Old John Brown's Residence, Kennedy Farm, Maryland
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 26 Nov. 1859
(Library of Congress)

Southerners initially dismissed Brown as a madman. Then his papers, 200 rifles, and 950 "pikes" (spears) were discovered in two buildings from which he had staged the raid. The papers, which included letters from the "Secret Six," and the quantity of the weapons suggested that northerners wanted to unleash a bloody slave insurrection that would take the lives of men, women, and children.