Militant abolitionist John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut. He is most famous for the violent retaliatory massacre of 5 pro-slavery settlers that he led on Pattawatomie Creek in Kansas, and his unsuccessful raid on Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, to free slaves in the area. Captured during the Harper's Ferry raid by U.S. Troops, Brown was tried, convicted and hanged, and immediately revered as a martyr by fellow abolitionists.