Antislavery forces, led by John Brown, defeat…
June 1856 CE
Henry C. Pate had participated with a posse of seven hundred and fifty pro-slavery forces in the sacking of Lawrence on May 21, 1856, which had destroyed the Free State Hotel, two abolitionist newspaper offices and their printing presses.
They had also looted throughout the village.
The next day, Congressman Preston Brooks from South Carolina had physically attacked Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate chambers with a cane.
He continued hitting after the senator was bleeding and unconscious.
Three days later, a band of men, allegedly led by John Brown and comrade Captain Shore, had executed five proslavery men with broadswords at Pottawatomie Creek.
Brown's men let Jerome Glanville and James Harris return home to the cabin of Harris.
This incident became known as the Pottawatomie massacre.
Following the massacre, three anti-slavery men had been taken prisoner, including two of John Brown's sons.
On June 2, 1856, Brown and twenty-nine others meet Henry Pate and fight the battle of Black Jack.
The five-hour battle goes in Brown's favor and Pate and twenty-two of his followers are captured and held for ransom.
Brown agrees to release them as long as they release Brown's sons.
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