. In reaction, he discovered the League of Gileadites, his first guerilla organization. Their main goal was to maintain and safeguard the Underground Railroad. This is also one of the most interesting facts about John Brown.