John Brown

Originally Aired: December 11, 1940 Cavalcade of America #204, "John Brown," brings to life the fierce abolitionist who terrorized Kansas Territory in 1855. John Brown arrives in Kansas to join his sons in Osawatomi, immediately encountering pro-slavery forces at a border inn. After a violent confrontation with innkeeper Tarver and his armed men, Brown makes his way to his sons, where he learns that free-state settlers are being systematically murdered and burned out by pro-slavery raiders. The settlers, including Thompson and Brown's own sons, are peace-loving men who came to till the soil, but Brown has brought sabers from Ohio and compiled a list of suspected raiders living near Pottawatomie Creek. The drama intensifies as Brown insists that righteous violence is the only answer to the devil's terror, quoting scripture to justify his plans for systematic killing. Despite protests from the settlers, including his own sons, Brown leads men on a night raid to the Doyle cabin, forcing Jonathan Doyle to pray the Lord's Prayer before his execution. The episode concludes with Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, wrestling with the moral complexity of Brown's actions, observing that he may go down in history as "about the wrongest right man."