Rebforever
Lt. Colonel
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2012
John Brown Pike
Famed abolitionist John Brown bought this weapon to be used in a slave insurrection that never materialized.
As a child born in the northern United States, John Brown was taught that slavery was a sin. As an adult he took these values to Kansas where he was drawn into skirmishes along the Kansas-Missouri border prior to the Civil War. Brown often resorted to violence in an effort to ensure that Kansas Territory became a free state. Ultimately, he hoped all slaves would rise up against their masters.
During a trip East in 1857 to raise funds for his cause, Brown contracted with blacksmith Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut for several hundred pikes (pikes are weapons with long wooden shafts ending in pointed steel heads, typically used by foot soldiers). Blair was a forge master working for Collins and Company who made quality edged tools. He agreed to make 1,000 pikes for Brown at $1 a piece, payable in installments.
After making 500 weapons, though, Blair halted production because Brown had failed to pay him. Blair held the pikes for two years. In 1859, Brown showed up at Blair's door with the needed funds to purchase 954 pikes and requested that they be forwarded to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (Brown had other firearms shipped there as well).
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-brown-pike/10239
Famed abolitionist John Brown bought this weapon to be used in a slave insurrection that never materialized.
As a child born in the northern United States, John Brown was taught that slavery was a sin. As an adult he took these values to Kansas where he was drawn into skirmishes along the Kansas-Missouri border prior to the Civil War. Brown often resorted to violence in an effort to ensure that Kansas Territory became a free state. Ultimately, he hoped all slaves would rise up against their masters.
During a trip East in 1857 to raise funds for his cause, Brown contracted with blacksmith Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut for several hundred pikes (pikes are weapons with long wooden shafts ending in pointed steel heads, typically used by foot soldiers). Blair was a forge master working for Collins and Company who made quality edged tools. He agreed to make 1,000 pikes for Brown at $1 a piece, payable in installments.
After making 500 weapons, though, Blair halted production because Brown had failed to pay him. Blair held the pikes for two years. In 1859, Brown showed up at Blair's door with the needed funds to purchase 954 pikes and requested that they be forwarded to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania (Brown had other firearms shipped there as well).
https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/john-brown-pike/10239
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