This Sharps rifle bears no maker’s mark; it was made especially for John Brown. Brown carried this weapon on his Kansas campaign in 1856 and later presented it to Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut. In 1857, Brown contracted Blair to forge pikes for the clandestine slave insurrection he was planning for Harpers Ferry.
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John Brown wears a hangman’s noose for a necktie up in Heaven. I asked him about it, and he said, “Where’s yours? Where’s yours?”
His eyes were like glowing coins.
-Kurt Vonnegut
A glorious instrument of freedom! Thank you for posting about it, I didn’t even know he used a special gun for the task, let alone that it still existed in such great condition!
Do you know where this holy relic of patriotism is now? I hope it is in a museum so I can go see it.
This one is in the collection of the Smithsonian, specifically the National Museum of American History.
Oh hell yeah! I was already going to that neck of the woods in a month anyway. Thanks!
Hope you have a good time in the Smithsonian, if you take any pictures of arms in their collection don’t forget to share them here.
Yes sir! I’ll be sure to!
I think that’s actually a Spencer carbine in the painting, not a Sharps
@PugJesus@kbin.social would appreciate this.
His soul goes marching on 🙏
If you’re a big John Brown fan you should also check out the abolitionist Cassius Clay. He owned a cannon for home defense and called out Lincoln for not emancipating slaves.
Recalled to the United States in 1862 to accept a commission from Lincoln as a major general with the Union Army, Clay publicly refused to accept it unless Lincoln would agree to emancipate slaves under Confederate control. Clay was nonetheless commissioned a Major General of the US Volunteers General Staff on April 11, 1862, and Lincoln sent him to Kentucky to assess the mood for emancipation there and in the other border states. Following Clay’s return to Washington, D.C., Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in late 1862, to take effect in January 1863.
