John Brown (Abolitionist)
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50 free John Brown (Abolitionist) trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
John Brown is one of the most argued-over figures in American history. To some he was a hero who gave his life to end slavery; to others he was a dangerous fanatic. Either way, the raid he led on Harpers Ferry in 1859 pushed the country toward civil war. These questions follow his whole story: a strict childhood on the Ohio frontier, years of failed businesses, the violent struggle over slavery in Kansas, the plan he kept hidden from almost everyone, and the trial that made him famous around the world. You will also meet the generals, writers, presidents and performers whose lives crossed his. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so the quiz works as a set of fun facts for kids, students and history fans alike. Start with the well-known moments, then see how far you get with the deep cuts.
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Q 01Which future Confederate general led the U.S. Marines who stormed John Brown's stronghold at Harpers Ferry?
Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee was home on leave just across the Potomac when the order came. With no uniform to hand, he directed the assault on Brown in civilian clothes.
Q 02Which stage actor wore a borrowed militia uniform to watch the abolitionist Brown go to the gallows in 1859?
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth left rehearsals in Richmond and slipped in with a militia company sent to guard the gallows. Six years later he shot Abraham Lincoln.
Q 03Julia Ward Howe wrote which Civil War anthem to the tune of John Brown's Body?
Battle Hymn of the Republic
Battle Hymn of the Republic came about when a friend urged Howe to write new words for the tune the troops were singing. The Atlantic Monthly printed her poem on its front page in February 1862.
Q 04Which Underground Railroad conductor did John Brown address as General and hope to recruit for his Harpers Ferry raid?
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman helped Brown find recruits and raise money. She fell ill in the weeks before the raid and took no part in the attack itself.
Q 05The father of which future president worked at the Ohio tannery run by John Brown's father?
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant's father, Jesse, lived with the Brown family for some years while he worked there. His son went on to command the Union armies in the Civil War.
Q 06John Brown grew the long beard seen in his most famous portraits in 1858 mainly for which reason?
As a disguise
Brown grew it as a disguise, to change his usual appearance while he secretly planned his raid. Federal warrants were already out for his arrest over his fighting in Kansas.
Q 07John Brown's raiders took hostage a great-grandnephew of which Founding Father and seized the great man's sword?
George Washington
George Washington's sword was seized together with the hostage, a local slaveholder. The family said it was a gift from the king of Prussia, a claim that has been disputed.
Q 08Which actor played a young Custer pursuing John Brown in the 1940 Hollywood film Santa Fe Trail?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan played Custer four decades before he became president. Raymond Massey played Brown, and the script took many liberties with the real history.
Q 09John Brown's farm and grave lie just outside which village in New York's Adirondack Mountains?
Lake Placid
Lake Placid, later the host of two Winter Olympics, sits about three miles from the farm. Brown's widow brought his body home there, a journey of five days.
Q 10On the short wagon ride to the gallows in 1859, John Brown sat on top of which object?
His own coffin
His own coffin was his seat in a furniture wagon, with lines of troops on both sides to stop any rescue. Brown had already said he did not want to be rescued.
Q 11John Brown was convicted in 1859 of murder, inciting a slave uprising and which third crime against Virginia?
Treason
Treason against the state of Virginia, not against the United States, made the case a state trial. The jury needed only 45 minutes to find Brown guilty on every count.
Q 12Harpers Ferry, the Virginia town John Brown raided in 1859, was home to which kind of federal facility?
An armory
An armory at Harpers Ferry made guns for the U.S. Army, and about 100,000 muskets and rifles were thought to be stored there. It was destroyed in 1861 to keep it from being captured in the Civil War.
Q 13Which famous orator met John Brown in a Pennsylvania stone quarry in 1859 and refused to join his raid?
Frederick Douglass
Q 21News that which Massachusetts senator had been beaten with a cane in the Senate helped enrage John Brown in May 1856?
Charles Sumner
Charles Sumner was beaten nearly to death by a South Carolina congressman. Massachusetts refused to replace him, so his empty desk sat in the Senate for more than three years as a reminder.
