John Brown 

This site is intended to serve as a guide to information on John Brown, with special emphasis on books and other materials found in the STCC Library. This guide was created to help promote the October 17th, 2009 symposium on John Brown, commemorating the 150th Anniversary of Raid on Harpers Ferry. This event is open to the public free of charge.  The symposium at STCC will begin at 9:00 a.m., in the seventh floor conference area of
Scibelli Hall. Keynote speaker will be David S. Reynolds, author of John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights.

The STCC event will be followed by a related event on John Brown, on Sunday, October 18th at the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, in conjunction with an exhibition at the new Museum of Springfield History on John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War.

On Saturday, October 17, 2009 Springfield Technical Community College will host a symposium called "The Sword of the Lord and of Gideon: John Brown and the Coming of the Civil War", in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of John Brown's Raid on Harpers Ferry. This guide will highlight resources available from the STCC library and from the Web that can help if you want to learn more about John Brown and his times.

John Brown lived in Springfield, Massachusetts for four years, and during that time made plans for a "Subterranean Pass Way" which would be part of the Underground Railroad, was introduced to Frederick Douglass, and formed the League of Gileadites, a group formed to resist slave catchers and assist runaways. If you are interested in finding information about the events in the local area during that time, you can look at STCC Library's research guide on Our Plural History, and in particular the page on Resisting Slavery.