John Brown and Gilead (1856)

Brown in 1956

We became like the people without the Law, people who didn’t know their right hand from their left. Just stranded here. A stranger might ask why there is a town here at all. Our own children might ask. And who could answer them? It was just a dogged little outpost in the sand hills, within striking distance of Kansas. That’s really all it was meant to be. It was a place John Brown and Jim Lane could fall back on when they needed to heal and rest. There must have been a hundred towns like it, set up in the heat of an old urgency that is all forgotten now, and their littleness and their shabbiness, which was the measure of the courage and passion that went into the making of them, now just look awkward and provincial and ridiculous, even to the people who have lived here long enough to know better. (Gilead)

In Gilead (2004) Rev. Ames remembers his grandfather's loud conversations with Jesus in the family parlor. He also recalls family lore which maintains that his grandfather sheltered John Brown and his gang when they were on the lam after violent attacks on slaveowners. The attack brought bloody reprisals from vigilante slaveowners. The "Bleeding Kansas" crisis resulted from the Kansas-Nebraska Act directive that popular soverignty would determine whether the territories entered the Union as slave or free states.

Robinson's Choice of Gilead for the name of her town ?

Before Brown left Springfield in 1850, the United States passed the Fugitive Slave Act, a law which mandated that authorities in free states aid in the return of escaped slaves and imposed penalties on those who aided in their escape. In response Brown founded a militant group to prevent slaves' capture—the League of Gileadites. In the Bible, Mount Gilead was the place where only the bravest of Israelites would gather together to face an invading enemy. Brown founded the League with these words, "Nothing so charmes the American people as personal bravery. [Blacks] would have ten times the number [of white friends than] they now have were they but half as much in earnest to secure their dearest rights as they are to ape the follies and extravagances of their white neighbors, and to indulge in idle show, in ease, and in luxury."[16]  (Wikipedia)

John Brown in Bleeding Kansas

In 1854, the U.S. Congress had passed the Kansas-Nebraska Actwhich stipulated that the residents of these territories would decide whether they wished to enter the Union as a slave or free state. This doctrine became known as popular sovereignty. Organized groups from the North sent thousands of abolitionist supporters to Kansas in an attempt to tip the balance in favor of free state advocates, to counter settlement from pro-slavery supporters from Missouri. As a result, pro- and anti-slavery groups had frequent clashes culminating in the Battle of Black Jack.

On May 21, 1856, Henry C. Pate participated with a posse of 750 pro-slavery forces in the sacking of Lawrence, which destroyed the Free State Hotel, two abolitionist newspaper offices and their printing presses. They also looted throughout the village. The next day, Congressman Preston Brooks from South Carolina physically attacked Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts in the Senate chambers with a cane. He continued hitting after the senator was bleeding and unconscious. After that, a band of men, led by John Brown and comrade Captain Shore, 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 were taken prisoner, including two of John Brown's sons.

In 1854, the U.S. Congress had passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act which stipulated that the residents of these territories would decide whether they wished to enter the Union as a slave or free state. This doctrine became known as popular sovereignty. Organized groups from the North sent thousands of abolitionist supporters to Kansas in an attempt to tip the balance in favor of free state advocates, to counter settlement from pro-slavery supporters from Missouri. As a result, pro- and anti-slavery groups had frequent clashes culminating in the Battle of Black Jack. 

On June 2, 1856 Brown and 29 others met Henry Pate and fought the battle of Black Jack. This started after Brown's two sons were captured and held prisoner by Pate. The five-hour battle went in Brown's favor and Pate and 22 of his followers were captured and held for ransom. Brown agreed to release them as long as they released Brown's sons.