Q 22Along which Kansas creek did John Brown's band drag five proslavery settlers from their cabins and kill them in 1856?
Pottawatomie
Pottawatomie Creek gave its name to the massacre, which set off three months of revenge raids and battles that left 29 people dead.
Q 23John Brown's sons used which heavy blades to kill five proslavery settlers in Kansas on a single night in May 1856?
Broadswords
Frederick Douglass judged the plan a suicide mission and went home. The friend travelling with him, Shields Green, chose to stay and fight beside Brown.
Q 14In 1858 John Brown had supporters adopt his own Provisional Constitution at a convention held in which country?
Canada
Canada was a refuge for people who had escaped slavery: in Chatham, Ontario, where Brown met his delegates, they made up a third of the residents.
Q 15Which French novelist, living in exile on Guernsey, published an open letter pleading for John Brown's pardon?
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo warned that putting Brown to death could crack the Union apart and lead to civil war. His letter was reprinted on both sides of the Atlantic.
Q 16Which president sent U.S. Marines to end John Brown's raid in October 1859 and let Virginia put him on trial?
James Buchanan
James Buchanan called out the Marines within hours, since they were the only federal troops nearby. He had earlier offered a $250 reward for Brown's capture.
Q 17John Brown ordered nearly a thousand of which old-fashioned weapon to arm enslaved people who had never fired a gun?
Pikes
Pikes, long poles tipped with blades and forged by a blacksmith, were never used in the raid. A proslavery activist later sent one to the governor of every slave state as a warning.
Q 18Which future Confederate general attended John Brown's execution in charge of cannon crewed by military cadets?
Stonewall Jackson
Stonewall Jackson was then a little-known professor at the Virginia Military Institute. He commanded two howitzers manned by twenty-one of its cadets.
Q 19Which Black nationalist leader said that John Brown was the one white man his organization might have accepted?
Malcolm X
Malcolm X barred white members from his Organization of Afro-American Unity, yet he said Brown might have been let in if he were still alive.
Q 20Which actor played John Brown in The Good Lord Bird, the 2020 Showtime miniseries he also helped create?
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke co-created the series, which is told by a fictional enslaved boy nicknamed Onion who is swept up into Brown's band of fighters.
Broadswords did the killing while Brown gave the orders. He took no part in the stabbing himself, firing only a single shot into a man who had already fallen.
Q 24John Brown and his sons were marching to defend which antislavery Kansas town when it was sacked in May 1856?
Lawrence
Lawrence lost its two antislavery newspapers and the Free State Hotel in the attack. The only death was an accident that killed one of the attackers.
Q 25John Brown's outnumbered stand against proslavery raiders at which Kansas town in 1856 gave him a lasting nickname?
Osawatomie
Osawatomie Brown, as he was known from then on, lost the fight and saw the town looted and burned. Standing up to a much larger force still made him a hero in the North.
Q 26What name was given to the proslavery raiders John Brown fought, who crossed into Kansas to swing its elections?
Border Ruffians
Border Ruffians, people said, voted and shot in Kansas but slept at home across the state line. They seized polling places and cast illegal ballots.
Q 27Which breech-loading guns, nicknamed Beecher's Bibles in Kansas, did Northern backers send John Brown for his raid?
Sharps carbines
Sharps carbines earned the nickname after the preacher Henry Ward Beecher raised money to arm antislavery settlers with them. Brown was sent 198.
Q 28In December 1858 John Brown raided farms in which slave state, freeing eleven people and guiding them north to freedom?
Missouri
Missouri's governor put a $3,000 reward on Brown's head. He escorted the group for nearly three months anyway, until they were safely out of the country.
Q 29In which 1856 Kansas clash did John Brown's fighters force a proslavery militia captain and his men to surrender?
Black Jack
Black Jack lasted three hours and ended with the man who had set out to capture Brown as his prisoner. Brown called it the first regular battle between the two sides in Kansas.
Q 30John Brown was born in 1800 in the town of Torrington, which lies in which New England state?
Connecticut
Connecticut was home for only five years. The family then moved to Ohio's Western Reserve, which became the most antislavery region in the country.